Virginia Attorney General Unilaterally Revokes Concealed Carry Permit Reciprocity with 25 States

In one of the most galling and senseless gun grabbing moves that Democrats have perpetrated during their ongoing failed campaign against the Second Amendment, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D) has announced that Virginia will no longer honor reciprocity agreements on concealed carry permits with 25 of the 30 states it currently recognizes. The practical effect of this move is that your Virginia concealed carry permit used to be good in 31 states, and now it’s good in 6. Of the 6 states that remain, only West Virginia is even close to Virginia.

Basically, then, Virginia gun owners will no longer be able to carry their guns across state lines.

One of the more odious ways that gun regulation hampers the ability of lawful gun owners to exercise their second amendment rights is the current patchwork quilt of handgun licensing requirements. If you go to your concealed carry class, pass all your background checks, get your fingerprints taken, and properly register your weapon, that will still only allow you to carry your firearm in your state. If you’re going to travel across country with your gun, you have to basically hire a lawyer to tell you where and in what state you’re allowed to carry your properly licensed firearm.

However, a group of 31 states did have reciprocity agreements that covered most of the country, at least reducing the chances of sharing the fate of Shaneen Allen, who was sentenced to three years in prison for carrying a legally purchased firearm – for which she had a valid out of state concealed carry permit – into the state of New Jersey.

Prior to Mark Herring’s decision, Virginia was one of those states who participated in these reciprocity agreements, so that Virginia gun owners could travel throughout most of the country legally with their weapons. But the effect of cancelling these reciprocity agreements goes both ways, so that not only can out-of-staters no longer carry their guns into Virginia, but Virginians can’t carry their guns out of state.

I think it goes without saying that if you are going to take the trouble to go through getting your concealed carry permit, you are a conscientious, law abiding gun owner. What Herring has done has not made the people of Virginia any safer, it has merely made it more difficult for people who want to exercise their Second Amendment rights in accordance with the law more difficult. Which of course is exactly the point.

Note that this action was taken unilaterally and without the Virginia legislature.

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