This Week in Gun Rights is TTAG’s weekly roundup of legal, legislative and other news affecting guns, the gun business and gun owners’ rights. For another look at the topics discussed here, check out this week in gun rights at FPC.
Sports man doesn’t want people to bear arms
In a recent statement, LeBron James said in reference to firearms being used for hunting, “[f]or Black people right now, we hear hunting we think you’re hunting us.” That’s a pretty over-the-top statement, though fairly routine for James, who has made multiple anti-gun statements.
The guy is known for being a hypocrite. For instance, he criticized others for supporting the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong while also tweeting statements like “Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere.” I don’t quite understand how you can support the Chinese Communist Party, remaining silent about its genocide of minorities, and then bemoan the government’s mistreatment of American minorities at the same time.
The point of the Second Amendment is to enable the people to oppose tyranny. What is, of course, both ironic and unsurprising is that James made these statements in the presence of his personal security detail; people who are undoubtedly armed.
Ohio Supreme Court allows schools to arm staffers
On Wednesday the Ohio Supreme Court issued a stay on an inferior court’s order banning the Madison, Ohio school district from allowing its staff members to arm themselves. The school district’s policy, which permits teachers to carry firearms after receiving a minimum of 26 hours of training, was instituted after a 2016 incident in one of the schools which resulted in four students being injured.
Opponents of the policy argue that 26 hours is insufficient, especially considering the state’s mandatory minimum training time for law enforcement officers is 728 hours. These are the same people who fail to recognize what is painfully obvious…despite the multitude of hours of training that law enforcement officers receive, it has little to do with safe or effective use of firearms and still less to do with conflict avoidance and mitigation.
Not to mention that none of the teachers will be waling a beat, expected to uphold the law.
At the end of the day, it’s up to the individual to recognize and properly exercise use of force, and you can’t stop bad actors.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy taxing constitutional rights to cover budget deficits
Are you poor and need a gun for self-defense? Fuggedaboutit. On Tuesday, Phil Murphy, Lord Emperor of New Jersey, announced that the state is suffering under a five billion dollar deficit (what a shocker). To address the state’s inability to balance its checkbook, Murphy plans to institute higher taxes (again, quelle surprise).
In addition to instituting common, bad economic policy like taxing the state’s wealthiest residents — who are fleeing in droves — Murphy plans to tax the right to keep and bear arms more onerously. Specifically, the governor wants to raise the cost of handgun permit fees by nearly $50 and the cost of firearm owner identification cards by almost $100.
For working class people, the cost of living in New Jersey is becoming untenable, and by increasing the cost of permitting, Murphy is essentially making a play to disarm or prevent the armament of a large swath of the state’s residents. While revenue streams are important for maintaining government services, constitutional rights shouldn’t be the fountainhead.
Four cities sue the ATF to try to get rid of ghost guns
Attorneys for four cities displayed their ignorance by suing the ATF this week, claiming that the language of the Gun Control Act of 1968 was clearly intended to define solid blocks of metal and polymer as firearms receivers. Chicago, San Jose, California, Columbia, South Carolina, and Syracuse, New York are suing the feds because they claim that so-called ghost guns are increasingly being used in crimes.
For some reason this is starting to feel like groundhog day. In fact, the Firearms Policy Coalition sued the Attorney General of Pennsylvania over trying to ban these products by fiat. Blocks of material aren’t receivers because they can’t receive anything. As the ATF clearly explained, these items “have not reached the ‘stage of manufacture’ which would result in the classification of a firearm.”
People have been manufacturing their own firearms since before the Revolutionary War. It’s an American pastime, and it’s something the government can’t stop anyone from doing. They can only punish people after the fact. While this lawsuit may be good for political optics, it’s a pursuit of unconstitutional, unworkable policy, a waste of time, and a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Missouri patch-job on last week’s under-18 ban
It seems there’s been a sea change in the Missouri legislature. Last week I reported that the Missouri senate passed a bill that would’ve made it a felony for people other than parents to give people under 18 a firearm. This week, the Missouri House advanced a bill that would amend the law to only make it criminal to give minors a firearm when the intent is to avoid arrest or investigation.
