Tag: gun control

South Dakota Governor Signs Bill Requiring Medical Marijuana Patients To Acknowledge Federal Gun Ban

The governor of South Dakota has signed a bill into law that will require patients to check off a box on medical marijuana card applications affirming that they’re aware that federal law prohibits cannabis consumers from buying and possessing firearms.

Gov. Kristi Noem (R) gave final approval to the legislation on Monday—about two weeks after it cleared the legislature. The measure represents a slightly dialed-back version of the original bill from Rep. Kevin Jensen (R), as it previously would have required prospective patients to sign their name on the application to acknowledge the federal gun rule.

Last month, a South Dakota Senate committee rejected a separate, more controversial House-passed bill that would have required medical marijuana dispensaries to post notices at their businesses warning patients about the federal gun ban for cannabis consumers. Those that failed to post the warnings would have faced daily fines.

The House advanced both gun-related cannabis measures last month, but the Senate committee only passed the amended version of the bill to mandate that patients fill out the checkbox for the firearm disclosure on their applications.

“It does nothing but inform the people,” Jensen said of his bill at last month’s committee hearing.

The governor said the gun legislation, as well as four other unrelated public health-centered measures she signed on Monday, “will keep South Dakotans safe and healthy.”

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Colorado legislators to consider banning guns from ‘sensitive spaces’

Colorado lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban guns — whether they’re carried openly or concealed — from “sensitive spaces” such as public parks, community centers, churches and adjacent parking areas.

Senate Bill 24-131 was filed this week by a group of Democratic lawmakers.

It’s the latest sign lawmakers are gearing up for another gun control debate in the state legislature. Only a handful of gun bills have been introduced so far this year, but more are expected.

Behind the scenes, lawmakers are said to be discussing anywhere from 10 to 17 different pieces of legislation. All of them likely won’t be introduced, but people on both sides of the debate are keeping a close eye on developments.

As executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, a gun rights group, Taylor Rhodes is a busy man.

“It’s gonna be a marathon this year,” Rhodes said.

His group has spent millions of dollars in court fighting gun control laws passed by Colorado lawmakers.

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Based on Loose Reasoning, a Federal Judge Rejects a Challenge to the Gun-Free School Zones Act

A federal law prohibits gun possession within 1,000 feet of an elementary or secondary school. That restriction, a federal judge in Montana noted last week, “covers almost the entirety of every urban location in the United States, including many places that have nothing to do with the closest school.”

U.S. District Judge Susan Watters nevertheless concluded that the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act is consistent with “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” The decision shows that some federal judges are still bending over backward to uphold constitutionally dubious gun control laws, despite the Supreme Court’s recognition that the Second Amendment guarantees a right not only to keep firearms at home for self-defense but also to carry them in public for the same purpose.

The case involves Gabriel Metcalf, who lives across the street from Broadwater Elementary School in Billings, Montana. Last August, Metcalf was observed pacing his front yard while holding a rifle, a precaution he said was provoked by threats from a neighbor against whom his mother had obtained a protection order.

Since the Gun-Free School Zones Act makes an exception for guns “on private property not part of school grounds,” Metcalf was not doing anything illegal provided he remained in his yard. But he admitted he had stepped onto the sidewalk and street near his house, which according to federal prosecutors made him guilty of a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

The federal statute also includes an exception for people who are “licensed” to carry guns by the state where a school is located if law enforcement authorities “verify that the individual is qualified” to “receive the license.” A Montana law says anyone who is legally allowed to own a gun “is considered to be individually licensed and verified by the state of Montana within the meaning of” the Gun-Free School Zones Act.

That provision, Metcalf argued, meant he could not be prosecuted for violating the federal law. Watters disagreed, deeming Montana’s notion of “verification” inadequate.

Watters then addressed the question of whether the Gun-Free School Zones Act is “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation”—the constitutional test prescribed by the Supreme Court. While the Court has said schools themselves are “sensitive places” where the government may prohibit guns, she noted, that does not necessarily mean Congress was free to create 1,000-foot “buffer zones” around them.

Watters said the government, which had the burden of satisfying the Supreme Court’s test, failed to do so. But instead of stopping there, she embarked on her own “analysis of the historical sources.”

Watters claimed to locate “a historical analogue” in a 1776 Delaware constitutional provision and laws passed during or after Reconstruction that banned guns near polling places. She reasoned that education, like voting, is “essential for a responsible citizenry.”

