Sponsors (71)
The bill expands and protects individual public-carry rights and clarifies federal alignment with Supreme Court precedent while substantially curtailing state and local authority—potentially increasing public-safety risks and legal costs even as it preserves some private-property exclusions.
Lawful residents and eligible nonresidents (including people with disabilities) can carry firearms in public without fear of state or local criminal penalties, preserving permitless public-carry for many individuals.
Private property owners and businesses that explicitly post gun prohibitions retain the ability to keep firearms off their premises, preserving a venue-level control for some private entities.
The bill affirms and references Supreme Court individual-rights precedent (Heller, McDonald, Bruen), which proponents say could reduce some legal ambiguity about public-carry rights.
State and local governments lose or see substantially constrained authority to enact or enforce public-carry restrictions, reducing local control over public-safety policy and responses to local conditions.
Police, first responders, and the public face higher risks because broader permitless carry reduces training and permitting gatekeeping and increases the prevalence of firearms in public spaces.
Greater public carrying of firearms may raise firearm injuries, accidental shootings, and associated medical and emergency-care costs for hospitals and taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Preempts state and local laws that criminalize, penalize, or create financial barriers to public carry by eligible U.S. citizens, while allowing private property bans with clear notice.
Introduced January 23, 2025 by Thomas Massie · Last progress January 23, 2025
Prohibits states and localities from criminalizing, fining, or otherwise limiting the public carrying of firearms by U.S. citizens who are otherwise eligible to possess firearms under federal and state law. It also declares state and local laws, ordinances, regulations, customs, or practices that penalize or create financial or other barriers to peaceful public carry to have no force or effect, while allowing private property owners to bar firearms if they do so clearly and conspicuously and excluding places with screening under state law.