Thread: State-by-state gun control developments

Officials talk guns, hold buybacks after shootings



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Posted: 8:46 PM
Last Updated: 1 hour and 33 minutes ago

• By: Associated Press

The national gun debate swelled Tuesday as Arizona and the country commemorated the shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., two years ago that killed six people and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords injured -- an anniversary that came on the heels of the mass killing at a Connecticut elementary school. Here's how some state and local leaders are taking action:
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ARIZONA -- Giffords and her husband on Tuesday launched a political action committee aimed at curbing gun violence, while two politicians on opposite ends of the gun debate held dueling weapons buybacks outside a Tucson police station.
In Maricopa County, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has said he plans to post armed volunteers on school perimeters to protect Phoenix-area students.
His plan, announced last month, came after two other Arizona officials released ideas for boosting school security: Attorney General Tom Horne proposed firearms training for one person in each school, and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu proposed training multiple educators per school to carry guns.
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ILLINOIS -- The state's attorney general on Tuesday asked a federal appeals court to review a lawsuit challenging the state's ban on concealed carry in an effort to salvage the only law in the nation that makes the practice entirely illegal.
Last month, a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Illinois ban as unconstitutional and gave lawmakers 180 days to write a law legalizing it. Attorney General Lisa Madigan is asking that all 10 judges on the court rehear the case.
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CONNECTICUT - U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal announced Tuesday he plans to introduce federal legislation that would require instant background checks for purchasers of ammunition.
It is now illegal to sell firearms and ammunition to certain groups, including felons and the mentally ill. But background checks, Blumenthal said, are required only for the sale of firearms, not the bullets.
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WASHINGTON -- Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and other city leaders on Tuesday announced a new gun buyback program being sponsored by Amazon.com and other businesses to reduce firearms in the community.
Under the program, people who turn in a handgun can pick up a $100 gift card for the online retailer.
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UTAH -- A Spring City councilman wants all residents in the small town to be armed against possible aggressors.
Councilman Neil Sorensen says he's drafting a measure that would recommend that a gun be in every household in the town of 1,000, about 90 miles south of Salt Lake City. The measure will go before the full council in February.
Sorensen also wants the town to pay for concealed-weapons training for every elementary school teacher.
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COLORADO -- Following last summer's Aurora theater shooting, a vigorous debate on gun control is expected during the 2013 lawmaking session that starts Wednesday.
Democrats now control both chambers of the Legislature so Colorado could see a flurry of measures to curb access to firearms -- including a possible assault-weapons ban.
"I want to find a way to eliminate assault weapons, but I'm still trying to figure out how to do that," said Senate President John Morse, a former police chief.
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VERMONT -- The Burlington City Council is supporting a proposed ban on assault rifles and multiple ammunition clips in the city.
The resolution passed the council on a 10-3 vote Monday night. It would need to go before a committee, eventually be voted on by the public and then be sent to the Legislature before it could be approved.
Elsewhere, organizers of an annual gun show in Barre say they'll allow the showing and sale of assault weapons despite a request by the city's mayor that the weapons not be displayed in the aftermath of the Connecticut shooting. The two-day gun show is set to begin Feb. 9.
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RHODE ISLAND -- Providence Mayor Angel Taveras wants to hold a statewide gun buyback event.
Taveras, a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, also is talking with other mayors in the Ocean State about legislative proposals to strengthen state gun laws.
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NEBRASKA -- A Lincoln city councilman wants police officers assigned to more schools.
School resource officers already are assigned to each public high school. Councilman Gene Carroll wants the city and school district to consider adding them to middle schools.
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CALIFORNIA -- A one-day gun buyback program in Los Angeles brought in 2,037 firearms.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office said the weapons collected Dec. 26 included 901 handguns, 698 rifles, 363 shotguns and 75 assault weapons. The buyback is usually held in May but was moved up in response to the Connecticut shooting.
In San Diego, gun owners traded more than 350 weapons for grocery vouchers Dec. 21 as authorities vowed to step up firearms exchanges.

Officials talk guns, hold buybacks after shootings

Border Gun Tracking Fought by Group Near Newtown School


By Tom Schoenberg - Jan 8, 2013 9:00 PM PT


A firearms group based three miles from the school where 20 first-graders were massacred will ask a federal appeals court today to block U.S. efforts to track sales of military-style assault weapons in states bordering Mexico.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation Inc. argues that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives doesn’t have legal authority to require about 8,500 firearms dealers inTexas, California, New Mexico and Arizona to report multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles to help trace guns used by Mexican drug gangs.

