Over the weekend President-elect Donald Trump announced a push for national concealed carry reciprocity, a move which would make the concealed permit of any one state valid in the other 49.
On Sunday, Don Trump Jr. posted to Instagram, “Boom! My father just announced concealed carry reciprocity. The Second Amendment will stay and remain protected.”
Texas Gun Rights posted a video of Trump’s reciprocity announcement to X:
On September 18, 2015, just months after Trump launched his first presidential campaign, Breitbart News pointed to policy papers wherein he said:
The right of self-defense doesn’t stop at the end of your driveway. That’s why I have a concealed carry permit and why tens of millions of Americans do too. That permit should be valid in all 50 states. 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.
And during his 2020 presidential campaign Trump continued to support national reciprocity. During an interview with the NRA’s First Freedom, Trump was asked, “Mr. President, each state’s driver’s license is honored across this great nation, yet a permit to carry a concealed gun — which, in contrast, is a right specifically protected in the U.S. Bill of Rights — is often not respected by other states. Will you support a national reciprocity act so that law-abiding gun owners can more easily travel with their freedom?”
Trump’s response: “Yes.”
President-elect Trump is again signaling that national reciprocity for concealed carry will be an important goal for his administration.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly: awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
