By Tanya Metaksa
What’s New— Constitutional carry reminder: Signed by Governor in 2022: Alabama: HB272, signed by Gov. Ivey; Indiana: HB1296, signed by Gov. Holcomb; Ohio: Gov. Mike DeWine signed SB215; Georgia: Gov. Brian Kemp signed SB319; Louisiana: HB37 passed the House Criminal Justice Committee.
State Legislation: California: A new bill, SB831, promotes gun safety on film sets has been introduced: Connecticut: Gov. Lamont’s anti-gun budget passed on May 4 and the legislature has adjourned; Florida: Right-to-Carry permits in Florida = 2,692,988; Maine: legislature adjourns with no action on either pro-hunting or anti-gun bills; Politics: Primaries in Indiana and Ohio were held; Pennsylvania holds its primary on May 17; Judicial: Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency: the motion for hunting groups to intervene in this suit was denied by the District Court and is being appealed to the Ninth Circuit..
Biden-Harris Administration
Biden announcements: In anticipation that Steve Dettelbach’s nomination to be ATF Director will be approved in the US Senate, the Biden-Harris administration has replaced the current “acting Director”,Marvin Richardson, with a U.S. attorney in Arizona, Gary Restaino. A Reload.com article describes Richardson’s demotion.
2021 Congressional Activity
H.R. 6945, No Retaining Every Gun in a System That Restricts Your (REGISTRY) Rights Act, has been introduced by Texas Representative Michael Cloud with 44 co-sponsors. This bill would mandate that FFL’s that go out of business destroy their sales records. The chance of it being considered in Speaker Pelosi’s House of Representative is zero, unfortunately.
The Outdoor Recreation Act, S.3266, introduced by U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) on Dec. 2. Information on this bipartisan outdoor recreation bill can be found here.
Discretionary spending for FY2022: The Biden Administration is asking Congress to increase spending for combatting “the Gun Violence Public Health Epidemic.” Part of these funds will be given to the states and localities to “improve background check systems” and “incentivize State adoption of gun licensing laws.” Firearms Policy Coalition has a website dedicated to stopping this bill.
The House of Representatives passed gun control legislation using two bills: HR8, a “universal background check” bill and HR1446, a bill that would allow the FBI “NICS” check to be delayed indefinitely without “proof” that the buyer is not eligible to purchase. The votes were 227-203 for HR8 and 219-210 for HR1446.
2022 Politics
Many pundits are predicting a red wave in the 2022 Congressional elections. At the moment the U.S. Senate is split 50-50 and the Democrats have only a six-member majority in the House of Representatives. Every race where there is a possibility for change will be highly contested. This column will cover such races as events unfold.
Alaska: Former Gov. Sarah Palin, former running mate of Presidential candidate John McCain in 2008, has announced her candidacy to succeed the late Congressman Don Young, with the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
Florida: Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried (D) is running for Governor. She faces Rep. Charlie Crist in the Democrat primary. In April she announced her campaign for legalizing marijuana and her endorsement by Mom’s Demand, the gun control group funded by Michael Bloomberg.
Georgia: When Gov. Brian Kemp signed constitutional carry, @GiffordsCourage tweeted, “Gov. Brian Kemp has ignored the voices of Georgia and caved to the special interests of the corporate gun lobby. As governor, @StaceyAbrams will lead with courage and conviction, and put Georgians first. It’s time to vote Kemp out.” The next day NRA-ILA announced it was endorsing Gov. Kemp. Kemp is running in a primary versus David Perdue.
Indiana: In the May 4 primary race for Indiana Senate District 46, Andra Hunley (D), a Moms Demand volunteer, won.
Ohio: The May 3 primary is history and the following candidates will be facing off in November: US Senate—J.D. Vance (R) rated AQ by NRA-ILA v. Tim Ryun (D) rated F. Governor: Incumbent Mike DeWine (R), who signed the constitutional carry bill, v. Nan Whaley (D). Moms Demand volunteer Erin Dickinson is running for Summit County Council At-Large.
State Legislatures
Alaska: SB136/HB179, preventing the prohibition, regulation, or seizure of citizens’ Second Amendment rights during a declared State of Emergency, passed the Senate. HB203, “safe storage” legislation was heard by the House State Affairs Committee on March 29, but no action was taken at that time.
