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Thune amendment: Great idea, wrong vehicle
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Typical state issued gun carry permit (redacted)
Today the so-called Thune amendment to require states to accept each other’s handgun carry permits failed 2 votes short of the Senate’s 60 vote cloture requirement. Senator Thune’s (R – South Dakota) bill was a great idea in intent, but the mechanics were unconstitutional.
The Congress’ power is limited to what is enumerated in Article I of the United States Constitution. Congress does not have the same general police power over citizen conduct as do the several states, and federal statutes criminalizing conduct absent a federal power hook are unconstitutional. See United States v. Lopez (striking down federal ban on gun carry in and near K-12 schools).
The Thune Amendment sought to deny states their police powers by commanding them to accept other state’s gun carry permits. It goes without saying that what Congress cannot criminalize, it neither can decriminalize over the superior power of state sovereigns.
The right way to encourage inter-state acceptance of gun carry permits is the way Congress encourages states to do most things – by requiring state law conformity as a condition of federal subsidies. Under the Congress' enumerated spending power, Congress does this all the time, e.g., requiring states to enact "21 to drink laws" to receive highway funds, requiring states to submit to the ATF lists of convictions and adjudications disabling Americans from possessing firearms as a condition of getting Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 subsidies, etc. (remember the NRA's NICS Improvement Act?).
Congressional members who are serious about encouraging inter-state gun carry permit recognition should do things the right way via the Congress' enumerated federal powers. First, Congress should knock off the "do as I say and not as I do" stuff and legalize all state gun carry permits in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virginia Islands, Guam, and other federal territories. Second, Congress should attach a condition to receipt of Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 subsidies the requirement that any recipient state must accept all other states' gun carry permits just as they do their own permits
For more info: OpenCarry.org & DC Gun Rights Examiner
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