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Tag: 2nd amendment
US surgeon general declares gun violence a public health emergency
The U.S. surgeon general on Tuesday declared gun violence a public health crisis, driven by the fast-growing number of injuries and deaths involving firearms in the country.
The advisory issued by Dr. Vivek Murthy, the nation’s top doctor, came as the U.S. grappled with another summer weekend marked by mass shootings that left dozens of people dead or wounded.
“People want to be able to walk through their neighborhoods and be safe,” Murthy told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “America should be a place where all of us can go to school, go to work, go to the supermarket, go to our house of worship, without having to worry that that’s going to put our life at risk.”
To drive down gun deaths, Murthy calls on the U.S. to ban automatic rifles, introduce universal background checks for purchasing guns, regulate the industry, pass laws that would restrict their use in public spaces and penalize people who fail to safely store their weapons.
None of those suggestions can be implemented nationwide without legislation passed by Congress, which typically recoils at gun control measures. Some state legislatures, however, have enacted or may consider some of the surgeon general’s proposals.
No Charges in ATF Killing Over Paperwork Firearms Violation
Agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) suspected that Bryan Malinowski, executive director of the airport in Little Rock, Arkansas, and an avid firearms collector, was reselling enough firearms at gun shows to make him more of a commercial dealer than a hobbyist. That meant he should, in the ATF’s view, get a Federal Firearms License. So on March 19, agents did what law enforcers do when they suspect people of paperwork violations: They raided his home before dawn, taped over the doorbell camera, and shot Malinowski dead less than a minute later when he opened fire on intruders who had just busted in his front door.
Unsurprisingly, the ATF agents are on their way to evading consequences for causing a man’s death over a paperwork violation.
Self-Defense, But for Who?
“A law enforcement officer is justified in using deadly physical force if the officer reasonably believes that the use of force is necessary to defend himself or a third person from the use of deadly force,” Sixth Judicial District Prosecutor Will Jones writes in his letter to ATF Special Agent Joshua Jackson absolving the agent who killed Malinowski of legal liability. “Given the totality of the circumstances, Agent 2 had a reasonable belief that deadly force was necessary to defend himself and Agent 1. Therefore, the use of deadly force by Agent 2 was in accordance with Arkansas law and was justified.”
Of course, Malinowski himself might have felt justified in using deadly force given that the front door to his family’s home had been battered down just seconds after strangers began banging on the door.
“Had he survived he was almost certainly entitled to claim self-defense in the wounding of the agent based on the reckless manner in which the government planned and executed the search,” Bud Cummins, a former U.S. Attorney who represents the Malinowski family, told me.
Schumer Seeks Bill to Ban Bump Stocks After Supreme Court Ruling
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on June 14 called for legislation to outlaw bump stocks after the Supreme Court struck down a President Donald Trump-era ban on the gun accessory.
A 6–3 opinion by the high court found that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) exceeded its authority when it interpreted a federal firearms statute to outlaw the use of bump stocks. Bump stocks are attached to the butt end of a rifle, causing them to fire again by bumping against the finger on recoil.
“As I warned the Trump administration at the time, the only way to permanently close this loophole is through legislation. Senate Democrats are ready to pass legislation to ban bump stocks but we will need votes from Senate Republicans,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement.
The ATF in 2018, with the support of President Trump, reversed its earlier position and declared bump stocks illegal in response to the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, in which a gunman used firearms equipped with bump stocks to fire multiple guns more rapidly, killing 60 and leaving hundreds wounded.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito filed a concurrence on June 14 that emphasized Congress’s role. “There is a simple remedy for the disparate treatment of bump stocks and machineguns,” he said. “Congress can amend the law—and perhaps would have done so already if ATF had stuck with its earlier interpretation. Now that the situation is clear, Congress can act.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee,called the Supreme Court decision “deeply disappointing.”
