This is TTAG’s weekly roundup of legal and legislative news affecting guns, the gun business and gun owners’ rights. For a deeper dive into the topics discussed here, check out this week in gun rights at FPC.
Mississippi Seeks to Create Second Amendment Sanctuary Bloc
States and counties that have declared themselves to be Second Amendment sanctuaries (By Terrorist96 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link)
This week saw Mississippi introduce HB 753, an interstate compact of nine southern states to establish a multi-state 2A sanctuary. The bill seeks to “authorize the state of Mississippi to enter into an interstate compact with southern states” to operate as 2A sanctuary states, establish an interstate commission, exempt certain firearms and accessories from federal regulation, declare certain federal law unconstitutional, and some other provisions.
While this looks incredibly cool, it probably steps too far away from binding states—which it legally can do—and too far into the realm of federal supremacy.
We’ve talked before about the concept of 2A sanctuaries. They are something I believe in, but if it’s going to stick and actually improve the lives of gun owners, it makes more sense for the states to bind themselves—who actually give force to most of these laws—first.
Poking federal supremacy straight in the eye in the same law that would bind the states seems to unnecessarily jeopardize the state sanctuary. Where the feds can’t stop you from saying “your laws are unconstitutional and we’ll give them no effect,” the feds, at least for now, can stop you from saying “your laws aren’t real and you can’t come here to enforce them.”
I wish the fed-blasting, which I find incredibly entertaining, were separated into a separate act. That way if a federal court slaps down that statute as violating federal supremacy, state residents could still take solace that their local beat cop is unlikely to lock them in a cage for owning a gun. This is the kind of treatment that worked to normalize marijuana. It can work for guns too.
Yes, the Founders Knew About Repeating Arms
We’ve often heard the daft refrain “there is no way the Founding Fathers would have imagined modern day ‘weapons of war.’” Well, in a brief to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, attorneys David Kopel and FPC’s own Joseph Greenlee laid out the history of firearms development, up through the ratification of the Second Amendment.
Despite repeating firearms dating back several centuries, legislators, due to willful ignorance of both American and firearms history, continue to push for magazine limitations and outright bans on these types of weapons.
Magazine and “assault weapon” bans are unconstitutional because they are inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent. Not only are these types of arms in common lawful use today, they have arguably been in common lawful use for centuries.
Chuck Schumer Says All Gun Parts Should be Considered Guns
Citing incidents like the murder of a child using a “ghost gun” (it wasn’t one, of course), New York Senator Chuck Schumer wants to change the definition of ‘firearm’ under the Gun Control Act of 1968 to include individual firearms components.
What would be included in that? Presumably everything, including a race to the bottom in terms of gun regulation at a state level.
This proposal isn’t without a sense of irony. Coming from New York, the former Prohibition capital of the country, Chuck hasn’t considered that by regulating parts to this extent, he’s essentially begging for a rising black market in firearms and firearms components.
Prohibition leads to violence, never the other way around. We’ve seen it with alcohol, drugs, and everything in between.
The FGC9 is a 3D printed firearm that uses zero ‘gun parts’ in its construction – making it a gun anyone, even in Europe, could acquire the parts to build.
This is at least 15 years ahead of US gun regulation efforts – and undoes those already in place across the world. pic.twitter.com/q45Uupglwu
— Trollworks™️ by Ivan (@Ivan_Is_Back) February 3, 2020
Combating the trafficking of these components will prove fruitless, as humans, ever resilient creatures, always find a way. See, for example, the development of beautiful home brewed arms like the FGC-9, a weapon designed to be built without any traditional “firearm” components.
Gun Grabbers Are Running More School Boards
Brady minions have begun taking over school boards. School districts in several major cities such as Los Angeles and Phoenix have been quietly taken over by Moms Demand Action gun grabbers.
These individuals have been pushing new, invasive standards on parents. For example, the school board in Phoenix unanimously voted to require parents of its 27,000 students to sign a safety form related to gun storage.
The same school board has also enabled students to file reports on incidents that occur outside of school property. There’s no way this could be used for nefarious purposes, right?
Teachers Say Active Shooter Drills Traumatize Children
Active shooter drills are like nuclear strike drills from the Cold War; silly, ineffective, and probably psychologically harmful for children. The American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association have joined with Everytown to oppose the use of unscheduled drills and drills which simulate gunfire.
