Latest news with #HouseBill38
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Beshear signs bill increasing penalty for repeatedly violating restraining orders in Kentucky
FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — On Monday, Gov. Andy Beshear signed a bill to increase penalties for people who repeatedly violate restraining orders. House Bill 38 makes it a Class D felony if someone violates a restraining order three times in five years. Previously fired federal employees return to work at Camp Nelson: 'Cautiously optimistic' 'Suspicious package' closes Lexington road during rush hour Judge recommends no new trial for Patrick Baker after federal conviction, pardon by former governor Before, it was the same as the first two offenses, a Class A misdemeanor. According to the bill, someone is guilty of a violation of an order of protection when he or she intentionally violates the provisions of an order of protection after the person has been served or given notice of the order. The bill clarifies that violations don't have to be from the same protected person, so that any violation will move the total of three allotted violations within five years. The five-year period is counted from the day on which the offenses occurred for which the judgments of conviction were entered. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NC House committee advances 'Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act'
House Bill 38 would prohibit card networks like Visa or Mastercard from using a specific firearms code for recording transactions or from maintaining any sort of firearms registry. (Photo: Aristide Economopoulos/for NJ Monitor Rep. Reece Pyrtle (R-Rockingham) told colleagues Tuesday that his efforts to pass the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act stems from a merchant category code that was created in 2022 for gun and ammunition sellers. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved the code as a way to identify suspicious and potentially illegal weapons purchases. At the time, groups like Everytown for Gun Safety praised the specific merchant category code ('MCC') noting that it could provide necessary data for banks and law enforcement to identify transactions that may be related to mass shootings or other gun-related crimes. Rep. Pyrtle told members of the House Commerce committee that this code, which would appear when a firearms purchase is made by credit card, creates a burden on lawful gun owners. 'The surveillance causes a significant and chilling effect on individuals in North Carolina wishing to exercise in their federal and state constitutional rights to keep and bear arms,' Pyrtle explained. House Bill 38 would prohibit payment card networks like Visa or Mastercard from using a firearms code for recording transactions or from maintaining any sort of firearms registry. 'This is really a piece of legislation that I think is protecting individuals from industries outside this country and the individuals from private sector from collecting data,' said Pyrtle. Pyrtle's bill would also grant North Carolina's Attorney General the power to investigate any alleged violation by the credit card networks and assess civil penalties. Rep. Bryan Cohn (D-Granville) questioned whether the legislation might have an unintended consequence of making it more difficult to investigate gun-related crimes. 'There's a federal law that prohibits a firearms list of ownership. You're not supposed to do that,' said Pyrtle, a retired police chief. 'And as an investigator, I can always go to the federal firearms licensed dealer and request a search as part of my investigation.' Three states – California, Colorado, and New York – were the first to pass legislation that would require the unique category code for gun and ammunition sales. Sixteen states have passed legislation that bans the use of the merchant category code for gun store purchases. Pushback from gun rights groups has largely prompted the larger credit card companies to pause their use of the specific code. House Bill 38 advanced on a voice vote Tuesday and now moves to the House Judiciary I Committee.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Repeat violators of protective orders would face stiffer penalties under bill moving in legislature
Mary Ann Pratt testified in support of a bill that would increase penalties for repeat violations of a domestic violence protective order. Rep. James Tipton, R-Lawrenceburg, right, is sponsoring House Bill 38, Feb. 12, 2025. (LRC Public Information) This story discusses domestic violence. If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. You can also contact any of Kentucky's 15 domestic violence programs. FRANKFORT — In 2022, Mary Ann Pratt woke to an attack from her now-ex-husband. He beat her and threatened to kill her, she told members of the Kentucky House Judiciary Committee. He had a loaded gun next to him, she said. Pratt eventually got free and called 911. Her attacker was arrested, and she obtained a protective order. Despite that order, she said, he repeatedly violated it — both in-person and technologically. In one instance, she said, he sat outside her house in his ankle monitor, waiting for her. 'Tip of the iceberg:' Kentucky releases domestic violence data report At one point, she said he told her 'he would kill me to the point that if I was reincarnated, I would come back as a f- – – ing abortion.' Through tears, Pratt asked committee members to support a bill that would toughen penalties for violations of protective orders in Kentucky. Court documents show the case against her alleged attacker is ongoing and that that the charges against him include violation of a protective order. Sponsored by Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, House Bill 38 would make it a Class D felony to violate a protective order on the third instance. It's currently a Class A misdemeanor, which is punishable by a year-long sentence. The felony could increase punishment to five years. 'No one should have to be worried about being constantly harassed,' Tipton told committee members, who unanimously approved his bill. 'No one should have to live in fear of being physically harmed or possibly killed.' Some committee members questioned if current statutes on stalking would cover cases like Pratt's. Minority Floor Leader Rep. Pamela Stevenson, D-Louisville, said 'whatever rules we have on the books are not working' and that Tipton's bill would just add a layer of protection. 'When does it stop? When do I get to actually sleep? And when will my voice and everyone else's voice be heard?' Pratt asked lawmakers through tears. 'That's why I came today. I wanted to show that I'm a person, and no one should live in fear every day. I have locks on my doors, I have alarms on my windows, I have multiple cameras up. … I carry a gun. I never thought I would be that person, but it's the only way I can see to save myself, if I have to.' HB 38 can go to the House floor for a full chamber vote now, then, if it passes there, head to the Senate. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Yahoo
Lawmakers mull how to address teen gun problem after Albuquerque shooting turns deadly
