The National Rifle Association (NRA) published a new online ad Tuesday which advocates for national gun-carry reciprocity.
Now that Neil Gorsuch has been appointed to the Supreme Court, a top priority for the NRA during President Trump's first 100 days, the ad may signal a shift towards promoting national reciprocity as the group's next big push. National gun-carry reciprocity would require states to recognize each others' gun-carry permits. The NRA said the reform is needed to prevent otherwise law-abiding gun owners from being prosecuted for accidentally carrying in states they didn't realize their permits weren't valid in.
"If 10 states made it a felony to read the New York Times, the media would run the story 24/7 until Congress fixed the assault on the First Amendment," Chris Cox, head of the NRA's lobbying arm, said in the ad. "But when 10 states criminalize the Second Amendment, the media says nothing.
"They don't report that honest, well-meaning people—nurses, stay-at-home moms, veterans, even a disaster relief worker—have been charged with felonies for simply having a lawfully owned firearm. Each was legally licensed to carry a firearm in their home state, but arrested and charged as criminals when safely carrying it through another, less free state."
Cox went on to say that the outlawing of gun carry sets a precedent that could lead to threats against other constitutional rights and promised the NRA would lead the effort to pass national reciprocity.
"When states can deny one constitutional freedom, they can criminalize the entire Bill of Rights," he said. "On behalf of America's 100 million gun owners, we will fight until the full measure of our Second Amendment freedom is restored to every citizen in every corner of the land."
The NRA has backed legislation introduced in both houses of the current Congress that would institute national reciprocity, but there has been little movement on either bill and it is unclear when or if they might get a vote.