Kelly: Why local anti-gun resolutions are meaningless

Nothing says “Happy Holidays” like another debate over guns in America that goes nowhere. So deck the halls – and malls – with bandoliers. Break out those jolly Glocks.  Ho. Ho. Ho. 

Those lovable folks from the National Rifle Association are trying to push Congress to pass the “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act” before the end of the year.  “Merry Christmas. Are you packing heat?” Don't laugh. You may see this on a Christmas card someday.

The "Reciprocity Act" may have a garbled, mishmosh of a title, but it carries potential repercussions that could touch every corner of America.

Some New Jersey towns are pushing back, claiming that their Constitutional authority to govern is being usurped by the federal government.  (Gee, where have we heard that before?) Some towns are even passing measures to oppose the act if it is adopted by the House and Senate and then signed into law by President Donald Trump. At least half-a-dozen communities in North Jersey, including Fort Lee and Teaneck, have already adopted some sort of anti-act resolution at the urging of the national Brady Campaign, a gun control advocacy coalition with chapters across America that opposes the NRA.

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Of course, you all know where the NRA stands on the Constitutional right to “bear arms.” The NRA essentially believes that guns should be almost as common to adult life as cellphones. “Is that bulge under your coat my Hanukkah present or is it your trusty Glock?”  

But what’s at stake here is more than the Constitution. This is really about common sense. Sadly, common sense continues to hide from America’s gun debate.   

If it becomes law, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act would work like this: If you can manage to gain permission in your home state to carry gun under your coat, in your pocket or in your purse, then you should be allowed to carry that gun anywhere. Which means that cowboys and cowgirls from Texas – where it’s relatively easy to gain permission to carry a concealed pistol – could be walking the streets of New Jersey or New York where so-called concealed-carry permits are virtually impossible to obtain unless you are a former police officer or you can demonstrate that your life is in danger.  Tourism would suddenly have a gun component.  

Of course, the police officers who monitor such “soft targets” as the Paramus malls and Times Square would be left to figure out whether that cowboy with the bulge under his coat was a law-abiding Wyatt Earp-like tourist who was carrying a gun for self-protection or possibly a would-be Billy the Kid with a hair-trigger temper and an inability to really understand the difference between an ordinary disagreement with a cantankerous cabbie and a serious threat.

Think of how much fun the police will have in trying to figure out the difference. Think how much more fun all this will be during a crisis similar to what Manhattan experienced last month when an alleged Islamist from Paterson killed eight people and injured another dozen by driving a rental truck down a bike path near the World Trade Center.  

Actually, this dilemma isn't funny at all. 

Minutes after the bike path mayhem last month in Manhattan, a team of New York City police officers pounced on the bloody scene, drawing their guns and wounding the terrorist before he could kill more. But suppose five other citizens drew their guns too?   How would the cops know who was a terrorist and who was just trying to help?

This is not a silly question. Police raise it whenever the issue of allowing citizens to carry guns is discussed. This columnist has also posed this question in a variety of ways.   

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What’s striking is that the NRA and gun rights advocates offer no clear answer to what is arguably a common sense question. Instead, gun advocates fall back on their belief that the Constitution gives them the right to “bear arms” anywhere. 

Common sense is not part of their equation – except their own, self-centered definition of common sense, which would allow them to always carry a gun as protection even if they are not well-trained on how to use it. Indeed, let's not overlook the fact that mandatory training – and, just as important, re-training and re-qualifying – for citizens who want to carry guns is virtually non-existent in places like Texas, Florida and other easy-carry states.

Once upon a time – way, way back in the 1980s – most American states had reasonably restrictive laws that prohibited most people from carrying concealed guns. But thanks to a determined and unrelenting campaign by the NRA, those laws have changed dramatically, to the point where most states have now relaxed regulations about carrying a concealed firearm in public.   

New Jersey, along with New York, Massachusetts and California, now find themselves in a distinct minority, holding fast to strict laws that severely limit the number of ordinary people who are allowed to carry concealed firearms. 

The discrepancy between states is why the debate over the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act is so crucial. If the act passes, it would essentially treat New Jersey like Mississippi, where there are virtually no restrictions on who can carry a concealed weapon.   

The NRA sees no problem with this legal switch. In the eyes of the NRA, New Jersey and Mississippi are interchangeable. 

Gun rights advocates will read this and bellow with their usual narrow-minded fury.   Fine. Each time I have tried to apply some measure of common sense to the gun debate – even after the horrific massacre in Las Vegas – I have been met with contempt and nit-pick comments about the fact that “real” gun experts refer to “bullets” as “rounds” and “clips” as “magazines” and “silencers” as “suppressors.” Most of these gun advocates have never witnessed a gun fight. I have. And the memory of watching confused bystanders trying to dive for cover and figure out who was shooting at them still terrifies me.  

The NRA, however, continues to stick to its strategy of trying to discredit anyone who criticizes them. Reasonable gun owners know this. But as we all know, the gun debate is no longer in the hands of reasonable people.

Sadly, some New Jersey towns are left on their own and are passing resolutions that voice their disapproval of the passage of the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act.  Sadly, these resolutions are meaningless – essentially a well-meaning public relations stunt that only has the power to persuade and stir up a discourse. 

If Congress passes the Reciprocity Act and Trump signs it, state laws that restrict the carrying of concealed firearms would be essentially useless. The entire nation would be at the mercy of states – and the mind-sets of their citizens – where regulations on carrying concealed weapons are virtually unrestricted.

The irony here is stunning. When it came to such issues as civil rights, voting rights, and the strengthening of environmental regulations, such states as New York and New Jersey were far ahead of such regressive places like Mississippi and Texas. When it comes to guns, however, those once-backward spots have taken a leadership role. 

This may be the new America under Trump. Progressives – and even far too many moderate Democrats – are still so rooted in identity politics and gender-based issues that they can’t seem to find a unifying message that would bring various coalitions together to battle the various changes in laws – including the ploy by the NRA to reverse America’s century-old attempt to stop its citizens from carrying concealed firearms.  This is not to say that identity and gender are not important; they are. But the carnage from America’s out-of-control gun culture affects everyone of all political stripes. That carnage should be a unifying issue.  

The long-delayed national conversation on guns has been sidetracked yet again,  this time by a brazen attempt in Congress to allow people – too many of them, unqualified – to carry concealed guns anywhere in public.

That conversation won’t take place until reasonable people step forward.  

There's no time like the holidays. 

   Email:  Kellym@northjersey.com