When President Trump recently spoke at the Mack Trucks facility in Macungie, Pennsylvania, gun owners were encouraged to hear him call for national concealed carry reciprocity.
He’s right. Constitutional rights shouldn’t end at a state line.
And the need for reciprocity isn’t theoretical. Armed citizens save lives every year.
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Just recently, a Marine veteran carrying a concealed firearm helped police in Massachusetts stop and apprehend a convicted felon who had illegally obtained a firearm and was randomly shooting at motorists.
In Missouri, two armed citizens confronted and stopped an active shooter in a parking lot. According to police, their actions prevented even greater bloodshed.
Stories like these happen all across America. Yet millions of law-abiding gun owners still risk becoming criminals simply by crossing an invisible state line.
You can drive your car across all 50 states. You can take your family, your luggage — even your dog. But in many states, you can’t bring the firearm you legally carry for self-defense back home.
That makes no sense.
There is legislation in Congress that would establish national concealed carry reciprocity. Unfortunately, the Senate has become the graveyard for too many pro-gun reforms.
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The last time the Senate voted on reciprocity — in 2013 — the measure actually received 57 votes. A majority of senators supported it, but not enough to overcome the filibuster. Back then, there were still a handful of Democrats willing to vote for legislation protecting the Second Amendment. Those days are largely behind us.
Fortunately, Congress isn’t the only battlefield.
While politicians argue, Gun Owners of America has been building a nationwide patchwork that allows law-abiding Americans to carry in more and more places.
It started with Constitutional Carry.
GOA was the first national organization to make permitless carry a legislative priority. Today, thanks to years of relentless work by GOA and our allies, 29 states recognize Constitutional Carry. In well over half the country, law-abiding citizens no longer need a government-issued permit to exercise a constitutional right.
But GOA didn’t stop there. We also turned to the courts.
For decades, anti-gun states like New York and California refused to recognize the rights of visitors. If you lived somewhere else, they simply denied you any meaningful opportunity to carry legally.
GOA challenged those policies — and won. As a result, both New York and California must now provide a pathway for qualified, law-abiding Americans from other states to obtain concealed carry permits. It’s not full reciprocity, because applicants still have to navigate each state’s permitting process. But those states can no longer slam the door on out-of-state residents simply because they don’t live there.
We’re pursuing the same principle in Illinois.
Right now, Illinois recognizes permits from residents of only six states: Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, Texas, and Virginia. GOA is challenging that discriminatory system because the correct number isn’t six — it’s all 50 states.
GOA’s legal victories didn’t happen in a vacuum. They were built on a constitutional principle that the Supreme Court emphatically reaffirmed in 2022. That was the Supreme Court’s landmark Bruen decision , which made clear that the Second Amendment protects the right to carry firearms outside the home.
Many anti-gun states complied — but only on paper.
Unable to ban carry outright, they devised new ways to make the right practically impossible to exercise.
One of the worst examples became known as the “Vampire Rule.” Like the vampires of folklore who supposedly needed permission before entering a home, states such as New York and Hawaii required gun owners to obtain affirmative permission before carrying on virtually all private property open to the public.
The result was predictable. Overnight, lawful carry became prohibited in most stores, restaurants, gas stations, and businesses throughout those states.
GOA sued New York and won.
Hawaii initially prevailed in its own litigation, creating a split among the federal circuits. That gave the Supreme Court the opportunity to step in.
In Wolford v. Lopez, the Court struck down Hawaii’s Vampire Rule, reaffirming that constitutional rights cannot be nullified by requiring Americans to beg permission before exercising them.
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Freedom won.
Law-abiding Americans do not need to ask permission before carrying into the neighborhood grocery store, gas station, or restaurant.
Freedom wasn’t restored all at once. It has been won one lawsuit, one state, and one victory at a time . Even here in Virginia, GOA recently secured a temporary injunction against the Commonwealth’s unconstitutional ban on carrying certain commonly owned firearms.
National reciprocity remains an important goal, and we welcome President Trump’s support for making it a reality.
But until Congress acts, GOA will continue doing what we’ve always done — using the courts, the legislatures, and every lawful avenue available to ensure that the right to bear arms doesn’t disappear the moment an American crosses a state line.
