Gun Rights Groups Drop CO Magazine Ban, Waiting Period Suits
The National Foundation for Gun Rights (NFGR) has withdrawn its lawsuit challenging Colorado’s 2013 high-capacity magazine ban. The group said withdrawal of the case became necessary when the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) refused to allow its Director of Research to give an expert deposition regarding the “common use” of 15-round magazines.
And a lawsuit challenging Colorado’s three-day waiting period to possess an already-purchased gun was dismissed by the 10th Circuit US Court of Appeals Aug. 23, in response to a motion to voluntarily dismiss brought by Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO), which had wanted the appeals court to temporarily halt implementation of the law—known as the Waiting Period Act. The law, enacted in 2023, prevents someone from possessing a gun for three days after purchase.
Study Delves into Gun Ownership, Suicide Risk
A new JAMA study offers clues about whether population-level household firearm ownership rates (HFRs) precede changes in firearm mortality rates, and whether high mortality rates precede changes in HFRs.
The study involved 16 demographic subgroups across the US and was designed to explore the idea that if individuals who are already at a high(er) risk of dying from firearm injuries are more likely to acquire firearms, then firearm ownership in itself may not confer additional risk. Researchers did find an association between high HFR and subsequent increases in suicide rates, supporting (but not confirming) the role of firearm ownership in increasing the risk of suicide death.
The study found that the risk of suicide is greatest immediately after the acquisition of a firearm, suggesting that the acquisition may be part of a suicide plan, but the elevated suicide risk persists even years after the initial acquisition.
The study also found that local high firearm homicide rates were associated with subsequent reductions in HFRs, which is inconsistent with the theory that firearms are acquired in response to increasing violent crimes.
The study’s authors say that to their knowledge, this study was the first to demonstrate an association between high HFRs and subsequent increases in firearm suicide rates across populations with different demographic and geographic characteristics (such as local firearm homicide rates), and may help groups and individuals make informed decisions about firearm ownership.
NH Attorney General Challenges Mass. Carry Law
New Hampshire attorney general John Formella says residents who cross state lines with their guns should not be subject to “felony convictions and imprisonment” for violating Massachusetts law.
Formella filed briefs with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Aug. 19 in support of two New Hampshire men who were charged with carrying guns in Massachusetts without firearms licenses. A Lowell District Court judge previously ruled that Massachusetts can’t prosecute out-of-state residents for illegally carrying guns if they were legally entitled to have them in their home state; the decision was appealed by Middlesex (Mass.) District Attorney Marian Ryan, who said the defendants did not try to obtain a non-resident license to carry firearms in the state and were therefore treated “exactly the same as Massachusetts residents” under the law.
New Hampshire is a Constitutional Carry state, where anyone is allowed to carry a weapon without a license. Massachusetts requires a license to carry.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell has also filed a brief in the case, defending her state’s policies. The case is expected to come before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Sept. 9.
Appeals Court Upholds MD Handgun License Law
A U.S. appeals court Aug. 23 upheld Maryland’s licensing requirements for people seeking to buy handguns, saying the law remained valid even after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2022 that expanded gun rights.
The Richmond, Va.-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 14-2 vote, reversed a panel’s 2-1 decision last year that had found the 2013 law requiring most Maryland residents to obtain a license and undergo training and background checks before buying a handgun was unconstitutional. The law requires a background investigation and a four-hour-long safety training course. Buyers then have to wait up to 30 days before performing the rest of the usual process to buy a gun.
Lawyers for the gun rights group Maryland Shall Issue, which had sued in 2016 alongside two individuals and a gun store, argued that even a temporary deprivation of someone’s ability to buy handguns violated the Second Amendment. But U.S. Circuit Judge Barbara Milano Keenan, in the majority opinion, cited a footnote in the Supreme Court’s 2022 gun rights ruling that made clear so-called shall-issue licensing regimes like Maryland’s were presumptively constitutional.
Keenan said that despite delays that accompany such permitting processes, “this type of licensing law is presumptively constitutional because it operates merely to ensure that individuals seeking to exercise their Second Amendment rights are ‘law-abiding’ persons.”
More than 40 states have such shall-issue licensing laws, under which they have no discretion to deny a handgun qualification license to anyone who meets statutory requirements.
Eighth Circuit Rejects MO 2A ‘Protection’ Law
In other appeals court news, A 2021 Missouri law that sought to undercut federal regulation of firearms is unconstitutional because it violates the US Constitution’s supremacy clause, the Eighth Circuit said Aug. 26.
Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act purports to prevent the federal government from approving laws and orders the state says infringes on the second amendment, including imposing taxes on firearms or ammunition and requiring registration or tracking of firearms.
The case was brought when the US sued Missouri and two top Republican officials, Governor Michael Parson and Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
Tenn. Republicans Threaten Memphis over Gun Issues on Ballot
Tennessee’s top Republican leaders Aug. 26 threatened to withhold tens of millions of dollars in state funding from Memphis should leaders continue with plans to place three local gun control initiatives on the November ballot.
Earlier this year, Memphis’ city council approved asking voters in November if they wanted to require permits to carry a handgun, ban the possession of AR-15 style rifles and implement a Extreme Risk Protection or so-called “red flag” ordinance, which allows law enforcement officials to remove firearms from those found to be an imminent danger to themselves or others. At the time, the Council acknowledged that the action risked angering the state’s Republican-dominant Legislature by challenging with Tennessee’s lax gun laws.
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