A Democrat state lawmaker in Indiana reportedly wants to end that state’s preemption statute, and the legislation will be released next month, according to WXIN/Fox59 News.
State Senator Fady Qaddoura reportedly said his concern is to allow local communities should have more say in how guns are regulated. Earlier this year, Indianapolis officials worked to adopt a gun control ordinance raising the legal minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21 years and ban so-called “semiautomatic assault weapons.” Democrats supported the idea, but Republicans opposed.
One of the first states to adopt the concept was Washington, where the law dates back to 1983 and was updated in 1985. The Evergreen State law has served as a model for many other states to write their own laws.
Sen. Qaddoura was quoted by WXIN explaining, “We have heard clearly from many communities that they would like organic solutions that are not mandated by the state of Indiana.”
State preemption laws became popular over the past 25 years because they place all authority for regulating firearms in the hands of the state legislature. This guarantees uniformity from one state boundary to the other, eliminating what supporters claimed was a patchwork of local ordinances which often times conflicted with one another, leaving gun owners confused about obeying a law as they crossed the invisible lines of city limits and county boundaries.
WXIN identified Rodney Francis, with SaferINDY—described as “a group consisting of dozens of organizations in support of ending gun violence in Indianapolis”—asserting “With a little more control and call for accountability and responsibility, we could possibly curtail some of this violence and allow communities to feel safe and thrive.”
However, Guy Relford, described as a “2nd Amendment attorney” and founder of the 2A Project, said overturning state preemption would lead to enactment of several unconstitutional local gun ordinances.
An overwhelming majority of states—more than 40 at last count—have adopted preemption statutes. Such laws have been under attack by local officials who want to turn back the clock to an era when they could adopt local gun laws, ostensibly to address local violent crime. So far, only one state, Colorado, has repealed its preemption law, but there has been pressure on Washington state lawmakers to do likewise.
