Everywhere you go, in any state in the nation, the person next to you may or may not be armed. If they're open carrying, well, that's one thing. You can see it. Otherwise, you don't know.
And even laws prohibiting concealed carry in places don't mean much, since criminals disobey the law all the time.
But, it seems the gun control group Giffords has an issue with the idea of concealed carry reciprocity, and their argument on X is...fascinating.
If Congress passes a national concealed carry mandate, anyone you see could have a gun on them—and the police would be powerless to protect you.
— GIFFORDS (@GIFFORDS_org) November 17, 2025
Leaders must stand up for public safety and put a stop to the gun lobby’s dangerous agenda.https://t.co/DFzyFR5Im7
Of course, anyone you see could have a gun on them as things stand now. Even with the most strict concealed carry laws currently permissible, you still don't know who has a gun and who doesn't, and that's completely ignoring armed criminals. Those people carry in all 50 states and, again, don't care about what the law says.
That's kind of part of a criminal's job description.
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As it stands, even people who aren't what we might typically think of as criminals carry without permits, even in states that don't have some form of permitless carry. They simply don't think they should have to get permission from the state to exercise a constitutionally protected right. I'm not saying I approve, either. I'm saying I get it.
Completely.
In fact, should Congress pass national reciprocity, nothing will change in that regard, beyond regular folks who have concealed carry permits from their home states will be able to carry outside of that state without any regard for reciprocity agreements between the two states.
Giffords, of course, laments that many states don't require training, and thus, you'll have all kinds of people walking around with guns and not any state-mandated educational requirements. They leave out that many states never had such requirements and have never had any issues to speak of as a result of that.
Then again, they don't make their money by being reasonable about guns. They get it by freaking out over everything, screaming to high heavens about any measure that might fail to curtail people's rights in some way, and blatantly misrepresenting the facts in any way that makes the Second Amendment look like a bad idea.
It isn't, though.
People with concealed carry permits have been shown to be even more law-abiding than any other group you care to look at, including police officers, judges, and probably gun control advocates. They don't go around shooting people without justification, and they don't represent a threat to the general public. While groups like Giffords claim they follow data, this is one bit of research they routinely ignore. It's almost like they cherry-pick data that benefits their position.
Weird, ain't it?
Anyway, despite the fearmongering, there's absolutely nothing scary about national reciprocity.
There would be something hilarious, though, and that's how these groups will be silent when their doomsaying fails to come to fruition yet again.
