The operative part of the Second Amendment is “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
Yet bearing arms — the act of actually carrying them on your person — is treated like a privilege in nearly half of all states, and even then, there are issues with using that permission slip across state lines unless there are specific agreements in place.
Hell, we talk about the Second Amendment being treated more like a privilege than a right, and nowhere is that clearer than when it comes to carrying a firearm.
Now, the Liberty Justice Center is asking the Supreme Court to step in and at least improve the situation a bit.
In Johnson v. Jacobson, the Liberty Justice Center represents a long-haul trucker with two state-issued firearm licenses who has been prohibited from exercising his Second Amendment rights in Minnesota. LJC filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to review the decision from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that Minnesota may force all nonresidents, even those who hold valid permits issued by other states, to obtain a Minnesota firearms permit before carrying a firearm there.
The case was brought on behalf of Jeffrey Johnson, a full-time, long-haul truck driver who holds firearm carry licenses issued by Georgia and Florida. Because Minnesota does not recognize permits issued by either state, he cannot carry a firearm for self-defense in Minnesota unless he obtains a Minnesota permit or Minnesota adds Georgia and Florida to its reciprocity list.
Minnesota requires a permit to carry a firearm in public or in a vehicle. Although Minnesota recognizes permits issued by most states, it excludes permits from 15 states, including Georgia and Florida. For interstate truck drivers like Johnson, this patchwork of state permit-recognition laws can force them to choose between giving up their ability to defend themselves or risk criminal prosecution.
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“Once a person proves he is a law-abiding citizen, he is entitled to carry a gun in public for self-defense. Constitutional rights, the Second Amendment included, do not require someone to prove their worthiness to exercise their civil liberties over and over again,” said Ryan Morrison, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center. “Forcing someone to carry a Rolodex of firearm licenses to maintain his constitutional rights across the nation reduces the Second Amendment to second-class status and subjects it to an entirely different body of rules than the other rights secured by the Constitution.”
Minnesota recognizes a lot of states’ permits, but Georgia and Florida aren’t among them, and that’s the problem.
See, it’s just understood that every state recognizes every other state’s driver’s licenses. While legal documentation like marriage certificates and the like are recognized under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution, driver’s licenses aren’t. Driving is considered a privilege, not a right.
The right to bear arms, however, is just that: a right.
Despite that, and despite the Supreme Court affirming that it’s not just a right but an individual right multiple times by now, concealed carry permits aren’t recognized in the same way.
Personally, I think it should be constitutional carry all the time, in all of the places. What we saw in the aftermath of Bruen — the complete opposite of what we’d been told would happen if “may issue” died in a dumpster under a bridge — shows us that there’s an excellent chance that it wouldn’t just not create the world the doomsayers envision, but do the opposite.
Unfortunately, that’s not what’s on the table right now, it seems, and national reciprocity, in a way the left can’t make go away easily, would be a fantastic thing to see.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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