Senate Republicans Want to Relax Gun Laws

[Content Note: Guns; stalking.]

At a time when every reasonable person, including millions of gun owners, are clamoring for stricter gun laws, Senate Republicans have introduced legislation which would allow people to carry concealed weapons across state lines:

The Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act would allow gun owners who have a concealed carry permit in their home state to bring their firearms in any other state with concealed-carry laws.

"This operates more or less like a driver's license," Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the second-ranking Republican in the upper chamber, told The Hill. "So, for example, if you have a driver's license in Texas, you can drive in New York, in Utah and other places, subject to the laws of those states."

Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said this would "eliminate some of the 'gotcha moments,' where people inadvertently cross state lines" with guns they are legally allowed to carry in their home state.

The National Rifle Association endorsed the bill Thursday, calling it a "much-needed solution to a real problem for gun owners."

..."Our fundamental right to self-defense does not stop at a state's borders. Law abiding citizens should be able to exercise this right while traveling across state lines," [said Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action].

If there's one group of people whose rights are really being encroached in the United States these days, it's poor, beleaguered gun owners.

As far as I can tell, this will be a pretty nifty workaround for stalkers, who have been denied the right to carry in one state but have been granted it in another, which can happen since concealed carry requirements and restrictions vary from state to state.

But who cares, because this is about the pressing need to ensure the "fundamental right to self-defense" for the most privileged people in the country. Of course it is.