Biden pressuring Dem governors for more gun control, Biden hopes more state gun control will make it easier to pass federal bills.
Lee Williams, June 21, 2022
The Biden-Harris administration is telling sympathetic Democratic governors to pass more gun control legislation with the apparent belief that if more states pass restrictive anti-gun bills, it will be easier for the administration to push for similar legislation at the federal level.
The White House has already contacted governors in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, California and Delaware. The bills they have come up with are similar in concept and some even use similar language. The legislation usually includes 21+ age restrictions for firearm purchasers, Red Flag bills as well as “assault weapon” and standard-capacity magazine bans.
Nowhere have gun owners been hit harder than in Biden’s home state of Delaware, where a bill that would prohibit magazines capable of holding more than 17 rounds and a bill that would outlaw most semi-auto rifles are awaiting Gov. John Carney’s signature, after flying through the Democrat-controlled General Assembly.
“Every center-fire rifle that’s magazine fed will be banned,” said John Sigler, who is past president of the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association, past president of the National Rifle Association and a current NRA Board member.
Delaware is a small state. Sigler has known Biden for decades.
“All of this is being driven by the White House,” Sigler said. “Joe has been a gun-banner forever — back to when he was running the Senate Judiciary Committee. My first dealings with him involved ‘Saturday Night Specials’ and ‘Cop Killer’ bullets. This is exactly what those of us here in Delaware feared when he announced he was running for president.”
HB 450 will become law the moment Gov. Carney signs it, which he is expected to do. It will ban 63 firearms by name, as well as any semi-auto rifle with a detachable magazine, any shotgun with a telescoping or folding stock or a revolving cylinder, any pistol with a detachable magazine outside the grip or a threaded barrel, and all pistols and rifles with fixed magazines capable of hold more than 17 rounds.
HB 450 states that gun owners cannot sell, offer for sale, transfer, purchase, receive or possess one of the banned firearms after the effective date — except you can keep what you had on or before the effective date. By prohibiting sale, the bill takes away the firearm’s value.
SS 1 for SB 6 bans magazines capable of holding more than 17 rounds. It, too, awaits Gov. Carney’s signature, which he has promised to do.
There is no grandfather clause in this bill. Anyone who owns a magazine capable of holding more than 17 rounds must surrender it to police for a “buy back” or risk misdemeanor charges for the first offense and felony charges the second time they’re caught with a 17+ magazine.
At first the bill said the state would pay the owner $10 per magazine, but they only allocated $45,000 for the “buy back.” Now, the bill has been amended to offer the owner “current market value” for their property, which the legislature did not define. It has still only allocated $45,000 taxpayer dollars.
Delaware Sportsmen will sue
The Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association has no choice but to sue once the bills are signed into law, Sigler said. It will be a costly endeavor.
“Our membership is stepping up to the plate, and people we’ve never heard of are contributing,” Sigler said. “We are preparing right now and we will see what transpires, but we will litigate. We promised to sue and we are going to carry out our promise.
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, et al, v. New York
DSSA has helped fund the case filed by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association against New York that deals with the right of law abiding citizens to carry handguns for lawful purposes outside of their home. The case has finally been briefed at the U.S. Supreme Court. DSSA, and other organizations, including the Bridgeville Rifle & Pistol Club, have participated by way of an Amici Curiae brief in support of the plaintiffs. The case will most likely be argued before the Supreme Court in the fall, with a decision expected early in 2022. A copy of the brief can be found here:
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Kevin P. Bruen, Superintendent New York State Police.
PERMIT TO PURCHASE BILL, SS1 for SB 3, What does it do.
While the General Assembly is currently not in session, they ended the regular session on June 30th, and will not return until January 11, 2022, remember that the two extremely onerous pieces of legislation are still “alive” and waiting action. Take a moment and read the list of what the Permit to Purchase bill will do to law abiding citizens of Delaware. We have to remain vigilant and keep reminding our legislators that these two pieces of legislation will not do anything but violate our constitutional rights. They will not reduce violent crime at all.
