White House Lauds States for Enacting ‘Commonsense’ Gun Safety Bills

WASHINGTON — The White House on Wednesday lauded the “important progress” some states are achieving to make their communities safer from gun violence.

“With every tragic shooting we see across America, we see the urgency of action at every level of our government,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at her daily news briefing.

“Over the past week, Connecticut, Vermont, Colorado and Hawaii have all enacted commonsense gun safety bills that will save lives,” she said. 

“The president thanks and applauds the advocates and state leaders who worked tirelessly to enact these measures and continues to urge Congress to follow their lead and act at the federal level.”

Connecticut

In Connecticut last week, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bipartisan gun violence prevention bill that expands safe storage requirements, closes loopholes in the state’s ban on assault weapons and expands accountability for gun dealers, among other things.

Proposed by the governor himself at the start of the 2023 legislative session, the comprehensive bill was developed in consultation with state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and with input from stakeholders running from local mayors and law enforcement officials to gun violence victims and their families and safety advocates.

“This bill that I just signed takes smart and strategic steps to strengthen the laws in Connecticut to prevent tragedy from happening,” Lamont said as he signed the legislation into law. 

“As more and more shootings have occurred over the last decade — including mass shootings — federal and state laws have not kept up with the innovative ways firearm companies are manufacturing guns, especially those that are being designed with the sole intention of killing the largest number of people possible in the shortest amount of time,” he said.

Lamont said the inaction of Congress to enact “critical legislation to keep Americans safe” requires that each state act individually.

“Over the years, Connecticut has shown time and again that we can improve public safety by implementing reasonable gun violence prevention laws while also respecting the rights of Americans to own guns for their own protection and sportsmanship. This bill that I’ve signed continues that fair, commonsense balance,” the governor said.

The new law:

• Bans the open carrying of firearms in public, while continuing to allow concealed carry with a permit.
• Increases bail, probation and parole responses for the extremely narrow group of people with repeated serious firearm offenses.
• Updates the state’s 2019 ban on unregistered “ghost guns” to include those that were assembled prior to the enactment of that ban. Those ghost guns must be registered with the state by Jan. 1, 2024.
• Prevents the bulk purchasing of handguns to discourage straw purchases by barring the sale of more than three handguns to an individual in a 30-day period, or six handguns for an instructor. Law enforcement agencies, returns/exchanges, and transfers to a museum are exempted.
• Increases gun dealer accountability by permitting the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection to issue a notice of violation and impose an order barring sales for any dealers violating any of their responsibilities.
• Expands the state’s safe storage laws to all situations, not only those where a minor or prohibited person may gain access to a firearm.
• Closes loopholes in the state’s ban on assault weapons by including “other” firearms with banned features analogous to those on banned pistols and rifles and pre-Sept. 13, 1994, “pre-ban” firearms that were carved out of the original ban. A new registration will open for these 2023 assault weapons. If purchased before the date of passage, these weapons can be registered until May 1, 2024. If registered, owners can continue possessing them but further transfers are generally barred.
• Ensures enforceability of the state’s ban on large-capacity magazines by making possession a class D felony for prohibited persons and a class A misdemeanor for non-prohibited persons.
• Expands the state’s existing prohibition on the retail sale of semiautomatic rifles with capacity greater than five rounds to anyone under the age of 21 to also include private sales.
• Updates the training requirements for pistol permits and eligibility certificates to require instruction on safe storage, state firearms laws and lawful use of firearms.
• Makes commission of a family violence crime or federal misdemeanor crime of domestic violence into an automatic disqualifier for having a pistol permit, and adds commission of such a crime after Oct. 1, 2023, as a qualifier for criminal possession of a firearm.
• Requires all firearms, not just handguns, to be sold with a trigger lock.

Vermont

In Vermont, Republican Gov. Phil Scott allowed a bill that requires a 72-hour waiting period for the purchase of guns to become law without his signature, saying that he believes the constitutionality of the new law will ultimately have to be decided by the courts.

“Given the relatively new legal landscape we find ourselves in following recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, I have significant concerns about the provision’s constitutionality,” Scott said in a letter to state lawmakers on Thursday.

“My struggle with the overall bill lies in the fact that I, and all legislators, took an oath to ‘not do any act or thing injurious to the Constitution.’ However, this matter is currently being taken up through constitutional legal tests across the country and will be decided in federal court,” he wrote.

Scott said he’d allow the bill to become law without his signature and “await the judicial branch to decide the fate of waiting periods.”

The Legislature passed the bill in May. In addition to the waiting period, it includes provisions making it a crime to negligently store firearms and expands the state’s extreme risk protection orders so that a state’s attorney, the attorney general’s office or a family or household member may ask a court to prohibit a person from purchasing, possessing or receiving a dangerous weapon.

Colorado

In April, Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed four bills into law aimed at stemming the rising tide of suicides and youth violence in the state, preventing mass shootings and opening avenues for gun violence victims to sue the long-protected firearm industry. 

Gun rights groups immediately sued to try and set aside two of the measures, one raising the buying age for any gun from 18 to 21, and the other, establishing a three-day waiting period between the purchase and receipt of a gun. 

“Coloradans deserve to be safe in our communities, in our schools, in our grocery stores, in our nightclubs,” Polis said as he signed the measures in his office. 

A third measure passed by the Legislature will strengthen the state’s red flag law, and a fourth rolls back some legal protections for the firearm industry, exposing them to lawsuits from the victims of gun violence.

The new red flag law, also called an extreme risk protection order, empowers those working closely with youth and adults — doctors, mental health professionals and teachers — to petition a judge to temporarily remove someone’s firearm. 

In the past, petition power was limited mainly to law-enforcement and family members.

Hawaii

Democratic Gov. Josh Green signed two gun-related measures into law on June 2, one restricting guns in so-called “sensitive” locations, like state buildings, schools, hospitals and bars and the other requiring active shooter drills in the state’s public and charter schools.

“This is a public health crisis in our country. Anything we can do, we should do,” Green said as he signed the bills.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue