(WASHINGTON ) -- It’s already written in the Constitution's Second Amendment, and now Congress is addressing new legislation that will revise regulations regarding citizens' right to bear arms.
If passed, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity bill would increase the number of legally-owned handguns on American streets and lower the conceal-and-carry restrictions on those weapons.
The new bill would make it legal across all states for out-of-state visitors to conceal and carry firearms, so long as they are permitted to do so in their home states. This would essentially make the conceal-and-carry laws of California, Illinois, and New York obsolete.
As the law stands now, a gun owner who is legally licensed to carry a firearm in New Jersey, for example, is not legally allowed to carry that weapon once he or she crosses a bridge to New York City.
Like most proposed bills to Congress, this one is not without controversy.
The Police Foundation insists the bill has the potential to endanger the lives of police officers, who would have trouble identifying legitimate gun permits from fraudulent ones.
Still the bill -- which benefits gun manufacturers as well as the diverse interests of sportsmen and gun enthusiasts -- is likely to be passed, scoring another victory for one of its main supporters, the National Rifle Association.
Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio
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