House Majority Whip Steve Scalise said Thursday that he thinks President Trump supports the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 even if he seemed to voice opposition to putting the idea into a comprehensive gun bill.
“I think President Trump wants to take action and he is a man of action,” Mr. Scalise, Louisiana Republican, said on Fox News.
“At least President Trump did say that he supports that, whether or not it’s a stand alone,” he added.
Mr. Scalise pushed the House’s concealed-carry bill, passed last year, allowing those permitted to carry concealed weapons to legally bring their firearms into other states, at a meeting with the president on Wednesday. The bill was never taken up in the Senate, but states are currently allowed to decide about their own concealed-carry laws, including which out-of-state permits they will honor.
House leadership spoke to this earlier this week saying they wanted their bill added to the Senate’s current Fix NICS plan, aimed at strengthening background checks.
Mr. Trump indicated that he supports the idea, but said it would “never” pass in the current climate. He said that if Mr. Scalise and House Republicans want to bring it up as a separate later on then he would be open to the idea.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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