Idaho has had constitutional carry since 2016. Most of us have been living the benefit of that without thinking much about it — until you load up the truck and head somewhere that doesn't share our politics.

"Americans have the right to keep and bear arms without asking for permission from hostile politicians or getting jailed for crossing the wrong state line."

That's the core of it. Every road trip I've taken where I had to decide between leaving the gun at home or mapping my route around Oregon and California was a small, annoying reminder that my rights have a hard geographic cutoff. A federal floor on this doesn't take anything away from Idaho — it just means the guy driving through Nevada doesn't have to sweat it.

The article's point about Bruen is worth sitting with. The court already told lower courts to ground gun regulations in historical tradition — and widespread permitting requirements are essentially a 20th-century invention. If this bill passes and gets challenged, opponents are fighting on terrain Bruen already cleared for the other side.

The honest problem is the vote count. Sixty votes in the Senate means peeling off moderate Republicans who've historically gotten wobbly when "federal override of state law" enters the conversation — even when the override expands rights rather than restricts them. The House passed nothing similar in 2024. This is a marker, not a sure thing.

For those of us who carry daily and occasionally leave the state — how have you handled the patchwork situation in practice? Do you leave the gun behind when crossing into a non-reciprocal state, or have you sorted out a different system?

Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett