Reciprocity
By Albert B. Kelly
Reciprocity; according to the dictionary it means, among
other things, “a mutual exchange of privileges between trading nations or
recognition of licenses between states”. In and of itself, that doesn’t sound
like a bad thing, but when it comes to the “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act” to
“allow reciprocity for the carrying of certain concealed firearms”, it’s not a
good thing.
Specifically, it’s not good thing because it means that even
if our laws in New Jersey say “no” to someone carrying a concealed fire arm, if
they got themselves a “yes” in some other state, this makes our “no” worthless.
It means that contrary to what we may want within our own state, we have to
yield to the laws of another state at least when it comes to carrying concealed
fire arms.
I hadn’t been up on this law, but fortunately some of our
residents are keeping an eye on things. One citizen in particular took time out
of his day to attend a recent City Council meeting. He explained the new law
and talked about its implications with conviction and asked that we consider it
and make our voices heard.
But this citizen did more than just attend a Council meeting
to ask for our intervention; he took the time to speak with his elected
representatives in Trenton and in the halls of Congress. He cares about the big
picture, but he also cares about what this law might mean down at street level
where he and the rest of us live our lives.
Go beyond the sanitized language of legislation and
nonthreatening words like “reciprocity”, and this law takes on a whole new
dimension because it can only mean more guns on our streets- maybe on the hip
of a guy who gets a little scared walking down the street at night or enraged
in a fast food restaurant somewhere or any one of a hundred other scenarios
where you don’t want that mix of guns and rage.
Does this add to the burdens of our police and the average
citizen? I don’t know, but it’s not hard to imagine unintended consequences-
the type of consequences that look like what happened when Minnesota police
officer Jeronimo Yanez pulled over Philandro Castile during a “routine traffic
stop” that ended with Castile shot dead in front of his girlfriend and her 4
year-old child.
Reciprocity doesn’t help all that much in a day and age when
everyone’s a potential perp and everyone fears for their life or at least
that’s what they tell a jury. Reciprocity is great on paper, but we need more
reciprocity between tribes; white, brown, black and blue before we test reciprocity’s
limits with concealed guns.
In New Jersey we have some tight laws; basically only law
enforcement and certain security personnel can carry a concealed fire arm. Regular
citizens have to have a darn good reason which means “the urgent necessity for
self-protection, as evidenced by specific threats or previous attacks which
demonstrate a special danger to the applicant's life that cannot be avoided by
means other than by issuance of a permit to carry a handgun. Where possible the
applicant shall corroborate the existence of any specific threats or previous
attacks by reference to reports of such incidents to the appropriate law
enforcement agencies”.
All of that means nothing under this proposed new law when
someone from another state can just schlepp into our communities with his or
her concealed piece and there would be nothing we could do about it. Perhaps we
should require out of state folks to carry some type of hefty insurance along
with their concealed fire arm just in case- so our tax payers don’t get stuck
with unintended costs like emergency surgery and a stint in ICU. I doubt there
will be much reciprocity from other states or the feds if we send them a
hospital bill.
That’s no small thing when you consider that 12 states require
no permit whatsoever which means both they and we, have no idea who is walking
around with a gun or why. Yet they would impose their risk on us in our own
communities and in our own neighborhoods. And these are the state’s rights and small
government types? Go figure.
The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act is on its way to
becoming law. Contact your representatives in Trenton and in Congress and let
them know we don’t need more guns in New Jersey.