National recognition of gun rights needed: "Congress should enact national reciprocity for citizens issued permits to carry concealed firearms by individual states," he added. A former National Rifle Association, Snyder is Public Affairs Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. "An individual who has a state-issued permit to carry a concealed firearm ought to be able to carry in any state in the same way an individual with a driver's license can drive anywhere in the United States," Snyder said. "Such a law would be of societal as well as personal benefit," he said. "As John R. Lott, Jr. has pointed out in his study More Guns Less Crime, rates of violent crime drop precipitously in jurisdictions adopting ccw laws."


Push for student rights fading: "In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, in which 33 students including gunman Seung-Hui Cho lost their lives, representatives from many states proposed legislation which would grant college students the right to carry concealed weapons on campus as a means of protection. Since the shootings at Virginia Tech, the majority of these bills have been quelled in various statehouses. However, Arizona, Georgia and Tennessee all have pending legislation that would allow concealed campus carry. Currently, 30 states statutorily ban firearms on public college campuses. Of the remaining 20, 19 have no official stance on concealed weapons on campuses, instead allowing colleges to make their own decisions. The twentieth state, Utah, actually mandates that public colleges specifically give their students the right to carry a concealed handgun on campus"