S. 371 - Sen. Bennett (D - CO) Co-sponsoring

Senate Bill 371 is known as the "Respecting States Rights and Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2009," and it was introduced by Sen. Thune (R - ND) and co-sponsored by the newest Democrat in the Senate, Bill Bennett.

In essence this bill seems to try to make it legal for those citizens with a concealed carry permits in one state to carry the same licensed, permitted weapon in another state; however, some of the wording is a little tricky here. For example, the bill states that the person carrying his or her firearm is "subject to the laws of the State in which the firearm is carried concerning specific types of locations in which firearms may not be carried." Presumably this means that private businesses that do not want firearms, stadiums, libraries, and other places that commonly 'outlaw' firearms (concealed carry permits or not), but I gather that a loose interpretation of such a bill would allow too much wiggle room for liberal state governments to find creative ways of restricting access to interstate highways, and the like.

Here's my proposed S. 371 rewrite:

Section 2. Reciprocity for the carrying of certain concealed firearms.
(a) Refer to Amendment 2.

That's it!

Overall, I'm surprised to see Sen. Bennett go against the Democratic party and at least attempt to support gun rights to some extent, but I fear this is nothing more than lip service, as we know this bill will ultimately either fail to become law or fail to adequately protect gun rights of American citizens. The bigger grievance we should have with Sen. Bennett is his support of the Screw the Taxpayers Act of 2009 (commonly referred to as some type of 'stimulus' plan). Sphere: Related Content

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Text

Here's your Congress's "Stimulus Package."

Here are some highlights:

$1,000,000,000 (billion!) for the Census Bureau! Now that's change we can believe in, because we all know that if anything stimulates the economy it's more bureaucrats.

$400,000,000 (million!) for Global Warming Research.

$650,000,000 (million!) for analog-digital television converters!

$2,000,000,000 (billion!) for renewable energy research! (Aren't private companies doing this already?) Sphere: Related Content