All three organizations claim that active shooter drills traumatize students, decreasing their ability to concentrate in class and sleep at night. They aren’t wrong; exposure to events like these can be incredibly traumatic. Now if only these groups would stop fear mongering about the very very rare events these drills are centered around.
Two States Considering Restriction/Elimination of “Gun-Free Zones”
Meanwhile, in Wyoming and Iowa, gun rights supporters have filed bills which would eliminate gun free zones. The concept is simple; criminals don’t follow the law, so the law shouldn’t prevent the lawful from protecting themselves.
Every school where a shooting has occurred has been a so-called “gun free zone.” Many of the schools which were assigned armed resource officers, as was the case in Parkland, proved to be wholly ineffective. If the presumption is that lawful carry is OK, soft targets cease to exist.
Warren Wants to Increase Ammo Prices and Threatens to Nuke Filibuster for Gun Control
Elizabeth Warren, who lives in a $3 million mansion in Cambridge, Massachusetts is now proposing that, in order to protect minority communities, the government should increase the cost of ammunition. But she insists she speaks for working-class Americans, so how bad could it really be?
The truth is this type of policy, especially driving up the cost to buy ammunition, only serves to dis-incentivize practice and discourage price-disadvantaged Americans — the ones who statistically need an effective means of self-defense most — from availing themselves of their Second Amendment rights.
It’s not terribly surprising to see politicians ignoring the downstream effects of their policies, but this is pretty severe. Increasing price doesn’t discourage violence. It discourages lawful gun ownership, and even moreso, it discourages practice. You know, the thing that turns people into more experienced, safer gun owners.
Several state lawmakers have suggested similar plans. What else could we expect from the senator who threatened to nuke the filibuster to enact her precious prohibition?
Follow-up: Virginia Prosecutors Drop Charges Against Only Gun Rally Arrestee
It would have been nice to say the rally in Virginia went without arrest, but there was that one asterisk — the woman who dared to dress for the weather.
This week news broke that prosecutors have dropped the felony mask-wearing charge against the protestor because it would have been difficult to prove she “had criminal intent to conceal her identity.” I’m frankly surprised it got this far.
I’m glad she can move on with her life, but the young woman now has to deal with the life-changing effects of having been fed to the criminal “justice” system. Not ideal.
Can Bloomberg Pay to Cover Up His Racism?
Audio of @MikeBloomberg’s 2015 @AspenInstitute speech where he explains that “you can just Xerox (copy)” the description of male, minorities 16-25 and hand to cops.
Bloomberg had video of speech blocked.
Perhaps because of the problematic explanation he gives for #StopAndFrisk pic.twitter.com/Fm0YCi4ZRy
— Benjamin Dixon (@BenjaminPDixon) February 10, 2020
Michael Bloomberg’s absence from the debate stage this election season isn’t keeping the notorious gun-grabber out of the spotlight, especially after audio from a 2015 speech resurfaced where the former mayor describes how he used the police to intentionally target minority communities.
The NYPD’s unconstitutional “stop and frisk” policy flourished under Mayor Mike. Police went from conducting over 160,000 stops in 2002 to a peak of nearly 686,000 in 2011. And in 2013, his last year as mayor, Bloomberg complained that the police force “disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little”.
Bloomberg’s flagrant disregard for the constitutional rights and lives of minorities should be on full blast, especially considering that he is trying to buy his way into the White House.
It’s almost a joke we have to consider a “Second Amendment Sanctuary”. All 50 states should be just that, it says so in the constitution.
What’s written on paper is only as good as the people who agree to follow it. The 13th ammendment didn’t abolish slavery. Millions of people with guns did. Hundreds of millions of people with guns have kept it from coming back. Most people in America have accepted the “reasonable limitations” argument regarding the 2nd ammendment and that’s why it exists. What constitutes “resonable” is what the big argument is all about.
What’s written on a piece of paper goes like this , some laws are enforced with a badge and a gunm, soke laws are enforced by a piece of paper. The Constitution is one such law, it’s not enforced with a badge and gunm. The way I see it anyone circumventing Americas Constitution are traiitors and should be lawd on hard. Doors kicked in, flashbacks, gassed, gunm to the head , cuffed and stuffed awaiting trial,, no bai/.
