Jakob Noonan, a 22-year-old Oklahoma National Guard specialist deployed to Washington, D.C., has been arrested and charged with a felony for carrying a firearm the District does not recognize as lawful.
Spc. Noonan was in the capital as part of the National Guard mission ordered by President Donald Trump. Last week, U.S. Park Police pulled him over in a Honda SUV while he was riding with a fellow Guard member. The stop was for a vehicle registration that expired in May. Noonan was off duty, out of uniform, and in his personal vehicle. Officers spotted an empty holster in the back seat and asked whether he had a gun. He told them he did.
When asked whether he had a Washington, D.C., concealed-carry permit, he said he did not.
“He stated that Oklahoma is an open-carry state and that the firearm was registered to him in Oklahoma. He acknowledged that he did not possess a valid District of Columbia concealed-carry permit,” according to a federal affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court. A records check confirmed he had no District permit.
The gun, a 9mm Canik pistol, was legally purchased in Oklahoma, and Noonan legally carried it there. He has no criminal record. Nothing in the public account suggests he brandished the pistol, threatened anyone, or tried to hide it once officers asked. He answered the question. The original arrest also cited him for carrying 12 rounds of ammunition, but he was not charged on that count. He was charged with carrying a pistol without a license, a felony that can bring a fine and up to five years in prison under the D.C. criminal code.
Noonan made his first court appearance on Sept. 29 in D.C. Superior Court, where a court-appointed attorney represented him. Inmate records indicated he was out of jail custody by the end of the week. The case is still a felony prosecution of a deployed Guardsman whose offense was carrying a handgun that was legal in the state that sent him.
That is the entire case. A traffic stop for an expired tag became a felony gun case because the District of Columbia does not honor the carry rights of the other 50 states, and because Congress has still not fixed that.
Oklahoma is a constitutional-carry state. A law-abiding adult there may carry a handgun openly or concealed without a permit. Noonan told officers the pistol was his and that it was registered to him at home. In most of the country, that would have ended the gun portion of the stop. In Washington, it was probable cause. D.C. requires its own registration and its own carry license. An out-of-state permit is not enough. Lawful carry in a permitless state is not enough. The District treats both as a felony.
The Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, H.R. 38 in the House and S. 65 in the Senate, would require states and the District to recognize a concealed-carry license from another state and the lawful permitless carry of residents from constitutional-carry states. Rep. Richard Hudson, Republican of North Carolina, reintroduced the House bill on the first day of the 119th Congress. The House Judiciary Committee reported it in October 2025. It has roughly 189 cosponsors and has been waiting on the Union Calendar for a floor vote. Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) companion bill has not moved.
A broader bill, Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) National Constitutional Carry Act, would go further and set a national permitless standard. It has fewer cosponsors, and even gun-rights groups that prefer that approach have said the votes are not there yet.
President Trump has said his administration is working on a national right-to-carry measure. The promise is not new. Neither is the stall. Reciprocity has been introduced in Congress and has never reached the president’s desk. The Senate filibuster is the usual explanation. The other explanation is that Republican leadership has never treated the bill as must-pass.
Noonan is the result of this delay, now exemplified in a police report. A service member can be ordered to Washington, live there temporarily, and still have no legal way to carry the pistol he already owns unless he navigates the District’s permit system.
D.C. is not a shall-issue jurisdiction in any meaningful sense for an out-of-state Guardsman on a temporary deployment since it requires hours of training, registering the firearm, and applying in person. By the time the permit would be issued, the deployment would be over. The practical choice is to leave the gun at home or risk a felony. He chose wrong by the District’s rules and right by the rules of the state that trained him.
A driver’s license works across state lines because Congress and the states decided a patchwork of non-recognition was intolerable. Carry rights still stop at arbitrary borders. California, New York, and the District honor no out-of-state permits. A truck driver, a military spouse, or a National Guard specialist can be legal at breakfast and a felon at lunch without ever handling the gun differently.
The Supreme Court has denied a petition in Johnson v. Jacobson, brought by a long-haul driver whose Georgia and Florida permits Minnesota refuses to recognize. The Eighth Circuit treated reciprocity as a policy courtesy. The petition argued the Second Amendment means the same thing in every state. The Court will not hear the case.
Congress does not have to wait on that petition. H.R. 38 is already through committee. A floor vote would force members to pick a side: either a law-abiding carrier keeps his rights when he crosses a state line, or the capital keeps the power to jail soldiers for guns that were legal when they left home.
Noonan is not accused of a violent crime. He is not accused of robbery, threatening, or fighting. He is accused of having a Canik in a city that does not care that Oklahoma already decided he could have it. If that is the standard, every Guardsman on this deployment is one expired tag and one honest answer away from the same affidavit.
National reciprocity would not give him a free pass on the registration stop. It would stop the District from turning a lawful gun owner into a felon for crossing a line the federal government drew and then ordered him to stand on.
About John Crump
Mr. Crump is an NRA instructor and constitutional activist with more than 26 years of experience in networking and cybersecurity for major Fortune 100 companies. John has written about firearms, the Constitution, and cybersecurity, and has interviewed people from all walks of life. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons. Follow him on X at @right2bear, or at www.crumpy.com.
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