Today’s argument in Washington is the first major legal battle over the regulation of firearms since 20 children and six adults were shot to death on Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The Obama administration is considering gun restrictions in response.

The decision by U.S. Court of Appeals, which will probably come at a later date, may determine how much power the federal government has to trace firearms before they turn up at crime scenes. One weapon the bureau seeks to track is the rifle used in the Connecticut shooting, the Bushmaster AR-15.

“I think a decision in this case could put to rest some of the unfounded arguments against the sensible gun-violence prevention policies being talked about by the administration and Congress,” Jonathan Lowy, director of the Legal Action Project at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said in a phone interview. The Brady Center filed a brief supporting the U.S.

Retailers, Ranges

The gun group and two Arizona dealers who sued the ATF last year said the government hasn’t shown that the information it wants is part of a “bona fide criminal investigation,” as required by U.S. law. The gun dealers also said in court filings that the agency is improperly attempting to establish a registry of firearms owners.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation has a membership of more than 7,000 gun manufacturers, distributors, retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers, according to its website. The manufacturers include Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (SWHC) and Cerberus Capital Management LP’s Freedom Group Inc, the largest U.S. gun maker.

Michael Bazinet, a spokesman for the Newtown-based organization, declined to comment on the case “out of respect for our community.” He pointed to a statement the group issued when it filed the lawsuit.

“Congress simply has not granted ATF regulatory carte blanche,” Lawrence G. Keane, the group’s senior vice president and general counsel, said in the statement on Jan. 18, 2012.“The district court’s ruling will allow the ATF to demand whatever information it wants from any law-abiding retailer anywhere in the country for any reason.”

Multiple Sales

The dispute centers on a new sales reporting requirement for semi-automatic rifles that took effect in August 2011. The ATF sent a letter a month earlier to dealers in the four states requiring them to report to the ATF sales of multiple weapons to an unlicensed buyer, including sales of more than one such rifle to the same buyer within five business days.

Rifles covered by the plan are those capable of accepting a magazine with a caliber greater than 0.22 inches, like theBushmaster AR-15.

The gun advocates argue that a lower-court judge, in dismissing their challenge last year, “rubber-stamped” the ATF’s decision to apply the rule to states rather than to the sellers of rifles recovered in Mexico.

“Defendant fails to adequately explain why ATF decided to send the demand letter to licensed retail sellers solely on the basis of their location in one of the four border states when it had substantially more specific law-enforcement intelligence at its disposal,” James Vogts, a lawyer for the gun association, wrote in an Oct. 9 court filing.

Identify Buyers

ATF lawyers argue that multiple-sales reports enable the agency to quickly identify the purchaser of a gun used in a crime and helps generate investigative leads about straw buyers and trafficking patterns, according to a court filing.

Since 1975, licensed dealers have been required to report multiple sales of pistols and revolvers to each unlicensed buyer during a five-day period, ATF lawyers said.

The ATF’s gun-tracing plan came in response to reports by its inspector general and the U.S. Government Accountability Office about the flow of firearms to Mexico. About 70 percent of the firearms seized in Mexico from 2004 to 2008 were from Texas,California and Arizona, the GAO reported in 2009.

“ATF has consistently maintained that multiple-sales information is important to the agency’s efforts ‘to detect, investigate and prevent firearms trafficking’ and that multiple-sales reports ‘provide ATF with potential intelligence and almost real-time investigative leads that can indicate illegal firearms trafficking,’” Michael Raab, a Justice Department lawyer, wrote in a Sept. 10 filing.

30-Round Magazines

The case is being heard by U.S. circuit judges Karen Henderson, Harry Edwards and Judith Rogers.

Henderson, who was appointed to the appeals court by President George H.W. Bush, cast a dissenting vote in the court’s 2007 decision striking down Washington’s gun ban. In 2011 she was on a panel that found the District of Columbia’s gun-registration requirements and its ban on assault rifles and large-capacity magazines to be constitutional.

The shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary, Adam Lanza, used a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle with 30-round magazines as his main weapon, Connecticut State Police Lieutenant Paul Vance said at a Dec. 16 news conference.

Lanza, 20, killed his mother and himself as well.

The case is National Shooting Sports Foundation Inc. v. Jones, 12-5009, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (Washington).

To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Schoenberg in Washington at tschoenberg@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-09/border-gun-tracking-fought-by-group-near-newtown-school.html

Identify Buyers

ATF lawyers argue that multiple-sales reports enable the agency to quickly identify the purchaser of a gun used in a crime and helps generate investigative leads about straw buyers and trafficking patterns, according to a court filing.

