The Gun Lobby Wants to Pass a National Concealed Carry Mandate. It’s a Really Bad Idea.
Under a national concealed carry mandate, anyone you see could have a gun—and the police would be powerless to protect you.
Republicans are trying to pass one of the most dangerous bills through Congress that this country has seen in decades.
A national concealed carry mandate would force states to allow anyone to carry hidden, loaded guns without training, passing a background check, or meeting a single safety standard.
If this bill passes, almost anyone you see could have a gun on them—and the police would be powerless to protect you.
We must stop the gun lobby’s “Anyone with a Gun Act.”
Usually, when you want to carry a concealed gun in public, you have to follow the rules in your state that outline who is allowed to do so. Historically, almost every state prohibited or strictly limited the carrying of concealed, loaded weapons in public places, for obvious reasons: More guns in public means an increased risk of gun violence. These restrictions were among the earliest gun laws adopted in the United States.
More recently, some states began to allow law enforcement to issue permits to people who passed a background check and received firearm safety training and/or demonstrated a particular need to carry hidden, loaded guns in public. These are known as concealed carry permits, or CCWs.
But gun lobby CEOs weren’t satisfied with trained gun owners being able to carry concealed firearms in public—they wanted to make it easier for anyone, regardless of whether they knew how to shoot or could even pass a background check. So, at their behest, 29 states have eliminated the protections that come with a concealed carry permit and allow nearly anyone who can access a gun to carry it hidden, loaded, in public.
Now, Congress wants to take this even further. By passing a national concealed carry mandate, lawmakers want to make each state recognize concealed carry rules from every other state—essentially forcing all states, no matter how strong their concealed carry protections are, to be subject to the weakest laws in the nation.
This means that if you want to be able to carry a concealed gun in California, a state where you need a permit to do so, you can just go to its neighbor Arizona, where you don’t need a permit to do so, to obtain a gun (with no license needed). Then, you’re welcome to conceal your gun and carry it in public places in California, Nevada, Colorado, or any other state—even if you wouldn’t be able to legally obtain a license in any of these states.
A national concealed carry mandate doesn’t just override local laws. It rewards the states with the weakest gun laws and punishes those that have taken real steps to reduce crime.
Concealed Carry in Action
Concealed carry can turn everyday nuisances into deadly confrontations. Take Florida, where two separate arguments spiraled into tragedy because someone was legally armed. In one case, a concealed carry permit holder shot and killed a man inside a movie theater after arguing over cell phone use, killing him in front of his wife. A few years later, another permit holder fatally shot a young father in a parking lot after a dispute over a handicap space. Both shooters claimed “self-defense,” and both incidents began as nothing more than words. But concealed guns made the difference between a shouting match and a death.
Florida is one of 29 states that allow almost anyone to walk around with a loaded gun. This law would let an armed, angry, untrained Florida Man come to your town—maybe your school, church, or business—and your local police are legally prohibited from doing anything about it.
Concealed carry laws in states have done three main things:
- They’ve enormously expanded the number of people who are authorized to carry hidden, loaded handguns in public streets, crowds, and spaces.
- They’ve significantly increased the number of public locations in which the public may carry firearms, including public parks, schools, college campuses, hospitals, government buildings, and bars.
- They’ve made it nearly impossible for law enforcement to identify criminals or threats in public confrontations—making it much, much more difficult for them to do their job.
So who really wants a national concealed carry mandate? Only the gun lobby. The American public doesn’t want it. Law enforcement certainly doesn’t want it—for years, they’ve spoken out about how it makes their jobs harder, makes communities less safe, and only increases gun violence.
Source
Michael Siegel, et al., “Easiness of Legal Access to Concealed Firearm Permits and Homicide Rates in the United States,” American Journal of Public Health 107, no. 12 (2017): 1923–1929.
We’ve seen what happens when states loosen carry restrictions: Violent crime goes up. Violent crime rates rose 13–15% in states that weakened their standards for concealed carry. States that ended live-fire training requirements by adopting permitless carry laws saw a 32% increase in gun assaults.
Gun lobby CEOs want us to believe that a world where anyone could have a gun would be a world where no one ever uses them—but that’s just not true. The real-world evidence shows the opposite. A driver with a pistol in his waistband turns a traffic argument into a gunfight. A toddler turns curiosity into tragedy. Police respond to a call not knowing whether the armed person they’re facing is there to help or to kill them. And we’re all less safe.
A vote for a national concealed carry mandate is a vote to make every traffic stop, every argument, and every family outing more dangerous.
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