By now you have heard that the Thune provision—which would have allowed legitimate concealed-carriers to carry concealed firearms in all 50 states—was defeated. There were no surprises in who voted for or against the provision; ayes or noes were a matter of electoral pragmatism. Reid, a Democrat, voted for it because Nevada is a gun-totin’ state that expects him to do his job and represent them. Schumer voted against it because he’s a product of New York City, and liberals there want him to do his job as well, and they hate guns.

The Czar here will take a surprising position, and say “Okay.” No, he is not outraged, angry, or shocked by this. Actually, the Thune provision is—in the Czar’s opinion only—a bad way to go about legitimizing concealed carry reciprocity. Here you go:

1. Only two states reject any concept of carry: Wisconsin and Illinois. This affects the Czar, the Mandarin, and the Volgi. These two states would do what they always do when the Second Amendment is reinforced: litigate the crap out of the provision, so that it never gets going.

2. The remaining 48 allow for a citizen to carry a weapon; however, they all go about it a little differently. Consider the legal machinations sweet, harmless ‘Puter has to go through; then look at Florida where free handgun samples show up in the mailbox. If you have a North Dakota CCL and get stopped in Massachusetts, what happens? Massachusetts law enforcement will not be able to interpret North Dakota CCL requirements and will therefore hold you to Massachusetts requirements. Hint: they ain’t gonna match up, and you would either need to leave your weapon in North Dakota, surrender it to authorities until a judge can decide what to do with it, or pay a mass of fines and penalties to meet up to their standards. CCLs and carry permits are not like driver’s licenses: the former are way too diversely backed by legislation; the latter work in the other 49 states because driving laws are fairly uniform. The mess the Thune provision would have allowed would be painful and messy.

3. The Thune provision would wind up before the SCOTUS. Meaning, it would be years before you could carry weapons from one state to another. Meaning, you would allow the anti-gun community another opportunity to condemn the Second Amendment; possibly, this time the outcome could be less happy than Heller.

Rather, the better approach is to keep vital legislation like this out of some senatorial rider. The best solution is to slowly and properly whittle away the objections to private carry. This will allow for more uniform requirements, more uniform interpretation, and less trouble overall. The movement is gaining ground (the Czar would not assume it to be inevitable), and real comprehensive legislation is required, not some workaround thumbtacked to a defense bill. Otherwise, we lose ground in the long run.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.