Since 1975, licensed dealers have been required to report multiple sales of pistols and revolvers to each unlicensed buyer during a five-day period, ATF lawyers said.

This worked so well for the ATF in Fast and Furious.

Vermont city takes step toward banning assault rifles

By Marlena Baldacci, CNN
updated 9:18 AM EST, Wed January 9, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Burlington City Council passes resolution banning assault rifles, high-capacity magazines
• Sponsoring City Councilor prompted to act after Connecticut school shooting
• Many meeting attendees opposed the ban, calling it too broad and unwarranted

Burlington, Vermont (CNN) -- A resolution passed in the most populous city in Vermont could lead to a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.
Burlington's City Council members voted 10-3 in favor of the resolution. City Councilor Norm Blais, a Democrat, said he was moved to sponsor the proposal after hearing what he called President Barack Obama's pleas to have a discussion about weapons in our country after the deadly Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, in December.

Next, the resolution has to be presented in public hearings, voted on by the public and be approved by the state legislature before it becomes city law.

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Blais said his city wasn't nearly as safe as people thought, saying that "if somebody was not a convicted felon and was walking through our thoroughfare and had an AK-47 slung over his shoulder, there's nothing we could do about that. Most people are surprised to hear that."

But most people at Monday's city council meeting spoke out against the resolution, calling it too broad and unwarranted, according to CNN affiliate WPTZ. Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling said most gun crime in the city involves handguns, not assault weapons, WPTZ reported.

Vermont is one of the most lenient states when it comes to gun laws, allowing concealed or openly carried firearms without permits anywhere except school property and courthouses.

CNN affiliate WCAX reported that meeting attendee Matt Storer encouraged the city council to not pass the amendment based on emotions because of recent events. "I think it's a dangerous course to let emotions get into the driver's seat when writing legislation that could potentially infringe on constitutional rights."

Blais told CNN he had intentionally drafted the proposal broadly so that he could encompass details from officials and those in the community who support gun rights to ensure a fairly written amendment.

He said he was not looking to keep sportsmen from hunting and people from being able to defend themselves but rather wants to make sure what happened in Newtown did not happen in his city.

New Congress, new push for gun laws

For more on this story go to CNN affiliates WPTZ and WCAX.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/09/us/vermont-assault-rifle-ban-resolution/index.html?eref=googletoolbar

Iowa lawmaker calls for retroactive gun ban, confiscation of semi-automatic weapons

4:43 AM 01/09/2013

David Martosko




In an interview with the Daily Times Herald in Caroll, Iowa, state Rep. Dan Muhlbauer said governments should start confiscating semi-automatic rifles and other firearms.
Muhlbauer, a Democrat from the western Iowa town of Manilla, is a cattleman and farmer. The newspaper reported that he owns a .410 shotgun, a .22 rifle and a .22 pistol.

“We cannot have big guns out here as far as the big guns that are out here, the semi-automatics and all of them,” Muhlbauer told the newspaper during a December 19 audiotaped interview. “We can’t have those running around out here. Those are not hunting weapons.”

“We should ban those in Iowa,” he said, adding that such a ban should be applied retroactively.

“We need to get them off the streets — illegally — and even if you have them, I think we need to start taking them,” Muhlbauer told the Daily Times Herald. “We can’t have those out there. Because if they’re out there they’re just going to get circulated around to the wrong people. Those guns should not be in the public’s hands. There are just too many guns.”

The newspaper published excerpts from the interview Wednesday morning along with an audio recording of the full 15-minute interview.

“We have to change, and we have to get stricter and tougher with what we do,” Muhlbauer said.

The interview took place in the week immediately following the Dec. 14 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that left 20 children dead.

“With all these shootings going on we have to start making radical changes and radical choices from what we’ve done in the past,” Muhlbauer said.

Republican Rep. Steve King, who represents western Iowa in Congress, is a gun-rights supporter who warned during an October 2102 debate against Democrat Christie Vilsack that the purpose of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution “is to guard against tyranny because our Founding Fathers understood that if you did not have an armed populace, a tyrant could take over America.”

“So we have a responsibility not just to defend the Second Amendment in words, but do so in deed by hunting and target practicing and also self-defense,” King said.

One of King’s constituents published a letter from King on Jan. 2 in an online gun-rights forum. In the letter, the congressman said he was “heartbroken” by the Newtown, Conn. shooting but called the tragedy ”the act of an evil, and likely deranged, individual intent on committing horrifying acts of violence.”

