House Republicans propose bill to preempt state gun safety laws
The Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act would force states to allow out-of-state visitors to ignore their concealed weapons restrictions.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are pushing a bill that would override state gun safety laws and allow anyone who can legally carry a concealed weapon in their home state to do so when visiting any other state. The legislation, long a priority for the National Rifle Association and others in the gun lobby, has already been endorsed by a majority of the House Republican caucus.
In a Jan. 8 press release, bill sponsor Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) touted what he called “the bipartisan Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act,” even though all 124 initial cosponsors are Republicans. “H.R. 38 guarantees the Second Amendment does not disappear when crossing an invisible state line,” Hudson said. “The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act protects law-abiding citizens’ rights to conceal carry and travel freely between states without worrying about conflicting state codes or onerous civil suits. I am especially proud to have such widespread and bipartisan support for this measure as I continue working to get this legislation over the finish line.”
The bill’s cosponsors include Wisconsin Republican Reps. Scott Fitzgerald and Glenn Grothman.
Wisconsin law requires adults who wish to carry a concealed weapon in public to complete safety training and obtain a state license. Were Hudson’s proposal to become law, Wisconsin would be forced to allow residents of the 29 states without any such requirements to violate its laws when visiting the state.
President-elect Donald Trump endorsed the proposal in a November 2023 campaign video, saying, “I will sign concealed carry reciprocity. Your Second Amendment does not end at the state line.”
“I think we’ve got the best chance of getting this into law we’ve had since 2017,” Hudson told Fox News Digital on Jan. 8, noting that Republicans now hold majorities in the House and Senate.
His office said that the bill is backed by the NRA, Gun Owners of America, the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the nation’s firearm industry.
“Congress has the opportunity to deliver the greatest legislative victory for the gun rights movement in a century, and President Trump has already voiced his support,” Gun Owners of America director of federal affairs Aidan Johnston said in Hudson’s press release. “We thank President Trump for his leadership on this issue and urge Congress to swiftly send Rep. Hudson’s Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act to the President’s desk to be signed.”
“Permitless carry legislation is part of the NRA’s broader agenda to weaken and repeal important gun safety measures, allowing more guns in public and undermining public safety,” the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety says on its website. “Emerging data shows that states that have passed permitless carry legislation are experiencing a substantial increase in gun violence.
An August 2024 analysis by the gun news site The Trace found that while advocates for permitless carry often claim it will deter gun violence, states that have adopted it have actually seen surges in shooting fatalities. “The research at this stage is pretty robust and consistent,” Rosanna Smart of the nonprofit RAND told the outlet. “Almost all of those estimates are showing that this movement to a more permissive regime is on the side of harming public safety versus protecting it, which is a stated objective of the laws.”
Mark Collins, the director of federal policy at the nonprofit Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said in a 2023 interview that a provision in the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act could chill enforcement of other state gun laws: “Where it really gets interesting, and this is the part that’s perhaps most dangerous, is that it includes a private right of action against, essentially, police. If the police detain or arrest you basically to ascertain whether or not you’re lawfully carrying the firearm, you have a private right of action against them. So you are disincentivizing police to not only enforce the laws of their own state, but from even determining whether or not somebody is legally carrying a gun.”
A 2023 Pew Research Center poll found 58% of U.S. adults believed gun laws should be more strict, while 15% said they should be less strict.
An October 2024 Gallup poll found that 56% of Americans would like to see tighter laws governing gun sales, compared to 33% that wanted to see looser laws.