Tag: 2nd amendment

Pennsylvania GOP Senator’s Bill Would Let Medical Marijuana Patients Get Gun Carry Permits

A Republican senator in Pennsylvania has formally introduced a bill meant to remove state barriers to medical marijuana patients carrying firearms after previewing the legislation and soliciting co-sponsors earlier this year.

Sen. Dan Laughlin (R) introduced SB 1146 on Wednesday, which state Senate Republicans noted in a press release was also 2A Day, celebrating the Constitution’s Second Amendment.

The GOP statement called the proposal “a bold step toward ensuring the rights of all citizens,” saying it “acknowledges the importance of the right to bear arms, a fundamental aspect of American freedom.”

“My legislation will make sure a valid medical marijuana cardholder is no longer considered an unlawful marijuana user,” Laughlin said in the release. “Although marijuana remains illegal under federal law, we should be updating Pennsylvania’s laws to ensure valid medical marijuana cardholders are not denied their rights.”

The two-page bill would amend the Pennsylvania’s Uniform Firearms Act, which currently says a concealed carry license “shall not be issued” to someone who “is addicted to or is an unlawful user of marijuana.” SB 1146 would add that “the term ‘unlawful user of marijuana’ does not include an individual who holds a valid identification card” under the state’s medical marijuana act.

It would also add a qualifier to a provision barring carry permits for an “individual who is prohibited from possessing or acquiring a firearm under the statutes of the United States,” asserting that the restriction “shall not apply” to someone prohibited from gun ownership “based solely on the individual’s status as a holder of a valid identification card” for medical marijuana.

The changes would take effect 60 days after becoming law.

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Arizona Police officer shoots, kills man in his home

A body cam footage has revealed an Arizona Police officer shooting and killing a man in his own home. The police officer claimed he saw the man holding a shotgun. 44-year-old Trinidad Ledesma was killed after police responded to a domestic dispute …

When the police turned the corner, Ledesma could be heard saying: “Don’t come in. Don’t come near, boss.” The officer said he saw a “black shotgun” in his right hand and immediately shot and killed him. During the incident, the officer called it an AR-15.

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ATF Report Undermines Left’s Hysteria Over So-Called ‘Gun Show Loophole’

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ (ATF) National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA), Vol. III, undermines the left’s long-standing hysteria over a so-called “gun show loophole.”

The NFCTA examines gun trafficking and gun trafficking channels, both domestic and international.

The ATF uploaded the NFCTA in various parts or segments, and part four looks at “source-to-market” trafficking.

From the NFCTA:

The term source-to-market type captures the geographic scope of firearm trafficking cases, which include intrastate, interstate, and international trafficking. Within the U.S., intrastate trafficking involves the movement of firearms in markets within states, while interstate trafficking occurs between states. International trafficking involves the movement of firearms in markets between the U.S. and a foreign country. For interstate and international trafficking, the term ‘source’ is used to identify the state or country that is the supplier of illicit firearms, while the term ‘market’ is used to identify the state or country that is the recipient of illicit firearms. In the case of international trafficking, the U.S. may serve as the source country while a foreign country serves as the market country, referred to as U.S. to foreign trafficking. Conversely, a foreign country may serve as the source country while the U.S. serves as the market country, referred to as foreign to U.S. trafficking.

Following decades of hysteria from the left resulting in gun control push after gun control push based on the so-called “gun show loophole,” one would think such shows to play a dominant role in intrastate and interstate trafficking. However, the NFCTA numbers show only 3.2 percent of ATF intrastate trafficking cases involve “trafficking in firearms at gun shows, flea markets, or auctions.”

Moreover, only 4.3 percent of ATF interstate trafficking cases involve “trafficking in firearms at gun shows, flea markets, or auctions.”

The percentage of international ATF trafficking cases from the United States to a foreign country involving “trafficking in firearms at gun shows, flea markets, or auctions” is 4.5 percent.

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Kentucky Approves Gun Owner Privacy Protection

In a significant victory for Second Amendment advocates and the right to privacy, Kentucky has taken a bold step forward with the passage of House Bill 357, also known as the Second Amendment Privacy Act. This pioneering legislation, which received robust support from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) marks a crucial milestone in protecting the privacy and financial details of firearm and ammunition purchasers in the Bluegrass State.