In the audio recording, Muhlbauer blamed violent videogames, in part, for a coarsening of American gun culture.

“We’ve got these videogames out here for these little kids,” he said. “Maybe it’s time we start pulling them away, as far as — you know, they’re playing some really nasty games on there that are shoot-em-up and whatever — and evidently our culture is pulling you toward this. We’ve got to come up with ways to find out, you know, what’s triggering this, what has happened, We’ve had too many of these cases go on.”

Read more: Iowa lawmaker calls for retroactive gun bans, confiscations of semi-automatic weapons | The Daily Caller

Gun dealers challenge rifle reporting requirement
Posted at: 01/09/2013 10:49 AM
By: The Associated Press



WASHINGTON (AP) - A lawyer for two Arizona gun dealers is arguing that the Obama administration overstepped its legal authority when it required dealers in southwestern border states to report when customers buy multiple high-powered rifles.

Richard Gardiner told a federal appeals court Wednesday that the directive requires gun dealers to create a records system, and the government has no authority to require that.

Justice Department lawyer Michael Raab says sellers should be able to determine by the manufacturer and model number if a particular rifle is covered by the requirement.

At issue is a 2011 regulation on gun sellers in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Sellers there are required to report to the federal government when anyone buys two or more semi-automatic rifles of a certain type within a five-day period.

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S2890339.shtml?cat=504

N.Y. State leaders '95 percent' toward tougher gun laws: Silver

• By ERIK KRISS, Bureau Chief
• Last Updated: 12:06 PM, January 9, 2013
• Posted: 12:05 PM, January 9, 2013

Albany– State leaders are “95 percent” of the way to an agreement on tougher gun legislation, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said today.

The deal is expected to strengthen the state’s assault weapons ban and limit the capacity of gun magazines, but Silver (D-Manhattan) also said he expects it to include stiffer penalties for illegal gun use – as Senate Republicans have been pushing.

“New York leads the nation in everything; it’s time we lead the nation in this,” Silver told reporters.

Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) echoed Silver's 95 percent assessment to the Associated Press.

Gov. Cuomo with Speaker Sheldon Speaker today.

Gov. Cuomo is expected to unveil a gun law proposal during his State of the State speech today.

“Public safety will be a big element,” director of state operations Howard Glaser said.

But Cuomo won’t talk about the hot potato political issue of fracking.

“It is in a review period,” Glaser told Post state columnist Fredric U. Dicker on Albany’s Talk 1300 AM radio. “Hydrofracking has to be left to the regulatory process so we don’t get ahead of it.”

Glaser said the governor will devote about 20 percent of the speech toward Hurricane Sandy.

“You will see on the Sandy piece some thoughtful, broad, short- and long-term efforts to rebuild New York,” he said. “I think they’re common sense. Some are bold but sensible. We’re hopeful we’ll see the federal funding.”

Glaser said Cuomo will propose to “build back better … so that we don’t face the same kind of damage” from future storms.

Glaser said Cuomo will also focus on job creation and tourism, creating “a healthy environment for businesses to grow. That includes workforce development and how to link jobs back to the most innovative things happening in our economy.”

He also said education “will be a big piece” of the speech, along with “government reform.”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/state_percent_toward_tougher_gun_DWAWIm6Kb0kDLlI5k WBLqM

Oops.

Rep. Muhlbauer's desire to confiscate firearms is verified


JANUARY 10, 2013

BY: SEAN MCCLANAHAN


It was reported a few days ago that Iowa Representative Dan Muhlbauer (D-Manilla) gave an interview to the Daily Times-Herald in response to the Newtown School Shooting. In his interview, Rep. Muhlbauer expressed his desire to not only ban semi-automatic rifles, but to confiscate them as well.

Rep. Muhlbauer has received a great deal of criticism over his comments, and he responded to the criticism by saying that his words were taken out of context.

However, the Daily Times-Herald released the actual audio file of the interview. It’s very plain to anyone who listens to the interview that his words were not taken out of context at all. At 2:25 in the interview, when referring to “big guns” that “are not hunting weapons,” he is asked by the interviewer:

So we should ban them in Iowa?

To which Rep. Muhlbauer reponsds:

We should ban them in Iowa.

Twenty seconds later, he says:

If you have them, we need to start taking them.

He follows up with:

Those guns should not be in [the] public's hands.

Why does Rep. Muhlbauer believe these firearms are not legal?

