Allowing concealed carry permit holders to carry their guns in other states that have concealed carry sounds like a reasonable amendment — perhaps one of the few drawn up in the current gun debate. But Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) claimed on Wednesday that it would “wreak havoc.”
Schumer spoke out on the Senate floor about the potential Manchin-Toomey bill amendment, proposed by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), arguing that the amendment would be detrimental.
“This amendment would wreak havoc in large portions of America, suburban and urban areas,” he said.
Schumer claimed that “every police officer in America” would support his position, arguing that the concealed carry amendment would be a “disaster” in crowded places such as Times Square or the L.A. Colosseum.
“Police officers wouldn’t know who’s carrying and who isn’t,” he said.
Yet Schumer’s logic ignored the fact that many large arenas or venues are already gun-free zones, despite a state’s concealed carry laws. And criminals don’t comply with concealed carry laws or gun-free zones, so law enforcement officers already don’t know who around them might be carrying.
Schumer’s blustering seems to have worked, however, since Cornyn’s amendment, The Constitutional Concealed Carry Act of 2013, later fell in the Senate, by a vote of 57 to 43.
