I am repeatedly reminded of how critical it was that the NRA engaged early in supporting Donald Trump’s 2016 candidacy—and that he won. A recent example came in June, when President Trump spoke to American workers at a Mack Trucks facility in Macungie, Pa.
That day, I was pleased to hear him restate his support for National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity and for the NRA.
Singling out NRA President Bill Bachenberg for recognition, Trump noted how he is working with NRA, remarking, “The NRA … they’ve been with me right from the beginning.”
The strongest defender of the Second Amendment to ever occupy the White House then asked those gathered what they thought of National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity. He was speaking, of course, about federal legislation designed to ensure lawful concealed carriers can exercise their rights as they travel interstate, without having to negotiate a patchwork of varying state-reciprocity rules. The response was raucous applause, and President Trump followed up with, “National Right-to-Carry, we’re working on it.”
Just as NRA has been with President Trump right from the beginning, the president has been right on National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity from the beginning. In a September 2015 policy paper, Trump explained:
A driver’s license works in every state, so it’s common sense that a concealed-carry permit should work in every state. If we can do that for driving—which is a privilege, not a right—then surely we can do that for concealed carry, which is a right, not a privilege.
The Second Amendment applies in every U.S. jurisdiction. National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity operationalizes this principle by ensuring your rights don’t end at the state line.
The U.S. Supreme Court case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022) affirmed Right-to-Carry is the law of the land. The Court made clear that law-abiding Americans have a right to carry handguns outside the home for self-defense and that governments can’t deny this right, including by the use of subjective permitting criteria. More recently, the U.S. Supreme Court reiterated its defense of this right in Wolford v. Lopez (2026), striking down a Hawaii law that made all private property open to the public into gun-free zones by default.
Poll after poll shows the popularity of Right-to-Carry and firearms used for self-defense. A Marquette Law School poll from the summer of 2024 showed an overwhelming 69 percent favored the Bruen ruling.
A 2023 Gallup poll showed that 64 percent of Americans believe homes with a firearm are safer. That same year, an NBC News poll found that more than half of American voters lived in gun-owning households—a percentage I am convinced is a severe undercount. A Pew Research Center survey from 2023 found that 72 percent of gun owners cited protection as a “major reason” they own a gun and 91 percent cited it as a “major” or “minor” reason.
Meanwhile, research on defensive gun uses estimates that Americans defend themselves using firearms several hundred thousand to millions of times each year, usually without firing a shot. Much of that self-defense takes place outside the home.
Further, permit holders have proven themselves highly responsible. Examining permit-revocation data for his annual “Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States” report, Dr. John Lott determined, “Even given the low conviction rate for police, concealed-carry permit holders are even more law-abiding than police.”
Today, most states allow visitors to carry in their jurisdictions. In fact, the majority of states (29) have Constitutional Carry, allowing law-abiding residents and visitors to carry concealed handguns without a permit.
The success of Constitutional Carry is one of National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity’s best arguments. Just as the “Wild West” scenarios predicted by gun-control activists when the Right-to-Carry movement took off in Florida in 1987 never materialized, recognizing law-abiding citizens’ Right-to-Carry without a permit hasn’t led to anarchy, either.
With Right-to-Carry now constitutional law and 29 Constitutional Carry states, the murder rate is at a 125-year low. U.S. Department of Justice statistics (2024) show the state with the lowest homicide rate, New Hampshire, has Constitutional Carry, as do a majority of the top 10 lowest. The same goes for state rankings on violent crime, with Constitutional Carry Maine edging past New Hampshire for the lowest violent-crime rate.
With 29 Constitutional Carry states, there should be 58 easy Senate votes for reciprocity. Those 58 senators, along with those from states with universal recognition of carry permits, would be enough to get past a Senate filibuster.
All it would take would be for these senators to vote to give their own constituents the same protection when traveling interstate as non-residents enjoy when visiting their states. That assumes, however, these senators are more concerned about their own constituents than they are about national anti-gun interests and political donors. Sadly, that has so far proven not to be the case.
President Trump is right to emphasize National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity as a policy whose time has come, and he has no stronger ally in this effort than the NRA.
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