The people with badges and guns are out numbered and out gunned 10,000 to 1 in this country. If the majority of the population had a major problem with law enforcement, then the cops would last approximately 15 minutes before they were all killed. Cops operate at the consent and behest of the people. Over reach occurs because apathy and comfort is easier and more pleasant than vigilance.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Seems to me the time draws nearer
The south has a proud tradition of banding together to fight the federal government. Regardless of your personal beliefs, you have to admire the determination and resolve to fight the federal government that still exists in the south today. Mellenials online today like to make snarky cute comments about the civil war, but if you know anything about history, that war was a damn close run thing. Southern forces routinely defeated the union army in open battle for the majority of the war. To this day, the memory and valor of that conflict are remembered even by the youth. I say this as someone who is not a native southerner, but has spent a great deal of time, traveling throughout Americas civil war battlefields. In a hypothetical future conflict here, I can assure you, that same will to fight and tenacity remains in the south, and combined with likely allies in the American mid west, rust belt, and much of the west, and the fact the modern New England states are now post industrial, another war will not repeat in the same manner as the last one.
“Post industrial” being the operative phrase. Industrialization, population size, and national will won the Civil War for the Federals. Like you said: they have none of that now. They do have massive communications hubs and infrastructure (which is volnerable in a modern war), national media (volnerable), finance centers (useless without the heartland production and markets), and nice colleges and ocean front realestate….. ya their screwed.
Alabama’s motto: “We dare defend our rights”. And, we do.
and you ain’t just whistlin’ Dixie either….the Confederate battle flag of General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia still flies in my yard. And always will.
Little annoying that all the counties bordering south of mine are sanctuaries but mine isn’t… *rolls the COTUS up nice and tight and prepares to beat someone with it!*
Until the Supreme Court steps in & makes a ruling on the 2-A, this will tear the U.S. apart… Hopefully the will side with the Constitution & tell the anti’s to back off. Of course now though, the unhinged Liberals are trying to change the Supreme Court also, which they will go full tilt on next time they hold the White House.
The Supreme Court has ruled on a bunch of stuff and lots of places have ignored the rulings. Case in point: California. And even if the SCOTUS ruled badly on a 2nd ammendment case, that would only expand the 2nd ammendment sanctuary movement. We aren’t going to throw our arms up, say “Oh well”, and all go home. We’ll ignore it and keep moving forward despite the law….. California and the Liberals tought us that trick.
The supreme court has said gun control is okay although you have an individual right to have a gun. Now the anti gun groups are using that ruling to pass even more control than before and they are using Trump’s green light to reinforce particular gun control that wouldn’t have passed under Obama.
” Trump’s green light to reinforce particular gun control that wouldn’t have passed under Obama ”
Yeah, just keep on pushing that trash around. We didn’t get more gun control under Obama because he was an honorable man who respected the Constitution. We didn’t get more gun control because Obama was a hack ward boss and incompetent screw-up. He was full on board with the Democrat agenda of confiscation, and if he ever knew what he was doing he would have gone for it.
Trump stumbles once on a really peripheral issue and you spend the rest of your life pining for the good old Obama days. Fuck off.
@UpInArms
Trump has been pushing for 21 years old to own a gun, red flag laws, universal background checks, arbitrary reclassifying items illegally, etc.
It was not a one time thing. He setup a school safety group to tell the states what gun control to implement. He had meetings with the governors to prevent gun violence. He had meetings with Democrats to come up with ideas for new gun control. He had meetings with the NRA to find out what “compromises” would be fine with NRA members.
Trump has hired anti gun people to push more than Obama did. His AG setup a gun control task force to send into the states to enforce federal gun control within the states, which those teams have already killed people and lied about what happened. Trump’s administration says they are at record level enforcement of gun control laws.
Yet Trump claims the 8 year assault on gun rights was over. He even dared put up a tweet calling Bloomberg a total racist for stop and frisk, yet he was “recently” calling for it in black neighborhoods and praised Rudy for doing it in New York.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/02/11/donald-trump-tweets-deletes-mike-bloomberg-total-racist/
The truth is under Trump the assault on gun rights has increased and hastened. Partly because he called for it.
