The bill the Politico flat out lied about passed the House yesterday. Currently, there is no similar bill in the Senate:

Under the House legislation, people with a concealed carry permit in one state could carry a concealed weapon in every other state that gives people the right to carry concealed weapons. While states have various standards for issuing such permits, currently only Illinois and the District of Columbia prohibit the concealed carrying of weapons.

“The Second Amendment is a fundamental right to bear arms that should not be constrained by state boundary lines,” said GOP Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

The bill’s chief co-sponsor, Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said states should consider concealed carry permits no differently from driver’s licenses recognized by all states. He noted that many states already have reciprocity agreements with other states.

Exactly.

For example, 38 states already recognize Missouri’s concealed carry permit holders. There are two reasons for this.

First, 38 states already sees how awesome we are.

Second, the other 19 voted for Obama, and therefore have no sense at all. (18 if you believe Obama when he says Hawaii is actually Asia.)

I have nothing to back those two statements up.

The resistance against this bill is from perennial anti-gun crusaders who think that the law abiding citizens who travel from one state to another will suddenly become shoot happy nutcases. Because, that happens all the time.

Democratic opponents said the bill would constitute a “race to the bottom,” with states that have strict requirements for issuing permits having to accept permits from states with far more lax standards.

“It’s a situation where weaker state laws become the national law,” said Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va. He noted that some states require training for permit holders, or deny permits to those under 21 or who sell drugs to minors, commit sex offenses or are involved in domestic violence.

Frankly put, Rep. Bobby Scott is either an idiot, completely ignorant about gun death statistics, or an ideological liberal with no regard for facts.

So what if one state has less rigorous requirements for concealed carry? Do he honestly think that will cause gun crime to increase in his state? Does he feel the same way about driver’s licenses? Because more people die car related deaths than gun related.

For example, in 2007, 41,059 people perished because of cars. 31,224 people died in gun related deaths, and more than half of those, 17,352, were suicides.

And do I really need to get into how many crimes are stopped because of firearms?