By Tanya Metaksa
What’s New—Politics: Presidential Race: Trump and Harris on firearms; Texas State Fair: Texas State Fair opens with gun ban in place; California: Governor Newsom signed three anti-Second Amendment gun bills into law on Sept. 24. All three bills become effective Jan. 1, 2025; Massachusetts: out-of-state hunters not welcome in Massachusetts; Leftists Buying Guns
Leftists Buying Guns Nothing for 2A Advocates to Crow About
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that gun ownership among Democrats is on the rise. Some pro-gun people on social media have suggested that this is good news for Second Amendment proponents. David Codrea, in Ammoland.com, puts forth the argument that this is not a plus for Second Amendment supporters. He writes: “It’s all part of a larger narrative being laid out by media handlers for Kamala: ‘We’re not taking anybody’s guns away,’ Harris and uberFudd Tim Walz. And they, of course, are both lying through their teeth…Without further data to show this will change voting patterns to oppose citizen disarmament, it simply means they’ve got their guns before the (legal) supply is cut off. And based on comments of new gun owners included in the article, they’re still going to keep voting in prohibitionists.”
Politics
Presidential Race
July 13, 2024, Assassination Attempt on Former President Donald Trump
Two reports detailing some aspects of the July 13 assassination attempt against Former President Donald J. Trump explain the Secret Service’s use of counter-sniper teams in Butler, PA. The FBI’s Director Christopher Wray published the reason for those teams in a press release about the murder-for-hire plan against Trump published on Aug. 6: “This dangerous murder-for-hire plot exposed in today’s complaint allegedly was orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran and is straight out of the Iranian playbook,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “A foreign-directed plot to kill a public official, or any U.S. citizen, is a threat to our national security and will be met with the full might and resources of the FBI.”
In the Executive Summary for the U.S Senate’s Preliminary Findings on the Trump Attempted Assassination, there is an explanation of the FBI’s reason: “The July 13 rally was the first time a USSS counter sniper team was assigned to a protectee other than the President, Vice President, or a presidential candidate who had been formally nominated by his or her party,” the Senate report reads.
Even Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) held a press conference to accuse the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of concealing evidence and obstructing information at the assassination attempt on July 13.
Vice-President Kamala Harris
Her gun ban and gun buyback support
In the past week, Reload.com, an online website specializing in firearms news, published several articles on Kamala Harris’s history of supporting restrictions on the Second Amendment rights of Americans. The Reload’s Sept. 24 article’s headline reads Kamala Harris Backed San Francisco Handgun Confiscation Measure. In 2005, when Kamala Harris was the San Francisco District Attorney, Proposition H, which would ban the private possession of handguns in San Francisco and the sale, possession, manufacturing, and distribution of all firearms and ammunition in the city, had Harris’ full backing. The voters supported this proposal, but the NRA and the California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA) challenged it in Fiscal v. San Francisco. On June 12, 2006, the local court ruling read, “Proposition H is adjudged invalid as preempted by state law.” However, there was an appeal, and in January 2008, the state appeals court struck down Proposition H. It cost San Francisco hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to the gun groups.
In another article on gun politics, the Reload referenced Harris’ support of mandatory buyback programs. That information supporting Harris’ position was from an NBC News article about the Las Vegas Gun Safety Forum for 2020 Democrat presidential candidates held on Oct. 2, 2019.
Since the Democrat convention, Harris has sought out left-leaning publications to talk about her solution to so-called gun violence, and in an interview with NPR reporter Tonya Mosley, Harris attempted to cover all of her favorite gun proposals, singling out the Biden-Harris administration’s proposal to administratively change the definition of firearms by an Illegal BATFE rule and make the private ownership of non-serialized firearms a federal crime.
Federal
Rep. Massie Introduces the National Constitutional Carry Act
Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced HR 9534, the National Constitutional Carry Act, on Sept. 11. It is a solid pro-Second Amendment bill, but it won’t get a hearing this session. This article in Ammoland states: “Although the chances of the bill passing are almost zero, Massie’s move to introduce the bill is significant. The goal of introducing bills with little to no chance of passing is to garner future support. The hope is that, eventually, the bill will have enough support to pass Congress, and hopefully, there will be a president in office willing to sign it into law.”
Texas State Fair
The Texas State Fair began on Sept. 27, and runs through Oct. 20. Texas media reports that the gun ban at the Fair is in place.
State Legislation and local communities
States that are still in session: California (recess), Illinois (recess), Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire (recess), New Jersey, Ohio (recess), Oklahoma (recess), North Carolina (recess), Pennsylvania, South Carolina (recess), Virginia (recess), Wisconsin (recess)
California: Governor Gavin Newsom signed three anti-Second Amendment gun bills into law on Sept. 24. All three bills become effective Jan. 1, 2025. AB2917 expands upon California’s “red flag” laws; SB53 prohibits firearm possession in the home unless the firearms are stored in a California Department of Justice-approved locked box or safe; and SB1252, a bill to codify the Office of Gun Violence Prevention and requires the Office to work with gun violence prevention advocatesto promote more restrictions.
Massachusetts: We reportedin July that Gov. Maura Healy signed HD4885, the so-called compromise anti-Second Amendment bill, initially considered under the number HD4420. This was part of what NSSF’s Jake McGuigan wrote about the bill:“Instead, the bill aims to suppress the exercise of the Second Amendment by implementing onerous training requirements just to purchase a firearm, bans all of the most commonly used guns in America, and implements a draconian gun registration scheme that criminals will ignore. It even makes it illegal for a 15-year-old Boy Scout to use a .22 caliber rifle to earn a merit badge. Judges continue to set free criminals in the Commonwealth while the legislature makes law abiding citizens immediate felons.”
Additionally, NRA’s American Hunter magazine has a cautionary article on hunting in Massachusetts this fall. My reading of the GOAL analysis of this law chills my blood. If any out-of-state resident planned a hunting trip to Massachusetts for hunting season, please check all the available information. Here’s a short list of Dos and Don’ts courtesy of GOAL:
– non-residents are no longer exempt from MA licensing requirements for possessing handguns and any semi-automatic firearms for any purpose including competition
- – Must register their firearms with the Commonwealth prior to entering the state.
- – Bans the possession of semi-automatic firearms (including rifles and shotguns).
- – Bans any non-resident under 18 from hunting in Massachusetts.
- – Non-residents, even those with a temporary license to carry, cannot purchase ammunition or ammunition part in the Commonwealth. (This has been the case since 1998, but was reaffirmed in Chapter 135.)
- Any muzzle loader that uses a modern primer or other component will be considered a modern firearm, thus a license is required.
- There is some language in line #1306 of the bill about hunting licenses: “The colonel of the state police shall determine those states with substantially similar requirements to those of the commonwealth for a firearm identification card under section 129C and a hunting license under section 11 of chapter 131 and shall annually publish a list of those states.”
Wyoming: The Joint Judiciary Committee held meetings on September 19-20. The agenda included an item titled Firearms. The item on firearms issues included an update regarding the Wyoming State Building Commission’s Rules on firearms in public areas of the capitol presented by Suzanne Norton, division administrator of theWyoming State Construction Department. Another meeting is scheduled for Nov. 7-8, in Casper, WY.
