Mike Lee Wants Constitutional Carry in Every State. Permits Optional.

Lee's statement framed the issue in Founding-era terms: "The Founders established a national right to keep and bear arms, not to ask for permission from hostile local officials, or risk imprisonment for crossing the wrong state line."

Twenty-nine states already recognize constitutional carry in some form. Lee's bill would federalize what those states proved politically viable — and preempt the bureaucratic regimes that still treat carry permits as discretionary favors in blue jurisdictions.

GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt endorsed the measure, arguing Americans cannot afford permitting delays "in a time of war" when public safety also depends on armed citizens. NAGR called it the only legislation that restores carry "regardless of which state you live in."

The House version was introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY-04). Passage faces the usual Senate filibuster math — but the bill sets the policy marker for the 119th Congress alongside Rep. Richard Hudson's H.R. 38 Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which the House Judiciary Committee reported in October 2025 and placed on the Union Calendar.

For gun owners, the signal matters even before a floor vote: the pro-rights coalition is no longer arguing only for reciprocity of permits — it is arguing that the permit itself should be optional nationwide.