Moot Point, And Quite Irrelevant, Your Right To Self Defense Is Forever Immutable

House Considers Whether Gun Permits Can Cross State Lines

"Congressional lawmakers yesterday heard testimony on a federal bill that would give Americans who hold permits to carry firearms in their home states the right to carry their weapons across state lines.

The sponsors of the legislation, dubbed the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act, maintain that people’s Second Amendment rights should encompass the right to carry their firearms outside their home states.

The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security held a hearing yesterday on the legislation, which is sponsored by Florida Republican Cliff Stearns and North Carolina Democrat Heath Shuler. Here’s a report from Fox News on the hearing and click here to read the statements provided by witnesses.

Many states have voluntarily agreed to honor gun permits granted by other states, but there is no nationwide framework for honoring other states’ firearm permits, Fox News reports.

Opponents of the legislation claim that it tramples on each state’s autonomy to set the standards its lawmakers believe are necessary to confront local problems, according to Fox News.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey testified yesterday that Congress should not allow people to carry firearms nationwide “without consideration for the minimum standards” created by each state. He added: “What works where I currently serve as Commissioner in Philadelphia, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, does not work for our neighbor across the river in New Jersey.”

But George Mason University law school professor Joyce Lee Malcom countered that the legislation would make the country safer. “If self-defense is to be effective people must be able to be armed,” she told lawmakers. “The American system of trusting ordinary people to protect themselves and carry firearms responsibly has enhanced public safety.”

Your inherent right to self protection is never taken away by anybody.