2nd Amendment scholar David Kopel lays out the clear constitutional case for Congress passing the National Reciprocity Act in the above article. I am posting this article because many gunowners are afraid of Congress passing National Reciprocity, because they misunderstand the complete roles of Congress and the Supreme Court.
Kopel lays out the 14th Amendment support added to the Heller decision, to make the case that it is the DUTY of Congress to pass National Reciprocity and rein in the errant (mainly Blue) States who have enacted unconstitutional gun laws over the years. The point is that the Congress has equal powers to the Supreme Court in righting wrongs.
The National Reciprocity Act is pro-gun incrementalism, taking one more step on the road to removing 100 years of progressivism against guns. The anti-gun laws in the Blue States are the same as Jim Crow laws in the late 1800's, designed to strip constitutional civil rights of one group of people--gun owners.The 14th Amendment was enacted specifically to give Congress the power to act against state infringements of national civil rights.
Section one of the 14th Amendment forbids states to violate civil rights. Section five of the Amendment grants Congress “the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.” Enacted during Reconstruction, the Fourteenth Amendment was a remedy to ex-Confederate states denying freedmen the right to arms and other civil rights.
One of the civil rights protected by Concealed Carry Reciprocity is the right to interstate travel. It is “a virtually unconditional personal right, guaranteed by the Constitution to us all,” the Supreme Court said in Sáenz v. Roe (1999)...
...As the Supreme Court wrote in D.C. v. Heller (2008), “the inherent right of self-defense has been central to the Second Amendment right.” Thus, the (14th) Amendment “guarantee[s] the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation.
Like other constitutional rights, the right protected by the Second Amendment is not limited to one’s state of residence. The Fourteenth Amendment made the Second Amendment (and most of the rest of the Bill of Rights) directly enforceable against the states. Coloradans must be free to practice their religion in Utah. Ohioans’ free speech must be protected in Michigan. North Dakotans must be free from unreasonable searches in South Dakota. And Idahoans’ right to bear arms must be recognized in Oregon...
...Moreover, the Reciprocity Act is also supported by the same jurisdictional predicate as many other federal gun control laws: namely, that the firearm in question was once sold or transported in interstate commerce. This is not really consistent with the original meaning of the Interstate Commerce Clause. But if the Reciprocity Act were held to exceed Congress’s commerce powers, then much of the federal Gun Control Act would also be unconstitutional—such as laws that ban a person today from possessing a gun just because the gun was sold in interstate commerce four decades ago.