I won’t defend an anti gunner who lies about supporting the second amendment. Who would vote for a billionaire New Yorker that wants gun control?
Chief is a paid Obama shill.
Not a single 2A sanctuary in CA? Sad.
Waaaaaaaayyy down south near AZ. For some reason not on the map.
Even if they wrote a letter it wouldn’t matter because those resolutions have no power of law.
Except they’re upholding the Constitution. Contrast that with illegal alien sanctuaries, where judges let criminals out the back door to avoid Immigration enforcement.
Resolutions are simply political statements. The gun control laws will still be enforced.
Immigration sanctuary states are lawful, they have power of law. The states do not have to enforce federal law with state resources. The federal government has to do the enforcing of their rules. It’s part of the constitution of the U.S.
Federal gun control could also be ignored by the states if they so decided and passed law to do so. However, the federal government, under Trump, will still come into the states with Trump’s gun task force teams. The sheriff will have to kick them out like they eventually did to BLM during the Bundy Ranch standoff.
The Democrats are very smart and very good at winning. The Republicans think they understand how to play the game when clearly they do not.
I think you mean the dems are very conniving, in which case I would agree. Objectively, they aren’t very smart.
Enforcement requires a willing constabulary and consenting populace. Sanctuary counties/cities/states have neither. All laws are just words on paper until people with guns make them facts in being. Law enforcers are out numbered and out gunned in this country 10,000 to 1 by the population. If they over reach, then they enforce at their own peril.
Gun free zones need to go away. Liberal control of education is dangerous and destructive. Guns are a part of our history and who we are.
Liberal education is Marxist education. Goes back to John Dewey and his time. When you’re young you don’t have the wisdom to differentiate between deception and truth. We have to take the schools back while at the same time starting our own.
I remember when “active shooter drills” used to be called “lock down drills.”
Kids used to be told when a bad guy comes on to the school grounds the school must go on lock down until the police come. Now they make those drills about being killed by an “active shooter.” Before the change kids were simply told on lock down you go to the classroom, the teacher locks the door and turns off the lights, kids hide under their desks and stay quiet. It wasn’t traumatic at all, it was very boring. However, current defense companies and government workers, that put on active shooter drills, make them very dramatic, thus trauma occurs.
Essentially the government is giving children PTS about firearms. They want the children deathly afraid of guns. They put the idea in the kids’ heads that there is a possibility every day they go to school could be a day where they get gunned down.
My kids go through these drills, and they aren’t scared of guns. Then again, I’m not raising leftist snowflakes.
They are not scared of guns because you have them.
I bet if your kids had went through one of those random drills where they use blank firing guns they would be a little messed up. Just sitting in their class one day when they hear a shotgun going off, not knowing it’s a drill attempting to simulate the situation as realistically as possible.
Even adults get affected when they do realistic force on force training not knowing the scenario. They body reacts like it’s the real thing and mental trauma can occur.
Imagine training in an artificial scenario where your actual children are being stabbed to death as they scream “daddy, help” and you have to save them before they all die. I bet you will get a little messed up from that.
They can thank the open border crowd for the excellent sanctuary idea. The left never thinks two moves ahead.
Re: MS HB 753. I’m a resident of MS. This bill is currently in Committee, where it may be amended in some respects, but is expected to get a “Do Pass” vote in committee, and will most likely become law in the next couple months.
Don’t blow this off simply because you think it might bump up against the so-called Fed “Supremacy” thing. We have some very sharp lawyers down here, and you can bet your last dollar they did their homework when this was being drafted. And we ain’t skeered of a fight.
I’m confused as why “federal supremacy” is the issue here. Isn’t it mainly the lunatic legislators in states like CA, Virginia, NY, CO, Illinois, etc. that the sanctuaries are attempting to remedy? That’s got nothing to do with the feds. Nor do the feds. seem to be doing anything since the assault weapons ban expired. Oh yeah, can’t buy or own bump-fire stocks.
If you’re referring to the MS initiative (HB 753) which is what the lead article was about, it has nothing to do with the city/county sanctuary resolution. Those (city /county resolutions) indeed have nothing to do with the feds and have no legal standing even within the State. If HB753 passes, however, it will be the law in MS and in any other State that signs up to it if that State Legislature agrees and passes their own supporting Legislation. That could get Federal attention.