Because nobody hunts with them, and as a farmer, the firearms he owns are small in comparison. He has obviously (perhaps conveniently) forgotten the purpose of the Second Amendment.

Rep. Muhlbauer took an oath of office when he was elected to his position. The threat of confiscation of legally owned firearms amounts to nothing less than armed robbery, since it would likely be carried out by either law enforcement or military personnel who themselves are armed. Semi-automatic rifles are the cornerstone of a citizen’s protection from a tyrannical government, and they are protected by our Constitution.

Rep. Muhlbauer’s comments are treasonous in nature, and what he is suggesting is blatantly illegal. If Iowa voters cared at all about “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain,” they would immediately begin a recall petition to remove Rep. Muhlbauer from office. Based on the content of the audio file, his intentions are clear. He will not be happy until Iowans who own semi-automatic rifles have been relieved of their weapons - by force, if necessary.

It would also be a good time for Iowans to contact Rep. Muhlbauer and tell him that if a law were passed that made the owning of these weapons illegal, we will not comply.

Rep. Muhlbauer's office can be reached at 515-281-3221, and his e-mail address isdan.muhlbauer@legis.state.ia.us.

Rep. Muhlbauer's desire to confiscate firearms is verified - Des Moines gun rights | Examiner.com

Blue state governors not waiting on Washington to pass gun laws

Democratic governors are making a big push for tighter gun laws as the debate over gun control heats up in Washington.

President Barack Obama admitted in a press conference Monday that it's possible some of his desired gun control reforms—limiting the size of ammunition magazines, expanding the comprehensive background check system for gun buyers, and banning some types of semi-automatic rifles—may not pass the divided Congress.

"Will all of them get through this Congress? I don't know," the president said, while calling on lawmakers to rise above politics. "If there is a step we can take that would save even one child from what happened in Newtown, we should take that step."

Blue state governors including those in Maryland, New York and Delaware, however, aren't waiting for Washington to make the first move.

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York has hammered out a tentative agreement with lawmakers to ban ammunition magazines that carry more than seven bullets and to further expand the state's assault weapons ban, the AP reported Monday. (The governor's office said the deal had not yet been reached.) The governor was seeking a comprehensive bill that would also extend background checks so that all gun buyers must undergo one even if they are buying a weapon from a private seller.

Meanwhile, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is seeking to pass a package of bills that would give the state some of the toughest restrictions on guns in the country, the Washington Post reports. O'Malley is seeking an assault weapons ban, tougher background checks for gun buyers that include providing fingerprints to state police, and a mandatory gun safety course.

Both O'Malley and Cuomo are considered potential Democratic presidential contenders in 2016.

The Democratic governors of Connecticut, Delaware and Colorado have also said they will seek tougher laws. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber said Monday he would support gun control legislation, including an assault weapons ban, if state lawmakers pass it.

Meanwhile, in red states, politicians are pushing to expand gun rights by allowing school employees to take weapons onto campuses.

Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst has recommended creating a state-funded program to train teachers and administrators on how to use guns to stop an active shooter. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has also said he thinks teachers should be able to be armed in class. (One district in the state already allows it.)

Lawmakers in Tennessee, Virginia and Florida are weighing passing legislation that allows teachers and other school staff to take concealed weapons into school buildings.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/blue-state-governors-not-waiting-washington-pass-gun-180028343.html

N.Y. set to limit assault weapons, ammo clips


NBC
by: Michael Gormley
Monday, January 14, 2013


New York State Sen. Jeffrey Klein announces that he and three other Democratic senators had formed an independent Democratic conference last January at the Capitol in Albany. Behind Klein are (l. to r.) Sen. Diane Savino, Sen. David Carlucci and Sen. David Valesky. Photo Credit:AP/Mike Groll

A key New York Senate leader and the Assembly speaker said they expect the state Legislature to vote Monday to enact what would be the nation's first gun control measure following last month's Connecticut school shooting.

"I think when all is said and done, we are going to pass a comprehensive gun bill today," Sen. Jeffrey Klein told reporters Monday morning. "I'm very excited about it. I am very confident we are going to vote on a comprehensive bill that will be agreed on by the governor, the Senate and Assembly."

People familiar with closed-door negotiations told The Associated Press a tentative deal was struck over the weekend. The tentative agreement would further restrict New York's ban on assault weapons, limit the size of magazines to seven bullets, down from the current 10, and enact more stringent background checks for sales.

Other elements, pushed by Republicans, would refine a mental health law to make it easier to confine people determined to be a threat to themselves or others.

N.Y. set to limit assault weapons, ammo clips | Times 247