SAF urges SCOTUS to rule states must honor out-of-state carry permits

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) filed an amicus brief Sept. 15 in the U.S. Supreme Court in Johnson v. Jacobson, urging the court to grant review in the case and confirm that states must honor carry permits, no matter where in the country they were obtained.

SAF was joined in the brief by the National Rifle Association, California Rifle and Pistol Association, Second Amendment Law Center, Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

The case challenges Minnesota’s refusal to honor valid concealed-carry permits issued by other states. Jeffrey Johnson Sr., a long-haul truck driver licensed to carry in Florida and Georgia, cannot legally carry in Minnesota without obtaining a separate Minnesota permit. The Eighth Circuit upheld that requirement. The brief argues that the Second Amendment’s general right to carry arms in public for self-defense is national in scope and cannot be made to depend on a costly, state-by-state licensing gauntlet.

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From the colonial era through the 19th century, “traveler’s exception” laws routinely exempted visitors from concealed-carry restrictions that applied to locals. The brief documents that tradition in the colonial era through the 19th century. Amici contend that history demands summary reversal of the Eighth Circuit’s ruling in favor of Minnesota.

“The right to carry does not stop at state lines,” said Kostas Moros, SAF director of legal research and education and counsel of record on the brief. “A truck driver who already holds permits from Florida and Georgia should not have to fly to Minnesota, appear in person at a sheriff’s office, pay another set of fees, and complete another training course just to exercise the same constitutional right he already has. Our historical tradition offered travelers more leeway than residents when it came to the right to carry. Minnesota’s scheme turns that tradition on its head.”

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The brief also details the practical burden of the current patchwork: California nonresident permits can cost $500 to $2,000 and take months or years, and some states still refuse nonresident applications altogether. One couple documented more than $12,800 in fees to assemble permits covering 46 states and Washington, D.C. It further notes that licensed carriers are overwhelmingly law-abiding. Florida, for example, has revoked only 0.36% of more than 6.6 million permits issued since 1987.

“Americans should not need a stack of state licenses and thousands of dollars to exercise a constitutional right just because they cross an imaginary line,” said Alan M. Gottlieb, SAF founder and executive vice president. “The Supreme Court should grant this petition and make clear that shall-issue permitting, even if a state may require it of its own residents, does not authorize a state to ignore the permits of every other state.”

Republished with permission from Second Amendment Foundation.