STATUS:
- Passed the Senate;
- Pending, in the House;
passed out of House Judiciary Committee;
awaiting action in House Appropriations Committee
WHAT IT DOES:
If this bill were to become law, it would do each of the following:
- Mandate a permit to purchase a handgun – permit only good for 180 days
- REGISTRATION: Creates a searchable database of firearms and firearm owners new sales and purchases of handguns – for now.
- CONFISCATION: Requires State Police to “ensure removal” of firearms from person whose “permit-to-purchase” card has been revoked – all firearms.
- Creates new State-mandated training course requirement to purchase – extensive, state-certified, expensive training – only good for five (5) years after which you must take another course – all at your expense- before you buy
- Requires Delaware Secretary of Safety & Homeland Security to:
- Collect fingerprints and other identifying data on handgun purchasers.
- Conduct in-depth background investigation
- Ask County and Municipal law enforcement about you, looking for reasons why you should not be allowed to purchase/own a self-defense firearm
- Gives Secretary of Safety & Homeland Security the power to deny and/or revoke “permit-to-purchase card” without prior due process – your hearing comes later – at your expense, must be requested within 30 days after Secretary’s adverse action – Contains a very specific and complex procedure that must be followed.
YOU WILL NEED A LAWYER – at your own expense, of course. - Implicitly creates a 30-day waiting period – Secretary has 30 days to approve your application for a permit-to-purchase card – bill contains no recourse if it takes longer
- Requires Delaware FFL’s to violate federal law by submitting Firearms Transaction Form 4473 to the Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security.
- Creates new crimes and a new class of “criminals” –
- It will be a crime to “transfer” a handgun to a person who does not have “permit-to-purchase card” – includes private sellers.
- It will be a crime to fail to surrender a revoked “permit-to-purchase card” within the required five (5) days
- It will be a crime for a transferor of a handgun to fail to keep the required records and to submit the required records to The Secretary – includes private sellers.
U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rules that requiring handgun buyers to be 21 or older is Unconstitutional
By: Lee Williams, July 13, 2021
In a decision released today, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that 18, 19 and 20-year-olds have Second Amendment rights, and should therefore be allowed to purchase handguns.
The case, Hirschfeld v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, will likely be reviewed en banc by the full Fourth Circuit, and then will presumably make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the case, the appellate judges answered the question: When do constitutional rights vest? At the age of 18, they ruled.
The case was filed on behalf of Tanner Hirschfeld and Natalia Marshall.
Marshall tried to buy a handgun for self-defense, but was refused because she was 19. She had a valid protection order against an abusive ex-boyfriend, who was wanted by police on weapon and drug charges.
Hirschfeld turned 21 while the case was being litigated, so his claims became moot.
According to the decision, the plaintiffs sought “an injunction and a declaratory judgment that several federal laws and regulations that prevent federally licensed gun dealers from selling handguns to any 18-, 19-, or 20-year-old violate the Second Amendment.”
The case was rejected at the district court level, which sided with the defendants and dismissed the case. Giffords, Brady and Everytown filed Amici in support of the ATF.
The three-judge panel didn’t buy it.
“History makes clear that 18- to 20-year-olds were understood to fall under the Second Amendment’s protections. Those over 18 were universally required to be part of the militia near the ratification, proving that they were considered part of ‘the people’ who enjoyed Second Amendment rights, and most other constitutional rights apply to this age group. And Congress may not restrict the rights of an entire group of law-abiding adults because a minuscule portion of that group commits a disproportionate amount of gun violence. Congress’s failure to connect handgun purchases from licensed dealers to youth gun violence only serves to highlight the law’s ‘unduly tenuous ‘fit’ with the government’s substantial interests. Eighteen- to twenty-year-olds have Second Amendment rights, and the challenged laws impermissibly burden those rights,” the order states.
The judges vacated the district court’s motion to dismiss, reversed the denial of summary judgment, and remanded the case for further proceedings.
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