Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is leading a charge along with other states to push Congress into passing the "Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act," better known as H.R. 38. Paxton argues that this legislation would ensure Americans’ right to keep and bear arms is not hindered when they travel outside their home state. "This commonsense proposal is a positive step in the right direction by statutorily protecting Americans’ right to keep and bear arms," Paxton said, as reported by the Texas Attorney General's Office. He looks to extend Texans' constitutional carry rights nationally so they can "protect themselves while traveling across the nation."
The proposed legislation aims to quickly create a standard that would allow individuals with concealed carry permits to maintain those rights as they cross state lines—a move proponents argue would promote public safety by empowering more people to legally carry concealed firearms. A multistate letter, spearheaded by Oklahoma and West Virginia and including Paxton's support, stresses that "Concealed carry is a constitutional right," a sentiment which supports H.R. 38's mission to broadly allow law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment rights beyond their home state's borders, as noted by the Attorney General's Office. They believe this act could potentially enable people to better defend themselves in situations where law enforcement may not be immediately available.
The issue at hand is the patchwork of state-level concealed carry laws that create legal pitfalls for traveling gun owners, potentially exposing them to severe penalties for actions that would be legal in their own state. The multistate letter highlights the legal risks that gun owners currently face: "Yet our constituents are threatened with arrest, prosecution, and mandatory prison time for technical violations of licensing or possession laws involving conduct that is perfectly legal in all but a handful of states, most of which have well-established history and practice of suppressing the right to keep and bear arms," as stated in the letter and shared by the Texas Attorney General's news release.