I’m glad to see that they won’t be punishing people for taking their grandchildren out for a hunting trip, but even this proposed law is flawed.
Think about it. If the state can figure out that you gave your gun to someone else to hide it, they’ve probably already got you for the primary crime, whether it was a robbery, murder, or something else; it’s unnecessary because you can usually charge an offender with obstruction anyway. Passing bills like these won’t stop or reduce crime, but they may get “law and order” candidates reelected at the expense of gun rights.
Everytown is trying to buy the Florida Election
Bloomberg-backed Everytown is at it again. Their PAC, the Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund, has announced that it will spend six million dollars on television and digital ads in Florida, specifically in Orlando and Tampa.
The PAC’s stated goal is to bring about more gun control in swing states like Florida, and they weren’t shy about explaining that they’re targeting the state’s Hispanic community.
The cash this election season will be spent pushing for the election of Joe Biden who is, of course, a gun control zealot. Everytown doesn’t care about Floridians, they only care about exploiting voters in the Sunshine State so they can get a president that supports federal suppression of gun rights.
Matthew Larosiere is the Director of Legal Policy at Firearms Policy Coalition. You can connect with him on Twitter @MattLaAtLaw.
It is with a certain awe that I contemplate attempts to use the judiciary, to force the executive branch, to make policy decisions that would be the purview of Congress, were not all three branches banned from such action by the constitution.
Syracuse, noooooo! The home of my beloved if wayward alma mater suing over ghost guns? Sigh. Betrayed again by the politics of NY. Time to get out of here I think.
I think ghosts are scary enough, they shouldn’t have guns. I’m all for ghost gun regulations! They already have the right to vote in D states, they don’t need guns too. Next, they’ll be granted “personhood”, affirmative action protection, and they’ll be suing everyone over “offensive” comments.
Ghost Lives Matter, bruh.
And Black Guns Matter…too.
Paul,
Good chuckle. Thanks!!
GLM! No Justice No Peace!! Defund the Ghostbusters!!! 👻
Columbia, South Carolina. I do my best to avoid the place and go around if I’m heading to the low country.
Just politics, doubt they even know what a 80% is.
A retired ATF guy said “Go talk to Congress if you want this.”
Home of FN USA, manufacturer of all light and medium machine guns for the US military, as well as 10’s if not 100’s of thousands of m16’s and m4’s.
You should watch some of the episodes of LivePD, if they can be found. lol, or go hang downtown one night when things are jumping.
BREAKING: 60 Mininuts is doing a hit piece on gun owner’s. Singing the praises of RED FLAG LAW’S. EFF them😩😕😳
+ 1 and the jackass they rode in on.
Bestiality is unlawful in most states, aside from California. Leave the poor jackasses alone.
Red Flags can now include those who had a spat with a wife, girlfriend, boyfriend etc. a quarter of a century ago in their youth or some worthless cheating heart caused a ruckus and the police were involved and someone was cited, arrested, etc.
Ancient history can pop up during a NCIC and you get denied. You can appeal and the Feds have 15 days to say yes or no or if no one can decide you get a conditional proceed via the USPS which you take to the FFL and the FFL decides if you get a firearm or not and they are not obligated to release the firearm. In other words if you run into a problem and even though you’ve been a model citizen for over a quarter century take a ticket, have a seat and watch your rights get trampled on. I’ve seen stuff pop up on those with a concealed carry permit, etc.
Don’t preach to the choir…Write your congressman and inform them that in far too many cases Red Flags do nothing but deny law abiding citizens their rights and that needs to end pronto.
38 Minutes has been anti-gun ever since I remember. Downunder the local franchise had a debate on guns and they kept focusing on one person who kept saying he was buying SKS rifles and burying them in rural areas in case the Indonesians invaded.
They had their chosen nutter to make every other gun owner look bad. Even one of the other pro-gun people asked why this person was given so much attention. They then cut the person who made the question off from making further statements.
It was a great day when that fraud Richard “holier than though” Carlton died (former sock puppet for 38 Minutes).