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Ghost guns in Ohio: 3D-printed firearms among Columbus police seizures in 2023

As 2024 began, Columbus police highlighted dozens of untraceable, homemade firearms they seized through the course of the past year, but not because the guns themselves are illegal.

The data on 2023 firearm seizures came alongside the Columbus Division of Police reporting that it found an “astronomical” number of illegal Glock switches, which convert the brand of handguns into fully automatic weapons. One of the ways the plastic part was made is 3D printing, Sgt. James Morrow previously told NBC4.

But beyond individual gun parts, entire firearms churned out from the plastic extruders also turned up in Ohio’s capital city. Because of their lack of an identifying serial number, 3D-printed guns fall under the umbrella of “ghost guns,” which also include metal and polymer guns assembled at home through kits.

“Some people just get Glock parts and attach them, since the majority of the ‘ghost gun’ manufacturers are selling Glock clones,” said CPD Sgt. Joe Albert.

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Washington State Democrats: Using Ammo A ‘Privilege’ That Needs To Be Taxed

The first month of the Washington Legislature’s 2024 session is ending with a slew of Democrat-backed gun control proposals, including a new measure to tax people who have the “privilege” of using ammunition.

House Bill 2238, sponsored by Democratic state Reps. My-Linh Thai and Liz Berry, would create an 11 percent tax on the retail sale of ammunition across the state in addition to all existing federal, state, and local sale and use taxes, with the exception of sales to governments for the purposes of supplying law enforcement agencies.

Instead of recognizing the purchase of ammunition as an integral part of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, the language of the bill classifies it as a “privilege.”

“A use tax is levied on every person in this state for the privilege of using ammunition as a consumer at the rate of 11 percent of the selling price,” the bill reads.

The stated reason behind the proposal is to help reduce “gun violence,” or deaths involving guns—most of which are suicides.

“Gun violence remains a persistent health and safety threat for people across our state,” the bill’s authors wrote, admitting that nearly seven out of every 10 gun deaths in Washington are suicides..

“Data from the Washington office of firearm safety and violence prevention show that, in 2021, 69 percent of all firearm-related deaths were suicides,” they wrote.

Revenue from the proposed tax would go to funding suicide prevention programs, as well as programs aimed to reduce “firearm-related domestic violence.”

Ms. Berry, a gun control advocate who previously worked for former Rep. Gabby Giffords as her legislative director when the Democrat congresswoman was shot in the head in Tucson in 2011, also co-sponsored at least five other measures targeting guns.

Those proposals include House Bill 1902, which would apply requirements similar to those for a licensed concealed handgun carrier to all potential gun buyers in Washington. In addition to live-fire training, it would make fingerprinting a mandatory prerequisite to all Washington residents who wish to obtain a gun permit.

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Insiders: Biden admin. working to ban private sales of gun sales

Sources inside the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) say the White House has directed the agency to draft a document supporting an effective ban on private sales of firearms.

That’s according to the watchdog group, Empower Oversight.

Empower Oversight is requesting records related to what it calls the “unconstitutional measure.”

According to the sources, “at the direction of the White House, the ATF has drafted a 1,300-page document in support of a rule that would effectively ban private sales of firearms from one citizen to another by requiring background checks for every sale. The document’s drafting is reportedly being overseen by Senior Policy Counsel Eric Epstein, who worked as the Phoenix Field Office’s Division Counsel during Operation Wide Receiver (a precursor of Operation Fast and Furious).”

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Massachusetts Senate Unveils Sweeping Gun Control Bill

The only bits of good news about the “SAFER Act” that I can find is that the gun control bill introduced by the Massachusetts Senate on Thursday does not include a live-fire training mandate in order to obtain a gun license, nor does it impose a lengthy list of new “gun-free zones” in the state. But while S2572 may have a slightly narrower focus than its House counterpart (nicknamed the Lawful Citizens Imprisonment Act by the Gun Owners Action League), it’s still aimed mostly at lawful gun owners instead of the real perpetrators of most violent crime in the state.

Under S2572 Massachusetts residents would need a license to manufacture firearms before they could build a gun using a 3D printer, the state’s ban on so-called assault weapons would be codified to fit the Attorney General’s interpretation of the law (which renders most semi-automatic long guns illegal to manufacture, sell, and transfer), and a new civil cause of action would be created allowing individuals to sue gun makers and sellers over “the marketing of unlawful firearm sales to minors”; something that wouldn’t be an issue were it not for the fact that anti-gunners view almost every bit of marketing by gun companies as if it was targeted to those too young to legally purchase a firearm.

