Our nation's government, as designed, was supposed to keep the federal government small and give a pretty free hand to the states.
As intended, if Virginia doesn't want people with out of state carry permits toting, then they're granted the authority to do so because there's no federal power requiring them to recognize out of state licenses. Or to force them to not recognize them.
It's been said before, the 2nd Amendment did not apply to the states when it was passed. Nor did any of the ten amendments we call The Bill of Rights.
So Virginia can recognize, or not, any permit it chooses.
But wait...
There's this 14th Amendment too. The courts have been exceedingly slow and obtuse about this one. In a nutshell it applies the Bill of Rights on the states too.
Carry is a second amendment item, so via the 14th Virginia can no longer pass laws which infringe on the right to keep and bear arms.
Yes, Virginia, the 14th Amendment changed everything about the relationship of the states to the federal government.
Carry permits themselves can be thought of as an infringement in and of themselves, but realpolitik dictates we play the carry permit game while constitutional carry takes hold. Remember when we called it "Vermont Carry"?
So what we have with Virginia ruling they no longer accept 25 states worth of carry permits isn't so much a 2nd amendment issue as a 14th.
It's high time we applied it to something besides crosses on water towers.
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"but realpolitik dictates we play the carry permit game while constitutional carry takes hold" Regardless of the law, a very powerful government that feels unrestrained by the law can with lethal threat enforce their will by means of force. Though outside their mandated authority try explaining that to the wrong end of a gun barrel.
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