Biden Stumbles Through Anti-Gun Speech After Son’s Gun Conviction
On Tuesday afternoon, President Joe Biden addressed the “Gun Sense University” of the pro-gun control group “Everytown for Gun Safety” in his first speech since his son’s conviction on three felony weapons charges.
Biden visibly struggled throughout the speech, stammering and mixing up words.
Biden made a number of demonstrably false claims during his speech, for instance claiming that he was a professor at UPenn who taught a constitutional law class on the Second Amendment.
Biden also claimed that last year saw a massive decrease in crime, which ignores that agencies such as the massive police departments of Los Angeles and New York, as well as over 90 percent of agencies in Florida and Pennsylvania, have not yet submitted their data to the FBI, leaving the full picture of the current public safety environment incomplete.
GOP Congressman Says ‘Millions Of Marijuana Users’ Own Guns And Shouldn’t Face Prosecution Like Hunter Biden Did
Two Republican congressmen are challenging the basis of the conviction of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter for purchasing a gun while being a consumer of illegal drugs, with one pointing out that there are “millions of marijuana users” who own guns but should not be prosecuted.
After a federal jury found Hunter Biden guilty of three felony charges related to his purchase of a firearm while being a user of crack cocaine on Tuesday, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said he “might deserve to be in jail for something, but purchasing a gun is not it.”
“There are millions of marijuana users who own guns in this country, and none of them should be in jail for purchasing or possessing a firearm against current laws,” the congressman said.
This past December, attorneys for Hunter Biden called on a federal court to dismiss the case against their client based on a similar principle, arguing that prosecutors are applying an unconstitutional statute that would criminalize millions of marijuana consumers acting in compliance with state law if broadly enforced.
The federal statute banning people who use cannabis from buying or possessing firearms has been challenged in multiple federal courts over recent years, with one case pending a review in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump’s Conviction Requires Him To Surrender His Guns. Civil Libertarians Should Be Troubled.
Last September, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung caused a kerfuffle by mistakenly reporting that the former president had bought a Glock 19 pistol decorated with his portrait during a visit to a gun dealer in Summerville, South Carolina. At the time, Trump faced four criminal indictments, which would have made him guilty of several federal felonies—the purchase itself, plus two more felonies related to falsely presenting himself as an eligible buyer—if he had actually completed the transaction that Cheung described. Now that a New York jury has convicted Trump of 34 felonies involving falsification of business records, he is barred from possessing firearms as well as buying them.
Trump, who had a concealed carry permit, owned at least two handguns prior to his conviction: a Heckler & Koch HK45 pistol and a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. As the New York Post notes, Trump will now have to surrender those guns and any others he has acquired or transfer them to someone (such as one of his sons) who is legally allowed to own firearms. The fact that Trump, a self-described “very strong person on the Second Amendment,” has lost the right to keep and bear arms may add to the delight of opponents who welcomed his conviction. But however you feel about Trump, this detail is a reminder that federal law arbitrarily strips people of their Second Amendment rights for reasons that have nothing to do with public safety.
Leaving aside the shaky legal reasoning that allowed New York prosecutors to convert a hush payment into 34 felonies, falsification of business records, even to aid or conceal “another crime,” is not the sort of offense that marks someone as apt to injure or kill people with a gun. 18 USC 922(g)(1), which prohibits receipt or possession of a firearm by anyone who has been convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year of incarceration, is “wildly overinclusive,” UCLA law professor Adam Winkler notes, because it encompasses many people with no history of violence.
Medical Marijuana Is The Leading Cause Of Rejected Gun Permits In Hawaii, New Report From AG’s Office Shows
Of the roughly 500 firearm permit applications denied by officials in Hawaii last year, more than 40 percent were rejected because of applicants’ status as medical marijuana patients, according to new data from the state attorney general’s office.
Across Hawaii, state-legal cannabis use was the leading cause of gun permits being denied (40.7 percent), with mental health issues responsible for about a quarter of rejections and domestic violence disqualifying about 7 percent.
That said, a relatively small portion of firearm registrations were rejected by law enforcement last year. Of 23,528 applications processed during 2023, only 519—about 2.2 percent—were denied.
