TexasCHLforum.com

ninjabread wrote:If I recall correctly, carry under LEOSA is in accordance with LTC rules not LEO rules. If so, the simple solution seems like amending LEOSA to include LTC, further increasing safety.

Lynyrd wrote:I am all for anything which would allow my CHL/LTC to be valid in all 50 states. Many have compared this subject to states recognizing a driver's license issued by another state. Expanding on that comparison, take a look at commercial driver's licenses, CDL. I have a Texas CDL. Although I don't drive a truck for a living any more, I maintain my qualifications just in case.

I remember way back when truck drivers had CDL's from several different states. Of course it was to keep the speeding tickets off of one DL and on another, and not because the other states only recognized their own CDL. Anyway, my point is this all went away with the standardization of CHL license testing requirements and a common database of traffic violations. Driving isn't a Constitutional right, and certainly not operating a truck, but the standardization of licensing requirements does have some commonality with some of the objections to reciprocity.

I have a son who lives in Connecticut (they don't build submarines in Texas) where they have some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. He was able to get a Connecticut CHL, but what he had to go through to get it was absurd. No range test was required. No written test was required. There was a background check, a tax to be paid, a waiting period, and two trips to the state capitol to fill out paper work. Yes, he HAD to go twice, for two different reasons. They wouldn't allow it to all be done at the same time. Vastly different requirements than Texas, and there are many other states with vastly different requirements. And then you have Vermont where no license is issued, and none is required.

My point? Most states don't want the federal government messing in affairs they see as the prerogative of the states. And with licensing requirements all over the board, and in some cases absent, There will be a lot of push back fro liberal states and scrambling to change the rules in their favor. The worst thing that could happen with the reciprocity effort is something like the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations pertaining to safe carrying of firearms on a national level. The best thing that could happen is for all states to honor other states CHL's, and not require a CHL for residents of states that allow constitutional carry.

Can reciprocity have a good outcome? Yes. Do I trust Congress or federal agencies to not mess it up? No.