In case you missed it, CBS’ 60 Minutes did a segment yesterday on the NRA’s top priority legislation “concealed carry reciprocity.” During the segment, 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft debunked commonly used NRA talking points, while the segment made clear that in pushing for “concealed carry reciprocity,” the NRA is ignoring widespread opposition from law enforcement across the country.
As the segment highlighted, “concealed carry reciprocity” would not create a national standard for who can carry a hidden, loaded gun in public. Instead, it would force each state to accept the concealed carry standards of every other state, even states that have weak standards, or worse, no standards at all. In other words, it would undermine state gun laws, and force states to allow people with dangerous histories and no gun safety training to carry hidden, loaded guns within their borders. This isn’t hypothetical: 19 states don’t require any gun safety training in order to carry a concealed gun in public, while 12 states don’t require a permit or background check. That’s why a majority of law enforcement groups from across the country oppose it.
Learn more about “concealed carry reciprocity” HERE.
Key Exchanges:
STEVE KROFT: “There’s huge opposition to this bill among police departments in major cities across the United States. Houston, Tucson, metropolitan D.C., Boston, New York City, Baltimore, Seattle. These are all cities where the chief of police has come out against this law. There are more if you want me to read more.”
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REP. RICHARD HUDSON (R-NC), HOUSE SPONSOR OF THE “CONCEALED CARRY RECIPROCITY ACT OF 2017”: “It’s just like a drivers license.”
KROFT: “It’s not just like a driver’s license. Because to get a driver’s license, you have to demonstrate a proficiency and establish that you’re not going to endanger the public and that you understand all the laws governing it. But that’s not the case in terms of possessing–getting a concealed carry permit.”
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KROFT: “Are you saying that the more guns that are out there, the safer the population is?”
HUDSON: “I don’t know if I’d go quite that far. But, you know, I’m– I’m not gonna come out here and say the– the solution to gun violence is give everyone a gun. But I’m also saying that’s not going to necessarily increase violence.”
KROFT: “That conclusion has been refuted by numerous studies, as well as testimony from chiefs of police like Edward Flynn in Milwaukee, who says Wisconsin’s six-year experiment with lax concealed carry laws has been a disaster.”
(VIDEO FROM 2017) MILWAUKEE POLICE CHIEF EDWARD FLYNN:
“Every year since [Wisconsin’s concealed carry] law was passed in 2011, every year, non-fatal shootings have gone up, gun-related homicides have gone up, and the number of guns seized from the streets by our department has gone up. That’s what our cockamamie law has done here.”
KROFT: “Why is this bill so important to the NRA?”
NEW YORK COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY CYRUS VANCE: “The goal is, of the gun lobby, to have what they call Constitutional Carry, which means that you– anyone can have a gun, anywhere, anytime. Because the Constitution, and the Second Amendment, in their view, says that. And so the world that they imagine is one where everyone can have a gun. That’s not the world that I think I want to live in. But that’s the world that I think they’re trying to create.”