Crafted with the dedication and foresight of Kentucky state Representatives Derek Lewis and Michael Meredith, along with state Senator Jason Howell, the Second Amendment Privacy Act ensures that the financial transactions of law-abiding citizens buying firearms and ammunition are shielded from undue scrutiny and politicization. By prohibiting financial institutions from using a specific firearm code to track these purchases, the law stands as a bulwark against discrimination and unwarranted surveillance.

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Wyoming Governor Signs Law Prohibiting State Enforcement of Federal Red Flag Laws

On Friday, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon signed a bill into law that bars state and local officials from enforcing federal “extreme risk” protective orders – sometimes referred to as red flag laws. The bill will not only protect liberty in Wyoming; it will also hinder federal efforts to restrict the right to keep and bear arms.

Rep. Bill Allemand and 12 other cosponsors filed Senate Bill 109 (SF109) on Feb. 13. Titled “Prohibit Red Flag Gun Seizure Act,” the new law prohibits any state or local agency “from implementing or enforcing any federal statute, rule, executive order, judicial order or judicial findings or any state statute, rule, executive order, judicial order or judicial findings that would enforce a red flag gun seizure order against or upon a resident of Wyoming” who is legally allowed to possess a firearm under state law. It also prohibits the state and its political subdivisions from using personnel or funds for enforcement of the same.

No governmental entities in the state are allowed to accept federal grant funding to implement any federal red flag law. Anyone found in violation of the law by a court will now be subject to a civil penalty of up to $50,000 fifty per violation, and the court “may order any injunctive or other equitable relief as permitted by law.”

On March 6, the House passed SF109 by a 54-8 vote with some technical amendments. The following day, the Senate concurred with the House amendments by a 30-0 vote. With Gov. Gordon’s signature, the law went into immediate effect.

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Justice Department Launches the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center

The Justice Department launched the National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center (the Center) which  will provide training and technical assistance to law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service and social service providers, community organizations, and behavioral health professionals responsible for implementing laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others.

“The launch of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center will provide our partners across the country with valuable resources to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The establishment of the Center is the latest example of the Justice Department’s work to use every tool provided by the landmark Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to protect communities from gun violence.”

ERPO laws, which are modeled off domestic violence protection orders, create a civil process allowing law enforcement, family members (in most states), and medical professionals or other groups (in some states) to petition a court to temporarily prohibit someone at risk of harming themselves or others from purchasing and possessing firearms for the duration of the order.

In 2023, the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) awarded $238 million to states, territories, and the District of Columbia under the Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP), which was created by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and is designed to help jurisdictions implement crisis intervention strategies, including ERPO programs. In addition, OJP awarded $4 million to support training and technical assistance under Byrne SCIP, including $2 million that was awarded to the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions to establish the ERPO Resource Center. In collaboration with OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the Center will support states, local governments, law enforcement, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service providers, and behavioral health and other social service providers in their efforts to implement ERPO programs to fit local needs, share resources and promising practices with the field, and help ensure that funding received through Byrne SCIP is effectively utilized.

“Supporting our law enforcement and community partners in curbing the scourge of gun violence is more critical than ever,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. “In addition to other resources leveraged across the Justice Department, this Center will provide communities with new tools and technical assistance to help them implement effective crisis intervention strategies and reduce gun violence.”

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Another Judge Says Illegal Immigrants Have Second Amendment Rights

In a decision earlier this month in U.S. v. Carbajal-Flores from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman concluded that you can’t always and under every circumstance prohibit people in the country illegally from legally possessing weapons.

The factual background of the prosecution of Heriberto Carbajal-Flores, as explained in Judge Coleman’s decision: “On June 1, 2020, Carbajal-Flores possessed a handgun in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Carbajal-Flores contends that he received and used the handgun for self-protection and protection of property. Because of Carbajal-Flores’ citizenship status, he was charged with violating of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5), which prohibits any noncitizen who is not legally authorized to be in the United States from ‘possess[ing] in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition; or to receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.'”

Judge Coleman granted a motion to dismiss the charges against Carbajal-Flores, by declaring that such a blanket prohibition against weapons possession for a category of people can’t withstand scrutiny under current Second Amendment doctrine.

Carbajal-Flores has been on pre-trial release and “has consistently adhered to and fulfilled all the stipulated conditions of his release,” the decision explains. “Pretrial Services has conducted numerous employment visits at various sites, and Carbajal-Flores consistently provides the necessary documentation to verify his income when requested. A criminal record check conducted through the National Crime Information Center reflects no new arrests or outstanding warrants.”

