As two different gun prohibition lobbying groups joined forces in Minnesota to push for more gun control laws in that state, one Florida lawmaker is trying to undo restrictions enacted in the wake of last year’s shooting tragedy in Parkland, and in Maine, rights advocates are “pushing back against pending legislation” that seeks to tighten that state’s regulations.
It’s a different approach than the federal lawsuit currently being pushed by the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association against what they consider the extremism of Initiative 1639, passed by voters in Washington last fall.
According to KMSP News in St. Paul, one of the Minnesota groups wants so-called “universal background checks” on all firearms transfers and the other is lobbying for a “red flag” law that allows police to seize guns from someone considered an “extreme risk.” The story quoted Rev. Nancy Nord Bence of Protect Minnesota, who insisted, “Those two laws have been shown over and over again in public health studies; they really work.”
Second Amendment rights advocates would argue that she is wrong, pointing to the number of mass shooters who passed background checks before committing their crimes. That would include the killers in Florida, Las Vegas, the Washington, D.C. Navy Shipyard, and the Aurora, Colo., movie theater, and many others.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that State Rep. Mike Hill (R-Pensacola) has file a bill in that state’s legislature in an effort to repeal anti-rights measures passed last year following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting.
Up in Maine, according to the Portland Press Herald, “Gun rights advocates are pushing back” against red flag and “universal background check” bills. The newspaper said they may have an ally in newly-elected Gov. Janet Mills, whom the newspaper said is “not interested in trying to create a universal background check law” in a state where voters rejected such a proposal two years ago.
In Pennsylvania, respondents to an online poll by KDKA radio asking whether the state should enact more gun control laws are overwhelmingly rejecting the notion, with more than 12,600 “No” votes against less than 400 “Yes” votes as of Wednesday.
If all of this suggests that beleaguered gun owners have had enough, time will tell for sure. Gun prohibitionists seemed to have the wind at their backs in November when they were scrambling to help shift control of Congress to gun control-friendly Democrats. They made it half way by restoring Democrat control to the U.S. House, where gun control is already high on the party’s agenda. Perhaps the winds have shifted.
