Senate Says NO To Carrying Concealed Weapons Across State Lines

I can understand some senators concern about the Federal Government trampling on state's rights. I don't like the idea of Federal Laws superseding many states laws. Actually, I understand both sides of this gun issue. I would like to have the legal ability to cross state lines while traveling and carrying my firearm. It would be a nice and warm fuzzy feeling knowing that my concealed weapons permit was legal where ever I traveled. But, if the Fed's start passing a law I like, and while doing it, trudge on the States ability to govern themselves, there is no telling where the Fed's will stop.

I'd like to see the Federal statutes dealing with marijuana possession scrapped. They are in the same category as cocaine and heroin. Hardly comparable, but still, one can get jail and prison time just like the 'Crackheads'. ... lakotahope

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate narrowly rejected a measure to allow people to carry concealed weapons from state to state Wednesday.

A Miami, Florida, gun store offers concealed weapons training.

The vote was 58 to 39. The amendment needed 60 votes to pass.

The measure would have required each of the 48 states that allow concealed firearms to honor permits issued in other states.

It was the first significant defeat this year for the gun lobby.

The concealed weapons proposal was an amendment to a larger defense appropriations bill, introduced by Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican.

Supporters of the measure argued it would help deter criminals; opponents claimed it would endanger innocent people by effectively forcing most of the country to conform to regulations in states with the loosest gun ownership standards.

Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican who is a co-sponsor of the amendment, argued Wednesday that gun licenses should apply across state lines, like driver's licenses.

"People travel," he said on CNN's "American Morning."

"We have truck drivers on our roads, people traveling for vacation in their vehicles, and if you have a license... you should be able to use that license in other states. It should apply like a driver's license," he said.

He argued that concealed weapons deter crime.

But Republican Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City and an opponent of the law, said the proposed amendment would trample on states' rights.

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"Wyoming shouldn't be subject to New York state laws, and we're going in that direction," he said. "What's right for the people of Wyoming isn't necessarily right for the people of New York and vice versa."

Bloomberg insisted that guns do not make people safer.

"There's no evidence that if you have a gun, you're safer. Quite the contrary. If you have a gun at home, [you are] something like 20 times more likely to have somebody in your house killed," he said on "American Morning."

"We have to protect our policemen, protect our citizens. We can't have all these guns, and it's reasonable to have each state make their own laws," he said.

The issue has blurred Capitol Hill's usual partisan lines. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, is one of several Southern and Western Democrats who supported the measure. Others Democrats opposed it.

Before this vote, gun control advocates faced a setback when President Obama signed a credit card bill that included a provision allowing people to carry guns in national parks.