NRA chief pushes for concealed-carry legislation

The head of America’s biggest gun lobby group urges Congress to pass legislation allowing gun owners to carry concealed weapons across the United States.

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and CEO of the National Rifle Association, called on US lawmakers to pass the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, according to The Hill.

"It's time for Congress to pass national right-to-carry reciprocity for the entire United States," LaPierre said Friday during the second day of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.

Supporters of the legislation — sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)—believe they can secure enough Democratic votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster.

Still, LaPierre blasted Congress for denying Americans the ability to protect themselves.

“But you want to know what can protect you when no one else can, when no one else will? The iron-clad safeguard of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms,” he said.

Each year, more than 32,000 people die as a consequence of gun-related violence, suicides, and accidents in the United States, which is by far the highest among industrialized countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A non-profit website called Gun Violence Archive has recorded over 6,450 gun incidents in the country in 2015. According to the website, nearly 1,890 people have lost their lives to firearms so far this year.

Weak gun laws that allow for some criminals to possess firearms legally are contributing to the high rate of gun violence in the US, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Since December 2012 - when twenty children and six adults were fatally shot by a gunman at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut - President Barack Obama has pushed for gun law reforms, including expanded background checks and a ban on high-capacity magazines.

But, the powerful gun lobby and its supporters in Congress have blocked the proposed measures.

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