Arizona: HB2166, exempting firearms and firearms safety equipment from sales taxes, was passed by the House 31-28 and has now passed the Senate Finance Committee 6-4. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted do Pass (5-3) on both HB2414, allowing law-abiding citizens to store firearms in locked vehicles on school grounds, and HB2316, expanding areas where Right-to-Carry permittees can lawfully carry. The Senate voted to pass SB1177, mandating the sending of renewal notices for Right-to-Carry permits. The House passed HB3144, stopping government agencies from working with companies that discriminate against Second Amendment related businesses. The House Judiciary Committee passed HB2473, prohibiting the state from doing business with banks that discriminate against legal firearms’ businesses.
California: As a result of the death of the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, on the set of the movie, RUST, a new bill, SB831, has been introduced. Whether that bill would have prevented the tragedy, is debatable. A report on CNN of the incident calls the entire incident a result of “willful violations” of safety rules and an “indifference to employee safety.” The Senate Public Safety Committee passed SB1327, creating a “private right of action” for any person against another person who breaks California laws regarding firearms, and SB918, a firearms bill dealing with increasing fees and removing privacy for gun owners. AB2033, extending the duration of a constitutional carry license from 2 years to 5 years, was voted down 2-5. AB1594, allowing individuals and the Attorney General to sue firearms manufacturers and sellers; AB2571, prohibit marketing of weapons to children; and AB1621, further control of personal weapons have all passed the Public Safety Committee and are before the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Eugene Volokh discusses the constitutional problems with AB2571 in this Reason article. SB906, requiring parents to tell schools whether there is a gun in the home, passed both the Public Safety Committee and the Education Committees. The General Assembly passed AB311, restricting the sale of “precursor” parts at gun shows in early February. AB1594, to allow civil lawsuits against the firearms industry was introduced. The bill tries to define the firearms industry as a “public nuisance.” AB1769, prohibiting gun shows in Ventura County has been introduced.
Colorado: Edgewater: Complete Colorado announced that there would be a consideration of gun rights restrictions at the April 5 city council meeting. Led by Gay Keao, a “gun sense” member of the city Council, only gun restrictive measures were discussed. At the April 16 city council meeting numerous Edgewater residents spoke against the proposals. More discussions will probably be held according to Mayor John Beltrone.
Connecticut: The Connecticut legislature has adjourned. SB16, Governor Lamont’s budget which includes ant-gun provisions, passed the House on May 4 and now goes to Lamont for his signature. This bill would ban Right-to-Carry permittees from carrying on public transportation and at polling places and ban open carry near a demonstration. It also includes “millions in funding for gun violence prevention.”
Florida: The Department of Agriculture issued its annual report on April 30 announcing that 2,692,988
Right-to-Carry permits were the hands of law-abiding gun owners.
Georgia: The Georgia legislature has adjourned.SB319, constitutional carry, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp.
Hawaii: HB2075, passed the House and now the Senate Judiciary Committee is adding amendments.
Illinois: HB4383, a non-firearm bill, was amended by Rep. Kam Buchner (D) with a so-called “ghost guns” amendment that has passed both Houses of the legislature. It now goes to Gov. Pritzker who is likely to sign it. According to John Boch this bill could ban modular pistols.
Kansas: Gov. Laura Kelly signs HB246, a lifetime hunting and fishing permit for children. Awaiting full Senate Action are SB482, prohibiting discriminatory business behavior to the firearm industry, andSB522, a firearm safety education bill, a similar bill was vetoed by Gov.Laura Kelly last year. In the House HB2681, allowing seized firearms to be disposed according to the Kansas code of criminal procedure, is awaiting action.
Louisiana: On April 20th the HB37, a constitutional carry bill, and HB868, creating an online handgun course to be offered by the State Police for free, passed the House. Both bills are awaiting action in the Senate.
Maine: During the second session of the legislature, which adjourned on April 30, neither a Sunday hunting bill nor an ant-gun bill passed.
Minnesota: SF4062, a pro-gun omnibus funding bill that included increasing funding for the Game & Fish Department, has passed the Senate.
Missouri: SB1048, discouraging banks from discriminating against the firearms industry, has passed the Senate Insurance and Banking Committee. HB1462, allowing firearms carry on public transit, other vehicle and places of worship passed the House 101-40; the Senate General Laws committee passed it on a 4-1 vote and it has been referred to the Governmental Accountability and Oversight Committee.
