In a shout of continued support for American freedom on the eve of this nation’s 250th anniversary since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, President Donald Trump (R) said at a rally at the Mack Trucks facility in Macungie, Pa., that “The NRA, everybody, they really have been, they’ve been with me right from the beginning. And [NRA President] Bill [Bachenburg] asked me would I support the national right to carry legislation. How do you feel about national right to carry? [The audience cheered.] That’s my free poll. You know what that is? That’s the free poll. You don’t have to pay $300,000 to somebody that doesn’t even do polling to give you phony numbers. See, those are real numbers. National right to carry. Yeah, we’re working on it.”
NRA President Bachenberg was in attendance and was asked to stand by President Trump. President Trump then reiterated his support for taking away a restriction that somehow only applies to the Second Amendment, as no other right that is specifically protected by the U.S. Bill of Rights is now allowed to simply end at a state line.
Indeed, given the reaffirmations of this individual right from the U.S. Supreme Court in D.C. v. Heller (2008), McDonald v. Chicago (2010), and New York State Rifle & Pistol Assoc. v. Bruen (2022), how can such terminations of this right even be deemed constitutional?
President Trump, of course, had previously told the NRA in an interview in the Oval Office in 2020 that he would sign a national reciprocity bill if it came to his desk.
President Trump also noted that the NRA “always gives me their endorsement because I saved the Second Amendment, and you think it’s easy? It was not easy. I think you’ve done a fantastic job. The NRA, everybody, they really have been … .”
So, the Trump administration is “working on” national right-to-carry legislation to ensure law-abiding armed citizens are able to lawfully carry throughout the United States without fear of possible prosecution for simply crossing a state line.
This is a civil-rights battle that has been ongoing for years; in fact, both chambers of Congress introduced concealed-carry reciprocity bills last year.
The primary NRA-backed national reciprocity legislation is the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act (H.R. 38 and S. 65). This bill allows individuals with valid concealed-carry permits or those residing in constitutional-carry states to legally carry concealed firearms in any other state, or area within another state, where people can legally do so.
This would be nothing more than a simple, commonsense application of a constitutionally protected right.