If I lived in Australia, a country rich with natural resources where the population is about 25 million relatively close to densely populated Asian nations, then I would probably want to have more than an SKS buried.
I hope they aren’t thinking that Great Britain and New Zealand are coming to save them from becoming slave labor. It will be hard for her majesty to do so with so small a military and the population being armed with nothing sharper than butter knives.
Where I live, there’s a rifleman behind every blade of grass.
“Four cities sue the ATF to try to get rid of ghost guns”
Good luck registering a hunk of plastic, metal or wood but then those Leftarded cities are too damn dumb to understand anything,Eff them and Leftarded sports man.
The head slave masters and their yes man midnight basketball LeBoneHead James can’t have no cotten pickers having guns not even no part of a Gun.🔫 The plantation big little boss mister bloomberg will go get his whip and beat me and my kids if he sees something that even looks like a 🔫 gun. He thinks no one should have no 🔫 🔫 🔫 guns but him so quit thinking about them 🔫 🔫 🔫 guns and get back to pickin cotten or the big boss cracker bloomberg will start crackin his whip.
Imagine being the poor geezer what lays down with this miserable, foul mouthed floozy.
Yuck!, wow! That’s original. How long ago was it when you read it the first time?
Little ‘yuc’ the incel is still pissed Deb won’t date him… 😉
DebbieW is cool. These lay down jokes shit, hah.,,and I liked ElaineD too, you guys just don’t get it.Elaines stories of Concubine Man were funny as hell
I kinda miss Sara, hope she is doing OK…
People have been making their own weapons since they started using sticks and rocks, instead of just their feet and hands.
Hypothetically speaking, do your ghost guns exist? Why worry?
I see ghost guns everywhere!
Listening to the Portland Mayor a few moments ago….stone-cold drooling idiot. He’s another anti build your own guy when not blaming President Trump for everything..
I’m really beginning to think the massive radiation leak from Fukushima has fried their brains on the west coast. It’s time to have a Constitutional Convention if this craziness goes on for much longer.
“It’s time to have a Constitutional Convention if this craziness goes on for much longer.”
Hell, *no*.
That opens the door to all kinds of shenanigans against the 2A, if they can cough up the votes…
Exactly..everything is on the table including States leaving this mess. Possibly a chance to right what the judiciary and Congress has screwed up.
We are heading into a shooting culture war if this continues.
TGIM, this township doesn’t sell booze on Sunday.. Down to two good shots of Southern Comfort then it’s the Meth pipe. I smoke that shit and rub the bluing off the gunms, and I’ve got a lot of gunms, load and reload, smoke some more,get real tweaked out and see ninjas creeping around, by the time I get the red dots on them they vanish. I’d rather fight off them snakes that that Southern Comfort brings then them damn ninja’s. I seen one run down a power line and jump behind a boxcar. ( written explicitly for the Gov Spybot’s)
LeBron is the modern day Al Sharpton. Democrats love their race hustlers. If black people stop fearing the white boogie man, then they might have time to look around and ask what the democrats have done for them lately.
Most of them have been blinded but not all of them
Why should we listen or care about what some ball player says. He gets paid more money for bouncing around a ball than the soldier wearing a helmet defending his freedom. He’s just another arrogant ass who thinks the world revolves around him.
“state’s mandatory minimum training time for law enforcement officers is 728 hours” Duh. What a bunch of idiots. 728 hours is the total minimum training time required to be a certified law enforcement officer. Only 20 hours or so involves firearms training. It’s a false argument to equate a course in safe gun handling with the training to become a police officer. Except for special teams, most LEOs have minimal firearms training.
About “Ghost Guns,” the biggest problem they have is that very few are ever used in crimes according to research. Ghost guns are statistically insignificant as far as their use by criminals. So the reality is that they’re trying to make the case for a problem that really doesn’t exist. Those few that have been used, weren’t made by the perp, but by a second party, and the second party has been charged appropriately for selling their guns, for which it’s already a felony.
B.B., “Ghost Guns” really aren’t a problem when you consider how few ghosts have been shot in the last decade.
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