The only new “gun-free zones” established by S2572 would be government administration buildings, and local municipalities would be able to opt-out of the ban and allow lawful carry if they choose. That’s a far different approach than what we’ve seen in other anti-gun states like California, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, where lawmakers enacted so many new “sensitive places” that the right to carry would be largely limited to a few sidewalks and streets, but given the other provisions in the legislation its hardly something to cheer about.

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Biden Capitalizes On Uvalde Massacre Report With Ludicrous Gun-Control Plan

Almost two years after a shooter murdered 21 people at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the Department of Justice released a 575-page report on Thursday. The document confirmed what we already knew from Texas’ report last July. The police made serious mistakes and shouldn’t have waited outside the classroom. There is one big difference between the two reports. The Justice Department report starts its executive summary by emphasizing that the attack used “an AR-15 style assault rifle.”

But what can we do when the police don’t save the day?

Mass Murderers Pick Soft Targets

With guns being banned at the Uvalde school, there was little prospect of teachers or staff fighting back. Had the school allowed guns, the shooter might not have attacked at all. After reading the Nashville Covenant School murderer’s manifesto last year, Nashville Police Chief John Drake revealed: “There was another location that was mentioned, but because of a threat assessment by the suspect of too much security, they decided not to.”

The killer considered two public schools but passed on them because “the security was too great to do what she wanted to do,” according to Nashville City Council member Robert Swope.

Twenty states already allow teachers to carry concealed handguns. In Utah and New Hampshire, any teacher with a concealed handgun permit can carry. In other states, it is up to school boards or superintendents to decide. And there have been no shootings in schools with armed teachers.

The reports focus on the failure of police. It is understandable that police are fearful of running toward an attacker. Teachers in the classroom, however, have no choice but to defend their lives and the lives of their students.

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Pennsylvania District Attorney Sues Federal Government Over Gun Ban For Medical Marijuana Patients

A Pennsylvania district attorney and gun rights advocates have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to overturn the ban preventing medical marijuana patients from buying and possessing firearms—the latest in a series of legal challenges to the policy.

Warren County, Pennsylvania District Attorney Robert Greene, a registered medical cannabis patient in the state, teamed up with the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) to file suit against the federal government in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

This comes as the question over the constitutionality of the federal gun ban for people who use marijuana is now before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is considering taking up the issue.

The new lawsuit names U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, as well as the heads of the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), as defendants. This represents what the lead attorney for the plaintiffs believes to be the first civil, rather than criminal, challenge to the federal statute.

Greene’s participation in the case is especially notable. The court filing states that the local prosecutor “intends to lawfully purchase, possess, and utilize firearms and ammunition so that he may exercise his constitutional right to keep and bear arms for self-defense and all other lawful purposes.” But he’s barred from doing so under federal statute because of his status as a state-certified medical cannabis patient.

The prosecutor announced late last month that he will not be seeking re-election and will be turning his focus to advocacy on medical cannabis patient rights issues.

Unlike the various previous court cases challenging the constitutionality of the gun ban for plaintiffs who have been criminally prosecuted, with a civl suit like this, “you’re looking at a challenge on behalf of people that are just asserting that this prohibition is unconstitutional, either on its face or as applied—’as applied’ meaning to that individual only,” Adam Kraut, lead attorney for the plaintiff and executive director of SAF, told Marijuana Moment on Tuesday.

“What I’m hoping is not only to win in our lawsuit, but that it sparks the federal Congress to do something and solve this problem because you have millions of Americans who are disenfranchised from their Second Amendment rights, being forced to choose either between treating their symptoms with medical marijuana or exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right,” he said. “That’s not an acceptable.”

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Prosecutors Urge Judge Not to Dismiss Gun Charges Against Hunter Biden After FBI Found Cocaine Residue on His Gun Pouch

The gun charges against Hunter Biden have taken a new turn as federal prosecutors are urging a judge to reject his efforts to dismiss these charges.

The prosecutors have revealed that the brown leather gun pouch used by Hunter Biden tested positive for cocaine residue.

The case delves back to 2018 when an investigation into Hunter Biden led to the discovery of the questionable substance on his gun pouch. The analysis, carried out by an FBI chemist, authenticated that the residue found was indeed cocaine. This alarming find was part of a broader court filing that was intended to bolster the case against Hunter Biden.

Last year, Hunter Biden was indicted on federal gun charges. He faced indictment in a Delaware court on three counts relating to his possession of a firearm while using drugs.

These charges include one count of making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm, one count of making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federal firearms licensed dealer, and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

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