Of the rejected applications, 211 resulted from medical marijuana. Those denials included not only patients currently enrolled in the state program but also former patients. As the AG report notes, “police departments allow former patients to apply for firearms no less than one year after the expiration of their medical marijuana card.”
Under federal law, being an “unlawful user” of a controlled substance, including marijuana, means a person cannot legally buy or possess a gun.
Notably, the report showed that rejection rates varied significantly by region. In Kauai County, for instance, just 0.2 percent of applications were denied in 2023, compared to about 6.9 percent in Hawaii County, which comprises the Big Island.
Of 332 denials in Hawaii County last year, 191—about 57.5 percent—were due primarily to medical marijuana.
Vermont’s Republican Governor Allows Ban on ‘Ghost Guns’ to Become Law
Vermont’s Republican Governor Phil Scott has allowed a ban on “ghost guns” to become law without his signature.
The bill, S.209, prohibits Vermont residents from possessing “unserialized firearms,” such as those created with 3D printers or kits purchased online.
According to a report from VT Digger, “The legislation does not prohibit home-built guns, but it does require that a Vermonter with an unserialized gun take it to a licensed firearms dealer, who can then conduct a proper background check and inscribe a serial number onto the weapon. It also establishes higher penalties for anyone who commits a crime while in possession of an unserialized firearm.”
While allowing the bill to become law on Tuesday, Governor Scott wrote a letter to legislatures saying he was allowing it to become law because, “As a public safety measure, I agree firearms should be serialized.”
Gov. Scott’s letter concluded, “Again, while my concerns on the practical impacts and enforceability keep me from signing this bill, I’m allowing it to go into law because I understand the fears behind access to untraceable firearms and respect the effort to tailor the scope and exceptions to limit impact for law abiding citizens.”
“To allow a bill to go into law without a signature is a middle-ground approach available to the governor — in between striking it down with a veto and endorsing it with a signature” VT Digger noted. “Scott holds the record for issuing the most gubernatorial vetoes in state history: 46.”
The bill was strongly opposed by Second Amendment defending organizations, including the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs.
Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs President Chris Bradley told VT Digger that the group would let its current lawsuits challenging Vermont’s ban on high-capacity magazines and the state’s waiting period laws play out in court before challenging other “unconstitutional laws.”
Special Gun Rights Given to Police But Not to You
Recently, a vote in the House of Representatives granted police officers nationwide concealed carry privileges. The vote resulted in 221 to 185 for the new government-issued privilege. The bill is called H.R. 354 Law Enforcement Officer Safety Act “LOESA Reform Act of 2024.”
This new government-issued gun privilege rewarded to active and retired law-enforcement officers grants them the freedom to carry a firearm in places like school zones, national parks, and state, local, or private properties open to the public. It also includes certain federal facilities that are accessible to the public. The bill also widely expands the ability for certain law-enforcement officers to cross state lines with concealed carry firearms and reduces the frequency of which retired law enforcement would need to re-qualify in order to meet certain standards.
Aren’t they lucky?
I use the word privilege and I hope you can recognize my sarcasm because I don’t remember the Second Amendment reading, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed, as long as those people are current or former police officers.”
Is this a move in the right direction or is this a slap in the face to gun owners across the country? Was this bill introduced under the assumption that police officers, active or retired, are better trained than the average gun owner? Because that is certainly debatable.
Many would argue that this bill was created, introduced, and sponsored because crime has gotten out of control throughout America and due to left-wing disrespect and defunding of police, politicians are finding themselves in a precarious situation of their own making. In what might appear to be an attempt at controlling some of the violence created by irresponsible left-wing policies, the bureaucrats behind HR 354 have neglected the rights of all, to allow privileges to some.
But that’s not all. It would appear that the bill also acts in part to address the obvious and deadly results of the 1990 Gun Free School Zones Act without actually changing the irresponsible law.
Hellbound and Down 
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