Sponsors (49)
Official title: Allow reciprocity for the carrying of certain concealed firearms.
Introduced January 9, 2025 by John Cornyn · Last progress January 9, 2025
The bill makes it easier for nonresident permit-holders to carry across state lines and reduces administrative barriers for travelers, at the expense of raising public-safety risks, undermining stricter State permitting regimes, and imposing new costs on state and local governments.
Nonresident lawful gun owners and travelers can carry a concealed handgun in States that allow resident permits (and in some cases carry elsewhere with only ID), reducing administrative barriers and making travel more consistent for permit-holders.
Law enforcement and local public-safety officials benefit from carriage remaining subject to State and local conditions, which preserves many local restrictions and enforcement rules.
Law enforcement and local communities may face increased public-safety risks because more guns will be carried across State lines by nonresidents who may be subject to varying training and permitting standards.
State and local governments with stricter permitting rules could see those standards weakened or circumvented when nonresidents bring in out-of-state entitlements, reducing States' ability to control who carries within their borders.
States and localities may incur additional legal, training, and enforcement costs to adapt policing, background checks, and recordkeeping to new cross‑state carry/reciprocity rules, raising burdens for taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires States to recognize certain out-of-state concealed-carry authority for nonresidents who present ID and a valid permit or proof of home-state authorization; effective 90 days after enactment.
Requires States to recognize nonresident concealed-carry authority for people who are not federally prohibited from possessing firearms if they present government photo ID plus either a valid concealed-carry license issued by any State or an ID showing they are authorized to carry in their home State. Nonresidents may carry concealed handguns (not machineguns or destructive devices) in another State if that State issues resident permits or does not prohibit residents from carrying concealed firearms; carry is subject to the same conditions and limits that apply to resident carriers. Applies the same Federal, State, and local restrictions that would apply to resident permittees, clarifies carry terms for restricted-permit States, does not preempt State licensing laws, adds the new statute to chapter 44 of title 18, and becomes effective 90 days after enactment with a severability clause.