New Hampshire: The Senate passed HB1636. It now goes to Gov. Sununu.
New Jersey: A.2326/S.513, a pair of bills that had some bad consequences for persons caught with a firearm. A.2326, was amended in the Assembly Law & Public Safety Committee, while the companion was on the agenda of the Senate Law & Public Safety. As of now no action has occurred.
New York: Senate Codes Committee hearing for S6659, allowing Westchester County to set its own pistol permit fees,and S8164, a mandatory safe storage bill was held.A8684, prohibiting firearms in public transportation, restaurants and other places has been introduced. This is part of the Democrat party’s resistance to any outcome of the SCOTUS case awaiting a decision.Emails are being sent out to handgun licensees who must rectify their status. The NY Safe Act requires recertification every five years. The New York State Police says that recertification may take place online by visiting the New York State Pistol Permit Recertification page at: https://firearms.troopers.ny.gov/pprecert/welcome.faces.
S1192B/A-7246B, requiring persons possessing any firearm to hold a firearms safety certificate, was passed by the Senate Codes Committee on Jan. 31—this is part of the effort to blunt any SCOTUS decision on the New York Rifle & Pistol Assn case; A9573/S8164, establishing criminal penalties for unlawful gun storage, have been introduced.
Ohio: Gov. Mike DeWine signed HB227, a constitutional carry bill. HB325, that guarantees Second Amendment rights during a state of emergency, has passed the House and it is currently before the Senate Veterans and Public Safety Committee. This bill will prohibit both local and state government from infringing on firearm possession, transportation, commerce, hunting and fishing. Also included is legal recourse for citizens whose rights are infringed.
Oklahoma: HB3144, prohibiting the state from doing business with banks that discriminate against legal firearms’ businesses, passed the Senate but needs to go back to the House for concurrence before it goes to the governor. HB3157, prevents the prohibition, regulation, or seizure of citizens’ Second Amendment rights during a declared State of Emergency, passed the House 79-17 and is now before the Senate Public Safety Committee.
Pennsylvania: Governor Wolf lost no time in vetoing HB979, a bill that strengthened current preemption law by adding the ability of persons “adversely affected” by anti-preemption municipal ordinances to take the municipality to court.
South Carolina: HB4614, allowing Sunday hunting on state Wildlife Management Areas, passed the House and it is before the Senate Committee on Fish, Game and Forestry.
Tennessee: HB1735, lowering the age for constitutional carry to 18, passed the House 64-28.
Vermont: Two anti-hunting bills, S201, banning trapping, and S281, banning hunting using dogs, have passed the Senate.
Wisconsin: The Wisconsin legislature has adjourned. On April 8 Gov. Tony Evers vetoed AB495, allowing persons to keep their firearms and ammunition in their vehicle while on school property when dropping or picking up a student, and AB518, recognizing out of state Right-to-Carry permits. On April 15 he also vetoed SB570, a bill to increase firearms industry liability protections.
Judicial
Cases are grouped by court venue. New cases are added as they develop and some of these cases will be removed from this report if there is inactivity for a period of time. We will try and follow those cases that are active and impact the most gun owners. The SCOTUS 2021 term decision of New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn (NYSR&PA) v. Bruen that is being decided has impacted not only some of the cases currently being decided in the federal courts, but some courts are enjoining government from enforcing recently passed ordinances and laws.
US Supreme Court (SCOTUS)
Awaiting decision by SCOTUS before the end of 2021-2022 term:
New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn (NYSR&PA) v. Bruen: There has been speculation on Twitter about which Justice will be writing this opinion—This case concerns the carrying of firearms outside the home. According to the Supreme Court orders: “The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted limited to the following question: Whether the State’s denial of petitioners’ applications for concealed-carry licenses for self-defense violated the Second Amendment.” As a split exists in the Circuit Court decisions regarding this premise, SCOTUS will attempt to resolve the issue. It has taken more than a decade to get the Supreme Court to take up another Second Amendment case after Second Amendment victories in Heller and McDonald.
Current petitions before SCOTUS requesting certiorari:
GOA v. Garland: Petition for certiorari has been extended “to and including May 9, 2022.” This case deals with the regulation of bump stocks by ATF.
Duncan v. Bonta: This case concerns the California ban on magazines with a capacity greater than 10 rounds.
