Alan Gottlieb [Founder, Second Amendment Foundation]: "Nearly all states allow qualified law-abiding citizens to carry guns for self-defense, but a few states arbitrarily reject the basic human right of self-defense by refusing to issue ordinary people gun carry permits. Of course, violent criminals in the impacted states continue to carry guns without police permission.

Many carry licensing systems are being abused by some officials who are hostile to self-defense rights. The police can regulate the carrying of guns, and that includes preventing dangerous people from being armed. Complete deprivation of the right to bear arms, however, is not an option under our Constitution.

The Supreme Court's decision [PDF file] last year in the Heller case shows that there is both a right to keep arms and a right to bear arms. In most states, authorities do not deny a license to carry an operable firearm to any law-abiding applicant that completes training and a background check.

We need 21st century gun laws that respect our Constitutional rights, and adopt modern, widely accepted practices that work well throughout the United States. The exercising of a constitutional right should not stop at a state border.

Hopefully we can give a wake-up call to our legislators, and to those officials who stubbornly resist accommodating Second Amendment rights. If they don't reform, reform will come through litigation."