We need national reciprocity it makes sense, if your drivers license is recognized in all 50 states, why shouldn't your gun permit be?
The trouble the driver's license example is that gun laws, unlike traffic laws, vary widely between the states. AS DO the requirements for getting a carry permit.
No matter how many times I've said it, folks do not seem to get it.
There is no such animal as National Reciprocity of Drivers Licenses.
The federal government was never involved with this, as it was wholly a State issue.
Licensing of Drivers, was at first a voluntary issue. It was sold to the public as a means to build new roads and for maintenance of those roads. Those who chose to drive these new-fangled horseless carriages, should be required to pay for the roads being built. A drivers license also showed that the driver of a vehicle was familiar with the "rules of the road" as each state began passing such laws. At first, such laws varied widely. There were no common grounds.
Vehicle registrations followed the same pattern. Fact is, some states had vehicle registration before they had Drivers Licensing.
Regardless, one after another, what was first a voluntary tax, became a mandatory tax among the States, as they saw more and more people driving. It was a ready-made money pot and all the States followed suit.
The individual States decided among themselves to offer reciprocity to the other States. By this time, it was reasoned that if they didn't recognize the other states licensing, they would be cutting their state out of revenue generated by tourism. It was at this point when the driving laws began to be changed to accommodate the laws of the other states.
The federal government
only got into the act, when they realized that they could make money off of the fact that certain vehicles and drivers carried out interstate commerce (the trucking industry). Enter the DOT.
In order to comply with the new regulations for interstate commerce, the states had to devise a new licensing scheme. Enter the state issued CDL.
It was at this point in history that the states really began adopting laws that were the same for each state. Even at this late date, certain traffic laws are still different in each state: Right turns at red lights, for example. Some state allow this, some states do not.
The above is a brief but accurate history of how we got from paying a voluntary tax, to help pay for roads, to a mandatory tax, to show we know the rules of the road, and how state reciprocity came about.
None of that history precludes one state recognizing the carry permits of another state. The same process is being carried out today, albeit at what seems to be a much slower pace.
If history does in fact repeat itself, then a federal reciprocity act will become a federal licensing scheme, in much the same way the DOT forced the states to issue CDL's.
The real danger is that with federal involvement, I suspect the feds will, in a short time, simply design their own licensing structure and force the states to comply. That is currently well within the parameters of Commerce Clause interpretation.
Your state permit will become useless. Your states authority will have been usurped.
Those of you that want this, will have been instrumental in letting the feds gain more power and authority and thereby weakening the powers and authority of your own states.
