2nd Amendment Rights

We are citizens. Not subjects.

Americans have the Constitutional right to defend ourselves, our families, and our property -- a right the Supreme Court wisely affirmed.

I will fiercely defend this Second Amendment right against any legislative attempts to overturn or undermine it.

Accordingly, I was pleased to vote in favor of H.R. 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, which was considered by the House Judiciary Committee, of which I am a member, and passed the House with bipartisan support by a vote of 272 to 154. This legislation would require states that permit the carrying of concealed firearms to recognize such permits from other states. 

The right for law-abiding citizens to bear arms for self-defense should not end at one state's borders, nor should the right to travel safely be impeded. I applaud this common-sense legislative effort, which respects the states' sovereign right to decide the conceal-carry issue for themselves, while promoting Second Amendment freedoms.

Cosponsored:

• H.R. 58, the Firearms Interstate Commerce Reform Act

• H.R. 645, Second Amendment Enforcement Act