Whether the Feds exercise the Supremacy Clause or not remains to be seen. That will be their choice. They may conclude it’s not going to cause them any heartburn and just carry on business as usual. They could take it to the SCoTUS for a decision. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.
You (and everyone else who has an interest in this) need to read the bill which is linked in the article. Otherwise you won’t know what the hell it’s all about. I know that’s asking a lot of people on the internet but it’s the only way to understand it.
PS: MS HB753 is primarily a defensive measure in the event that the Dems take over the Federal Govt. this Nov or a future election. You erect your defenses before you are attacked, not after you’re attacked.
We do need to have active shooter drills in schools.
The last time a child was killed in a school fire was 1953. Since then schools practice fire drills and for a good reason; hence, no fire related deaths have resulted from school fires since.
Why not practice active shooter drills to be prepared for the same reason?
Sorry midget Mikey but you won’t be able to censor who gestapo speech. Or tactics…as far as I know the sanctuary movement started in ILLinois. While it will NEVER extend to Cook it’s one reason the anti’s haven’t completely taken over!
Interesting to see that MY county is a “Second Amendment Sanctuary.” Good luck with that, the sheriff says it every time he’s up for reelection. It has zero bearing on how his deputies will behave and believe me they will be the first to tell you they will give a hard time to anybody who legally has a handgun in their vehicle unless that person has a carry permit.
To quote a lot of people in office around here… “I say I be gonna run for office as a Democrat… Democrat til I die! Oopsies, nobody votes for Democrats any more… Why, I had an epiphany and became a Republican, because my core values blah blah blah…” Shall we say bullshit?
I stopped watching and listening when in the video he says that for the states to stand up to the federal government and to not allow them to come in to enforce unconstitutional laws that this , “would violate the Supremacy Clause”. Please people, read the damn document! The laws of the United States are NOT automatically the Supreme Law of the Land. As much as they would like us to believe so, that is simply not the case.
Article VI, Sec 2 is clearly a conditional statement in that it says that with regard to U.S. law being the supreme law of the land it says that; “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof;” – meaning of course that all US law must be made “in Pursuance thereof” with respect to the Constitution in order for any such laws to hold a place together with the Constitution as being the supreme law of the land.
“An unconstitutional act is not a law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no office; it is in legal contemplation as inoperative as though it had never been passed.” (Norton v. Shelby County, 118 U.S. 425 1886)
My state is itching to follow VA, MD and NJ so I’m looking to flee when they gleefully announce the bans. I’ve got safe houses in other states already to store my lawfully acquired property. I’m eyeing 3 states now and as long as they keep the socialist democrats out I’ll grab a lot in one and build.
Stay and fight is a waste of time when you’re out numbered and out spent. All that happens is you get put on lists and your life is destroyed. CA residents prove it.
A multi-state 2A sanctuary? (I much prefer “stronghold” over “sanctuary” BTW)
Problematic.
The government has the states by the balls, especially after the Constitution was bastardized and polluted by the 17th Amendment.
Over the years, the government has dispensed funds to the states for every conceivable purpose you can think of. And the states have become addicted. All the feds have to do is threaten to withhold “federal revenue sharing” and the states will fold like a cheap card table.
When the federal government lowered the national speed limit to 55 mph, it wasn’t mandatory that every state adopt it. But those that didn’t were told in no uncertain terms that if they didn’t comply, federal highway funds would be withheld.
The same thing will happen should 2A “strongholds” begin catching on, and doubly so should any two or more states dare to conspire reciprocation on this issue.
When the feds with hold money, then the states should with hold all federal taxes collected in that state. Whats good for the goose…..
“Teachers Say Active Shooter Drills Traumatize Children” Really? Then I and other classmates were Traumatized in the early 60’s hiding under tables. Parents smoked in house and autos. Did-not use seatbelts. When traveling sleeping in the back of station-wagon. Unsafe baby cribs. Walking to and from School alone even in the rain. I was spanked and my Mom and Dad told me to unbully a bully! Wife found this: https://www.countryliving.com/life/kids-pets/g4906/things-60s-kids-did-that-would-horrify-us-now/
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