Or are you just glad to see me?

Here's a quick little treat for you: Now pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee is S.845, the "Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2009." It would, in its own words,

allow citizens who have concealed carry permits from the State in which they reside to carry concealed firearms in another State that grants concealed carry permits.

What this means, in short, is that if you have a concealed weapons permit, you would be able to legally carry a concealed, loaded gun across a state line so long as you would not be banned from obtaining a similar permit in that other state. In a truly 1984-ish (or maybe I should say Gingrich-y) twist of meaning, the short title of the bill is the "Respecting States Rights and Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2009." [Emphasis added.] How this respects the rights of the second state in each case escapes me, but I'm sure it sounded good to the twenty-two NRA toadies and sycophants who sponsored it in the Senate.

(The information about the bill comes from THOMAS but because of the way it updates files, a link is pretty much pointless. Go to the THOMAS home page via the link and search for S.845 as the bill number.)

The Freedom States Alliance, a gun control group, is pushing for opposition. Contrary to the linked post, it's unlikely that the Senate could vote "at any time" since the bill isn't even scheduled for committee hearings yet. Still, who would have thought that the NRA would win a regulatory change to allow people to carry concealed loaded weapons into national parks, as it did in December. So yeah, some caution is advised.