When you hop on a plane or get in your car to visit New York or California, you don’t figure that you’ll be unable to attend church when you get there. You don’t assume that your ability to speak freely gets left at home along with your television and sofa. You don’t figure that the police there can search your belongings willy-nilly simply because your Fourth Amendment rights were still in the garage with those tools you never use.
Oh no, your rights come with you.
Well…most of them.
Your right to keep and bear arms may theoretically follow you, but in application, you really can’t carry everywhere. Some states have reciprocity agreements with other states, meaning you’re not completely disarmed everywhere outside of your state, but a few make it impossible for visitors to carry firearms.
That’s why national reciprocity is such a big deal.
But there’s opposition to national reciprocity, and not just from the typical anti-gun folks. The Fraternal Order of Police seems to have an issue with it. And their opposition stems from some items that Gun Owners of America figures they need to be set straight on, which they did in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Gun Owners of America has always supported Constitutional Carry. As we fought to expand permitless carry from Vermont to the present 29 Constitutional Carry states, we have consistently dealt with the same law enforcement “concerns” as are being raised by the FOP now. Historically, anti-gun law enforcement organizations have almost always raised “public safety” concerns with permitless concealed carry. In reality, those concerns have never panned out in states that have enacted GOA-backed Constitutional Carry legislation. Permitless carry did not make any of the 29 Constitutional Carry states any more dangerous, and neither will H.R. 38 decrease public safety nationwide.
It must be understood that the FOP has taken a minority position among law enforcement officers, who overwhelmingly support the Second Amendment right to carry. A 2021 survey of chiefs of police and sheriffs nationwide showed almost 90% of respondents supporting concealed carry reciprocity. Furthermore, a survey of more than 14,000 police officers proved that the majority of rank-and-file law enforcement believe that “armed citizens” are the most effective way to stop mass shootings. On behalf of the millions of gun owners and law enforcement officials who support the Second Amendment, we will address and correct each of the Fraternal Order of Police’s concerns.
States Do Not Have a Right to Infringe on the Second Amendment
First, the FOP claims that H.R. 38 would “strip states of their ability to set and enforce their own standards for concealed carry” such as unconstitutional gun, magazine, and ammunition bans.9 But, those states never had constitutional authority to set those restrictions in the first place. This bill restores the right to carry firearms nationwide, which “shall not be infringed” even by the states.10 Hypocritically, the FOP has also endorsed a bill that would override unconstitutional state gun control laws in a nearly identical manner to H.R. 38—but only for law enforcement.
In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee earlier this year, FOP President Patrick Yoes praised the LEOSA Reform Act for exempting law enforcement officers from state and local restrictions on concealed-carry firearms and magazine capacities, stating it would remove conflict and confusion for those constituents. Going even further, the LEOSA Reform Act allows eligible persons to carry within federal buildings, a step beyond what H.R. 38 would allow. But the Second Amendment does not grant special privileges to law enforcement. Congress should protect and restore the right to carry handguns free from local gun, magazine, and ammunition bans for all the People—not just police.
This is but a small snippet of a very long and thorough letter. I invite you to read it for yourself and see how GOA addresses each item, because most of them are really just an echo of the nonsense that anti-gunners have peddled for years. I expected better from the FOP, mostly because of my late father’s involvement with them back in the 70s. I really shouldn’t be surprised they moved on, but that doesn’t mean I can’t remain disappointed.
However, I do want to focus on this point from GOA because, frankly, this is a big thing for me.
Look, I support law enforcement, despite what some people might think. I grew up around police officers, and I know that they’re mostly good people who are trying to do a tough job. It’s even tougher now than it was back in Dad’s day, so they get my respect.
But there’s nothing right about giving them special rights beyond what the rest of us get. Let’s keep in mind that concealed carriers are more law-abiding, as per studies, than any group of people you care to name. That includes police officers.
It’s not because there are so many criminal cops, either. It’s because people who carry concealed just aren’t committing a bunch of criminal activities.
Yet the FOP understandably backed an expansion of LEOSA that would make police officers exempt from even magazine restrictions and other gun control measures that we ordinary folks would still have to follow under national reciprocity. I get why they’d back this measure. I’m just bothered by how it’s “rules for thee, but not for me” when it comes to everything else.
The American people deserve better, and I’m going to be frank here. If groups like the FOP keep acting like the rules we have to live under shouldn’t apply to them, the “us vs them” mentality that is causing problems for departments’ recruiting efforts is only going to get worse. No one wants to be part of a group that thinks they’re above everyone else, and that’s how this is coming across to many.
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