"A right that vanishes at a state line isn't much of a right for anyone who travels for a living."

That's not just a trucker problem. Anyone who's ever mapped out a road trip with a carry gun knows the feeling of checking and re-checking state reciprocity lists the night before. One wrong turn through the wrong state and your valid permit means nothing.

"Johnson's petition leans on the post-Bruen framework, arguing Minnesota can't justify refusing recognition of an out-of-state permit without pointing to a historical tradition of states voiding each other's carry licenses — a tradition that, by most accounts, doesn't exist."

This is where Bruen gets interesting beyond the headlines. The historical-analogue test isn't just about who gets to carry — it potentially reaches the whole reciprocity patchwork. If there's no historical precedent for states canceling each other's carry permissions at the border, Minnesota has a real problem defending its position.

"Getting the Supreme Court to actually hear a case is a long shot... and even if they do, a decision could be a year or more away."

So don't shelve your reciprocity map yet. Until there's a ruling, the legal exposure for traveling permit holders is exactly what it's always been — real, and entirely dependent on which line your GPS routes you across.

For those of you who regularly cross state lines with a carry gun — whether that's for work, hunting, or just visiting family — how do you actually manage the reciprocity patchwork, and has it ever changed how you planned a route or which gun you brought?

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