By Dave Workman | Editor-in-Chief
Jackson, Miss. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba is taking heat for prohibiting the open carry of firearms in the city as part of the COVID-19 emergency plan, but in a letter to the mayor from Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, he is advised that he does not have the authority to declare such a ban.
“I have serious concerns about the Order and the burden it imposes upon Mississippians’ constitutional right to possess firearms,” Fitch wrote April 26.
After referring to a couple of laws which Lumumba apparently used to justify his declaration, Fitch tells him, “Neither Section (of law), nor any other provision of law governing municipal civil emergencies, authorizes a mayor to suspend any valid state statute or constitutional right,” the attorney general advises.
According to WLBT News, “Lumumba says since January 1, 2019, Jackson Police have responded to 94 calls of convicted felons in possession of a gun.”
There was no indication any of these calls involved a criminal openly carrying a firearm. The station said Lumumba “has no objection to the Second Amendment,” but he does have “a problem with illegal gun owners.” He claims open carry makes it difficult to enforce laws against criminals carrying firearms.
The Jackson Clarion Ledger reported Lumumba’s defense of the ban, but the City Council refused to back him. Instead, they voted 6-0 “in favor of a resolution opposing a ban on open carry in the city,” the newspaper said.
Fitch’s letter to Lumumba added, “While the Order seeks to suspend the ‘open carry of firearms,’ it does not identify any specific statute or statutes that it seeks to suspend. The right to keep and bear arms is a natural right, enshrined in the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Mississippi. In an effort to provide safeguards to the diminution of this right, the Mississippi Legislature has imposed strict limitations on a municipality’s authority to regulate “the possession, carrying, transportation, sale, transfer or ownership of firearms or ammunition or their components.”
However, Fitch then essentially lowers the boom on Lumumba’s anti-gun-rights order, noting, “The Order cites recent homicides committed within the City – seven within recent weeks, including two young children. These heinous crimes are heartbreaking, especially because innocent children were victims. As Mississippi’s Chief Legal Officer, I stand ready to assist the City in the prosecution of those who played a role in this violence, to the extent Mississippi law allows, and to provide victims advocacy services for the victims and their families. To the best of my knowledge, however, there is no evidence that the State’s open carry law was implicated in these crimes or that your order would have changed the outcomes.”
“Mississippians enjoy the right to lawfully open carry in all of Mississippi’s 82 counties and in every municipality within the State,” she adds. “The City of Jackson is no exception. The City lacks statutory authority to suspend a state statute or constitutional provision. Accordingly, I ask that you rescind the Order immediately.”
