Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “National Constitutional Carry Act”.
National Constitutional Carry Act
A BILL
To enforce the rights protected by the Second and Fourteenth Amendments against the States.
Sec. 2 Findings
Congress finds the following:
Recognizing the preexisting right to self-defense, the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees individually to United States citizens the right “to keep and bear arms”, including the right to bear arms in public.
The Second Amendment decrees that these rights to keep and bear arms “shall not be infringed”, and was enumerated in order to preserve “the security of a free State”.
In District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 595 (2008), the Supreme Court of the United States confirmed that “[t]here seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms”.
In McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742, 791 (2010), the Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States makes the Second Amendment fully applicable to the States. Four Justices concluded that the rights protected by the Second Amendment are fundamental to the Nation’s scheme of ordered liberty and deeply rooted in the Nation’s “history and tradition”, and therefore incorporated to the States through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice Clarence Thomas agreed that the rights protected by the Second Amendment are both “fundamental” and “deeply rooted” and, as such, are enforceable against the States under the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Recently, the Supreme Court acknowledged in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, 142 S. Ct. 2111, 2156 (2022), that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect the individual right to carry arms outside the home for self-defense. Further, the Court reiterated that the Second Amendment’s otherwise “unqualified command” only accommodates laws that are “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation”. Id. at 2126.
Certain States and localities have enacted gun control laws that are not consistent with the text of the Second Amendment or this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. The criminalization of peaceable, public firearms carry is repugnant to the original meaning of the Second Amendment.
Any State or local restriction on the right of United States citizens to keep and bear arms impairs the ability of the Second Amendment to achieve its textually specified purpose, “the security of a free State”.
Sec. 3 The right to keep and bear arms
In general— Section 927 of title 18, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:
“927. The right to keep and bear arms
“(a) Prohibition on limiting the carrying of firearms in public—No State or political subdivision of a State may impose a criminal or civil penalty on, or otherwise indirectly limit the carrying of firearms (including by imposing a financial or other barrier to entry) in public by residents or nonresidents of that State who are citizens of the United States and otherwise eligible to possess firearms under State and Federal law.
“(b) Invalidity of certain State and local laws—Any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of a State or a political subdivision of a State that criminalizes, penalizes, or otherwise indirectly dissuades the carrying of firearms (including by imposing a financial or other barrier to entry) in public by any resident or nonresident who is a citizen of the United States and otherwise eligible to possess firearms under State and Federal law, shall have no force or effect.
“(c) Definitions—For purposes of this section:
“(1) Firearm—Notwithstanding section 921, the term firearm includes—
“(A) any firearm, as defined in section 921(a)(3);
“(B) any ammunition feeding device for use in a firearm, as defined in section 921(a)(3); and
“(C) any ammunition, as defined in section 921(a)(17)(A).
“(2) Public—The term public—
“(A) includes any place held open to the public, regardless of ownership, but in the case of a privately owned location held open to the public, does not include a place where the owner communicates clearly and conspicuously a prohibition of firearms on the premises; and
“(B) does not include a place where screening for firearms is conducted under State law.
“(3) State—The term State includes the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the possessions of the United States (not including the Canal Zone).”
Clerical amendment— The table of sections for such chapter is amended by striking the item relating to section 927 and inserting the following: