I recently went on a long road trip from TX to the East Coast with two guns on hand. We stayed overnight mostly in Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Virgina where my TX CHL is honored. Quick observations:
1. The patchwork of dissimilar laws in states regarding concealed carry, car carry, traveling statutes, reciprocity of licensing, etc. is a legitimate pain to navigate. In the end I just hoped to not get stopped, since I would have to use a slide rule, secret decoder ring and probably all of my "lifelines" in order to figure out what laws applied when crossing state lines.
2. The states without reciprocity of my TX CHL were not just a legitimate pain, but actually a royal pain, since to stay legal while traveling through (MD, WV etc.) to remain legal I was forced to stop, unload the guns and lock them up. This was especially a pain when going through the 10-mile-wide border-to-border stretch of MD between VA and PA.
3. States with outright bans on hand guns possessed by nonresidents such as NY and DC were especially troublesome considering it forced me to stay in a different state and then make day trips into these states on our vacation. Thanks, NY, for forcing me to endure 5 hours of train rides to and from Philadelphia in order to visit your state! You really make me feel welcome. I think it might be no coincidence that excursions into no-gun zones of DC and NYC were the primary times when I really wished I had my guns with me.
4. Traveling in a car with a holstered firearm carried on the belt is a literal pain. Like, I think I have a pinched nerve after 3500 miles of driving like this. Next time I am buying a shoulder rig especially for the trip.
I am rarely a fan of more laws, but after this experience it has become clear to me that if different states are going to have different concealed carry requirements, we need a Federal law requiring all states to honor the concealed carry licenses for residents of other states. Ideally we would have a Federal law which denies states the authority to regulate the carrying of firearms to begin with. I thought the Second Amendment already did that.
1. The patchwork of dissimilar laws in states regarding concealed carry, car carry, traveling statutes, reciprocity of licensing, etc. is a legitimate pain to navigate. In the end I just hoped to not get stopped, since I would have to use a slide rule, secret decoder ring and probably all of my "lifelines" in order to figure out what laws applied when crossing state lines.
2. The states without reciprocity of my TX CHL were not just a legitimate pain, but actually a royal pain, since to stay legal while traveling through (MD, WV etc.) to remain legal I was forced to stop, unload the guns and lock them up. This was especially a pain when going through the 10-mile-wide border-to-border stretch of MD between VA and PA.
3. States with outright bans on hand guns possessed by nonresidents such as NY and DC were especially troublesome considering it forced me to stay in a different state and then make day trips into these states on our vacation. Thanks, NY, for forcing me to endure 5 hours of train rides to and from Philadelphia in order to visit your state! You really make me feel welcome. I think it might be no coincidence that excursions into no-gun zones of DC and NYC were the primary times when I really wished I had my guns with me.
4. Traveling in a car with a holstered firearm carried on the belt is a literal pain. Like, I think I have a pinched nerve after 3500 miles of driving like this. Next time I am buying a shoulder rig especially for the trip.
I am rarely a fan of more laws, but after this experience it has become clear to me that if different states are going to have different concealed carry requirements, we need a Federal law requiring all states to honor the concealed carry licenses for residents of other states. Ideally we would have a Federal law which denies states the authority to regulate the carrying of firearms to begin with. I thought the Second Amendment already did that.