CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Cornyn offers ‘reciprocity’ for 17 million concealed carry permit holders.

The ranks of gun owners with approved concealed carry permits has swollen to 17 million, and new legislation offered in the Senate Thursday would make it easier for them to carry their weapons across state lines.

Bolstered by a larger pro-gun caucus in the Senate, Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn is introducing his latest version of the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act.

“This bill focuses on two of our country’s most fundamental constitutional protections — the Second Amendment’s right of citizens to keep and bear arms and the Tenth Amendment’s right of states to make laws best-suited for their residents,” said Cornyn, a top Senate GOP leader.

“I look forward to working with my colleagues to advance this important legislation for law-abiding gun owners nationwide,” he added.

He already has 31 co-sponsors.

North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson has introduced parallel legislation in the House.

One doubts that Speaker Pelosi will want to move this, but the recently elected red-state Democrats who gave her the majority may feel differently. Or may feel pressure. I would favor adding language to protect people who carry in places that one state forbids but another may permit by limiting all penalties for carry in unauthorized areas to something like a traffic ticket. In fact, I’d go farther and hold that when a person authorized to possess weapons under federal law possesses a weapon that’s legal under federal law, the greatest penalty a state can assess would be something like a $100 fine.

UPDATE: In the comments, a lot of questions about why the GOP didn’t push this when it had both chambers, summed up this way: “The GOP always gets proactive when there are enough Democrats to stop them.”