If you carry a handgun and ever drive out of state, this one’s worth your attention. I’m Lance Rankin, a Texas FFL and the owner of Western Sport in Roanoke, and questions about carrying across state lines come up at my counter every week. A federal appeals court just made the answer messier.
The case
The Eighth Circuit ruled in Johnson v. Jacobson, a case brought by Jeffrey Johnson Sr., a long-haul truck driver from Georgia who carries permits from Georgia and Florida. His routes take him through Minnesota, which doesn’t recognize either permit; Minnesota only honors permits from states whose standards match its own. Johnson argued that refusing to recognize his valid permits violates the Second Amendment.
After the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, courts are supposed to judge gun laws by the amendment’s text and this country’s historical tradition of firearm regulation, so a lot of us expected this case to put interstate recognition to that test. The Eighth Circuit sidestepped it instead.
How the court got there
The court’s logic runs like this: Minnesota’s reciprocity statute doesn’t restrict anything, it just exempts some out-of-state residents from applying for a Minnesota permit. Johnson conceded that Minnesota’s own permit system is constitutional, so the court reasoned the state can simply require non-residents to get a Minnesota permit like anyone else. Reciprocity, in this view, is a courtesy between states, a political choice, not a constitutional requirement.
The judges did leave a door cracked open. A state that refused to issue permits to non-residents and refused to honor outside permits might present a different constitutional question. Minnesota lets non-residents apply, so that question waits for another case.
My take
I understand the legal mechanics, but the practical result bothers me. Your driver’s license works in all fifty states. Your marriage license does too. Yet a carry permit, tied to a right the Constitution actually names, can go dead the moment you cross a state line. The Second Amendment says the right belongs to “the people,” not the people of whichever state you happen to be standing in. I suspect this question ends up at the Supreme Court eventually, and national reciprocity bills keep circulating in Congress, but as of this writing neither has resolved it.
What to do about it
Until the law changes, the burden is on you. Before any road trip, check the current reciprocity status of every state on your route, not just your destination, because the map changes more often than people think. This ruling didn’t ban anything, but it confirmed that states can keep drawing their own lines. Texans should know that our LTC has broad reciprocity, which is one of the reasons I still recommend getting one even though Texas constitutional carry covers you at home. My Texas LTC guide walks through the process.
Laws and court rulings move fast in this area, so verify current status before you travel. If you’ve got questions about carrying legally in Texas, come see us at the shop or call 817-393-4000.
Lance Rankin is the owner and Chief Gunsmith of Western Sport, a family-run Type 07 FFL and Class 3/SOT dealer in Roanoke, Texas, serving shooters since 2007. Born and raised in Texas with over 50 years of experience handling firearms, Lance purchased Western Sport in 2017 and turned his lifelong passion into his profession. He specializes in AR-15 and AR-10 platform rifles, manufactures Western Sport’s own AR-15 line under the Rankin Industries brand, and runs the shop’s in-house Cerakote coating operation. When he’s not behind the counter or the workbench, you’ll find him on his ranch deep into the night, hunting coyotes with an AR-15 and thermal optics. Lance holds an MBA and personally shoots and tests the products Western Sport sells.