Dominic Bianchi et al. v. Brian E. Frosh et al. Jan. 14 the Supreme Court made the request as it considers whether to hear the advocates’ appeal of a lower federal appeals court decision — first issued in February 2017 — that the Second Amendment does not apply to firearms “most useful in military service.” A group of 25 state Attorney Generals have filed a petition for a Writ of Certiorari with SCOTUS.
Aposhian v. Garland: was distributed for conference of 1/21/2022, but has been rescheduled with no date. On August 2, 2021 W. Clark Aposhian filed a petition for a write of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court. This case was filed originally filed in 2019 seeking a preliminary injunction against the BATFE’s reclassification of “bump stocks” as “machine-guns”. The district court upheld the BATFE interpretation, as did a panel majority of the Tenth Circuit. The Tenth Circuit then granted a petition for review en banc. Then the Tenth Circuit vacated its prior order and reinstated the panel opinion. This case is now before SCOTUS asking for a writ of certiorari to the Tenth Circuit to rehear the case en banc. This case is similar to GOA v. Garland listed below.
Marshall v. ATF: has been distributed for conference of 4/1/2022. This case deals with buying and selling firearms to persons 18-20 years of age.
Non-SCOTUS Federal cases
Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency: Under the Trump Administration the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service opened more that 2.3 million acres on 106 National Wildlife Refuges and National Fish Hatcheries to hunting and fishing opportunities in 2020. As a result, the Center for Biological Diversity sued the Fish & Wildlife Service in federal district court in Montana. Although NRA-ILA, Safari Club International, Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation have partnered and filed a motion to intervene and dismiss this lawsuit, the District Court ruled that hunters “have no interest” in this suit and denied the motion to intervene.
Grey Wolves Litigation: Returning the management of gray wolves to the states and delisting them as endangered is now in the US District Court Northern District of California. A decision by a judge vacated the Interior Department 2020 ruling. The State of Utah, NRA and SCI have appealed that decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
All firearms cases before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (CA and west coast) have been put on hold until after the SCOTUS decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn (NYSR&PA) v. Bruen has been published. That includes Duncan v. Bonta and Miller v. Bonta:
Ban on firearms for citizens ages 18-21 in federal court
NRA v. Swearingen: On appeal to the US District Court in Tallahassee, FL oral arguments were held on March 24, 2022. This is a case that deals with the age of majority. U.S. District Judge for the Northern District Mark E. Walker wrote a strange opinion in which he stated, “for better or worse” he was precluded from ruling any way other than upholding the law.
State cases
Palmer v. Sisolak: An appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has been filed. A case against a bill that passed the legislature to ban so-called “ghost guns.” The US District Court ruled that defendants motion to dismiss was granted.
Edmonds v. Bass: The Washington State Supreme Court ruled this past week on the city of Edmonds appeal from the Bass v. Edmonds. The Supreme Court upheld the decision by the Washington Court of Appeals that the city of Edmonds had violated the Washington state preemption law. Thus the ordinance requiring that guns be locked up and kept out of unauthorized hands is no longer applicable. This will certainly affect the ongoing case regarding a similar ordinance passed by the city of Seattle.
People of the State of Illinois, Appellant, v. Vivian Brown, Appellee. Appeal, Circuit Court: On Feb. 2018 the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit, Illinois, found that the requirement to have a Firearms Owner ID card in order to legally possess a firearm in the home for self-defense was unconstitutional. Several motions to reconsider were filed and the Court denied the motion to reconsider on Oct. 16, 2018. The state of IL appealed to the IL Supreme Court on Nov. 11, 2018. Finally, an oral hearing was held by the IL Supreme Court in March. No timetable has been issued for a decision.
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., et al v. City of San Jose: In Feb. 2022 the City of San Jose, CA passed an ordinance that required San Jose residents who own firearms to pay an “Annual Gun Harm Reduction Fee” to a “Designated Nonprofit Organization” designated by the City Manager. A complaint to invalidate this law was filed in the Superior Court of CA, County of Santa Clara.
Jane Doe, et al. v. Bonta: AB173, a bill signed into law, that “allowed sensitive personal information about gun owners” to be shared with universities and any “bona fide research institution,” has been challenged in this lawsuit by the NRA. In late January the court granted the plaintiffs motion to proceed using Pseudonyms.