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Federal Court Rules Firearm Restrictions on Defendants Awaiting Trial Are Constitutional

A federal court has ruled it is constitutional to block a defendant’s Second Amendment rights while they are awaiting trial.

On March 18, the three-judge panel in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the restriction on the rights of Jesus Perez-Garcia and John Thomas Fencl to bear firearms is constitutional because it is consistent with historic legal precedent.

While these are two separate cases, with Judge Gonzalo Paul Curiel ruling on Mr. Perez-Garcia’s case on Dec. 2, 2022, and Judge Janis Lynn Sammartino ruling on Mr. Fencl’s case on Dec. 7, 2022, both men brought their legal challenge before the federal appeals court on Jan. 26, 2023.

In the 47-page appellate court opinion (pdf), Judge Gabriel P. Sanchez said, “Here, the historical evidence, when considered as a whole, shows a long and broad history of legislatures exercising authority to disarm people whose possession of firearms would pose an unusual danger, beyond the ordinary citizen, to themselves or others.

“The temporary disarmament of Fencl and Perez-Garcia as a means reasonably necessary to protect public safety falls within that historical tradition,” Judge Sanchez wrote further, adding that the court found that restricting the defendants’ right to own firearms is “consistent with our nation’s long history of temporarily disarming criminal defendants facing serious charges and those deemed dangerous or unwilling to follow the law.”

Judge Sanchez wrote that the decision to confiscate the guns owned by Mr. Perez-Garcia and Mr. Fencl was “consistent with our nation’s long history of temporarily disarming criminal defendants facing serious charges and those deemed dangerous or unwilling to follow the law.”

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Gun Ban for Illegal Immigrants Ruled Unconstitutional

The right to keep and bear arms is a natural right, meaning all free men and women have that right, regardless of where they are on the planet. It’s part of why so many of us find other nations’ gun laws so insulting. It’s a repression of people’s right to have weapons to defend themselves and their nation.

A repression that goes out the window in the face of invasion, it should be noted.

But that brings about the question of illegal immigrants. Do they forfeit their rights when they enter the United States illegally, or do they maintain their rights as they’ve not actually been convicted of a felony or anything else?

For a long time, the official line is that they don’t get to have guns. Period.

Yet a federal court has decided something quite differently.

The Second Amendment protects people’s ability to own a gun even if they’ve entered the country illegally.

That’s the ruling handed down by US District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman on Friday. She found the federal prohibition on illegal immigrants owning guns is unconstitutional, at least as applied to Heriberto Carbajal-Flores. She ruled the ban did not fit with America’s historical tradition of gun regulation as required under the Supreme Court’s landmark New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen ruling.

“The noncitizen possession statute, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5), violates the Second Amendment as applied to Carbajal-Flores,” Judge Colman wrote in US v. Carbajal-Flores. “Thus, the Court grants Carbajal-Flores’ motion to dismiss.”

The ruling is the latest fallout from the new standard for Second Amendment cases set in Bruen. Since the landmark case was decided in 2022, a wide swath of state and federal gun restrictions have come under increased scrutiny in the courts. Among the most commonly recurring questions raised by the new standard is who can be barred from owning guns, and the Carbajal-Flores case is among the first to examine whether people who entered the country illegally are among them.

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ATF Agent Stops Gun Sale Over Marijuana Odor And DOJ Argues Cannabis Consumers Don’t Have 2nd Amendment Rights 

Second Amendment advocates are criticizing a pair of recent developments around marijuana and firearms—issues they say underscore the need for further reform.

Last month during a routine audit of a gun dealer, a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) investigator reportedly ordered the store to stop the sale of a pistol because the investigator claimed the would-be buyer smelled of marijuana.

“I wasn’t high,” the prospective buyer told the Second Amendment Foundation, according to the outlet Ammoland, which referred to the individual only as Daniel. “None of this makes any sense to me.”

Daniel had already filed federal paperwork saying he was eligible to own a firearm and had passed a background check for the handgun, according to the report. When he went to pick it up at a Plant City, Florida store, however, the ATF industry operations investigator reportedly halted the sale.

ATF spokesman Jason Medina acknowledged that the smell of marijuana could have been from exposure to second-hand smoke and not an indication that the gun buyer himself had consumed cannabis.

“That’s true,” Medina told Ammoland.

Meanwhile in a federal appeals court case, the Department of Justice argued in a filing earlier this month that marijuana users “are more likely than ordinary citizens to misuse firearms,” likening them to “the mentally ill” as well as “infants, idiots, lunatics, and felons.”

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