Picture a single woman driving across state lines at night, fearful that her car will break down and leave her vulnerable. Or imagine a truck driver hauling valuable cargo across the country. In states like California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and Oregon—which are among ten states that refuse to recognize concealed handgun permits from other states—these travelers risk being defenseless. Nine states either completely deny or severely limit non-residents’ ability to obtain a license.
Last week, the House Judiciary Committee advanced the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act and is headed to the House floor. This bill would let anyone legally permitted to carry a concealed handgun in their home state do so across state lines—essentially treating concealed carry permits like driver’s licenses.
With 21.5 million concealed handgun permit holders in the U.S., the bill would make a major impact.
For most Americans, this kind of reciprocity already exists. The average state honors permits from 30 other states, allowing concealed carry permit holders to travel freely with firearms.
Also on Tuesday, Democrats voted against another bill allowing current and retired law enforcement officers with at least ten years of experience to carry in facilities open to the general public, including schools, when they travel across the country. So it isn’t surprising that they were upset about a bill allowing civilians to carry across state lines.
During the markup of the concealed carry bill, Democrats couldn’t cite any evidence but still voiced fears that permit holders commit crimes at high rates. In fact, permit holders are exceptionally law-abiding. They lose their licenses for firearm-related violations at rates of thousandths or tens of thousandths of one percentage point. Police rarely commit crimes, but concealed handgun permit holders are even more law-abiding, facing a revocation rate for firearms offenses that is just one-twelfth the rate of the rate that police are convicted of firearms-related crimes. Police rarely commit crimes, but concealed handgun permit holders break the law even less often. Their licenses are revoked for firearms offenses at just one-twelfth the rate that police are convicted of similar crimes.
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“This legislation is a dramatic infringement on states’ rights," warns Emma Brown, executive director at the gun control advocacy group Giffords, repeating a common refrain from gun control groups. Ironically, those same groups consistently push for federal gun control laws that override state decisions.
Opponents also argued that national reciprocity could lead to confusion about which gun laws apply in a given state, leading to arrests – but reciprocity is already common. There is no evidence of a problem with out-of-state permit holders.
One concern is that the standards for getting a permit vary across states, but there is no evidence that permit revocation rates are higher in states where it is easier to obtain a permit.
Despite all the fears of gun control advocates, there is a reason that over 86% of police chiefs and sheriffs support national reciprocity. And over 90 percent of street police officers support concealed handgun laws. These are the people who see first-hand how reciprocity and concealed carry work. They know how important police are in deterring crime, but they also know that police almost always arrive at the crime scene after the criminal commits the crime and that self-defense is crucial to keeping people safe. Overwhelmingly, academic research finds that letting people carry concealed handguns reduces crime.
Much of the gun control debate is about things that might go wrong, but with reciprocity, we don’t need to guess. With tens of millions of people legally carrying concealed handguns, if gun control advocates could point to hundreds or even dozens of cases where people with out-of-state permits caused problems, their concerns would be something to consider. But the issues are exceedingly rare. Americans don’t need to guess if gun control advocates concerns are justified.
The two groups that benefit the most from carrying guns are physically weaker people (women and the elderly) and the likeliest victims of crime (poor blacks in high-crime urban areas). These are also the groups that have seen the largest percentage increases in concealed handgun permits over the last decade (2015 to 2024), with concealed handgun permits for women increasing 112% faster than for men and permits for blacks increasing 284% faster than for whites.
Unfortunately, real life isn’t like the movies, where one woman can knock out and overpower several well-trained men. Even well-trained women often struggle to defend themselves against much larger and stronger men. Men also tend to be faster runners.
A firearm represents a much more significant change in a woman’s ability to defend herself. Men can readily hurt women without a gun, and if a woman is already in physical contact with the attacker so that he can take away their gun, they are already in trouble.
The peer-reviewed research by one of us shows that murder rates decline when people carry concealed handguns, be they men or women. But a woman holding a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate for women by about 3 to 4 times more than a man doing the same.
While the House is likely to pass national reciprocity, the battle in the Senate is much more difficult. To pass the bill in the Senate, 60 votes are required to break the filibuster Democrats will wage, and at least seven Democrat Senators will have to break ranks. But Democrat Senators need only look at the experience in their home states to see that there are no problems with reciprocity. Six states with twelve Democrat Senators recognize concealed handgun permits from the rest of the country: Arizona, Georgia, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Virginia. In none of those states is there any movement to restrict reciprocity.
Police are critical. But 720,000 police officers cannot be everywhere and protect 340 million people at once. Let’s make it so Americans aren’t afraid to cross state borders.
John R. Lott Jr. is president of the Crime Prevention Research Center. He is the author most recently of “Gun Control Myths.”
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