It started with seven teens, one 12-year-old, several guns — and, police said, a plan to rob a couple in a Jeep nearby. By the time it was over, a 14-year-old boy, Alonzo Sanderson, was dead, shot by the man police believe he and his friends had tried to rob at gunpoint outside an Albuquerque apartment complex in late January. The man's wife had been shot twice, and a 15-year-old girl had been grazed by a bullet. The surviving six teens and the 12-year-old were taken into custody and are now facing charges. Lawmakers and authorities have pointed to the alarming incident — shocking even in Albuquerque, which has seen what police describe as an escalation in youth violence — as one that illustrates the rising level of gun crimes committed by juveniles in New Mexico and the urgency they feel to stop youth violence and cut off the flow of guns to young people. 'Juvenile gun violence is exploding,' said 2nd Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman, whose Bernalillo County jurisdiction is the most populous in New Mexico. '... It is horrific, and we have to do something to get a handle on this.' Statewide, the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department's Juvenile Justice Services received 173 referrals for gun charges in the first six months of the current fiscal year. In the previous fiscal year, the agency received 249 — 81 more than it did in the year before. Proposals to address the problem during this year's legislative session are varied: imposing adult penalties on juveniles for more crimes, specifically outlawing gun sales to minors, and creating incentives for the safe storage of weapons. 'This devastating pattern must end,' Governor's Office spokesperson Jodi McGinnis Porter wrote in an email. '... Currently, young offenders may perceive a lack of meaningful consequences for violent crimes, auto theft and weapons violations. We must strike a careful balance — holding youth accountable for violent actions while providing the support and rehabilitation they need to choose a better path.' McGinnis Porter said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham supports a slew of public safety bills that would help address the problem of juvenile gun crime. For example, she cited House Bill 38, which would make a state crime out of possessing devices that convert semiautomatic firearms into automatic ones — devices McGinnis Porter said authorities are increasingly finding in the hands of juveniles. The governor also has thrown her support behind House Bill 134, a measure Bregman proposed that would make sweeping changes to the state Children's Code. Those changes include requiring young people to be transferred from juvenile detention centers to adult facilities on their 18th birthday and expanding the definition of a 'serious youthful offender' — juveniles who are sentenced as adults — to include crimes other than first-degree murder, such as second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and armed robbery with a deadly weapon. HB 134 has become a bipartisan effort. 'For too long this [Legislature] has failed to pass laws that will keep New Mexican safe. We know what is needed to address New Mexico's crime problem, but without House and Senate Democrat support, nothing will happen,' the bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Andrea Reeb of Clovis, said in a statement. 'It is bipartisan collaboration like this that will bring safety back to our streets.' Albuquerque gunfight Sanderson and his group were cruising around southeast Albuquerque on the night of Jan. 28 when they spotted the couple's Jeep and decided to rob them, according to a criminal complaint filed in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court. Sanderson, holding two guns, and 15-year-old Jeriah Salas hopped out of the car and pointed their weapons at the Jeep, according to the complaint. The victims told police the two pulled open the passenger-side doors of the vehicle. The husband, in the driver's seat, pulled his own gun and fired back six times, emptying his weapon, according to the complaint. A teenage girl then jumped over the wife and started fighting with the husband, the complaint states. He hit her with his pistol to get her out of the Jeep and then began driving, reversing into the juveniles' car before leaving and going to a hospital. The woman, who was shot in the foot and the abdomen, was treated and released from the hospital hours later. The teens loaded Sanderson into their car and drove to an apartment nearby for gas money to take him to a hospital. Instead of taking him, however, they called 911. There, police found Sanderson lying on the ground with gunshot wounds. He was taken to University of New Mexico Hospital, where he died. "Detectives are investigating the death as a justifiable homicide since the husband of the victim was defending his wife and himself during an armed robbery," Albuquerque police said in a statement issued Jan. 29. The statement said, "Five teens have been arrested and two others are wanted by police in connection with the shooting." Later that day, police issued an update: A 15-year-old girl was arrested after she arrived at a hospital for treatment of a "bullet graze wound"; a 13-year-old was still on the run. The following day, police sent a second update: The 13-year-old "surrendered to police this evening. All seven teens who were charged in connection with the robbery and shooting are now in custody." All are facing charges, including Salas, who police say is charged with counts of attempted armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery. The suspects range in age from 12 to 17. In the last year, several gun incidents among teens around the state have led to injuries. Santa Fe police charged a 16-year-old boy in the apparently accidental shooting of a 15-year-old in July. Officers said the boy was "playing with" a handgun in the backseat of a car on Cerrillos Road when it fired and injured the other boy, who was driving. Española police alleged a 19-year-old from Abiquiú shot his younger brother in the face while playing with a gun in February 2024. And in September, a 16-year-old boy suffered four gunshot wounds in a shooting outside his house near Frenchy's Park. Police said they found 40 shell casings outside the home, and officers charged 21-year-old LeSean Liggins with attempted murder. Tracking firearm flow At the heart of the rising tide of juvenile gun crimes is a major question: Where are they getting their weapons? The problem has plagued Bregman, who last year implemented a policy in his office of refusing to negotiate plea deals with juveniles facing gun crimes unless they admit where they got the guns. Numbers provided by his office show guns get into youths' hands from a variety of sources. As of Jan. 7, Bregman's office had given 96 juveniles the ultimatum of admitting where they got their guns or losing out on plea agreements. Most, so far, have confessed, with 20 claiming they got them from a friend and 19 saying they got them off the social media platform Telegram. Six juveniles said they stole the guns, nine said they got them from family members and the rest who disclosed the source gave more vague answers, some claiming they got the weapons online or found them. Five so far have declined to say where they got their guns, and 25 juveniles still had cases pending and had not made a decision about disclosing where they got the guns, Bregman's office said. To curb the flow of firearms, Bregman pointed to two pieces of legislation making their way through the Roundhouse: Senate Bill 244, which would make a second-degree felony out of giving a gun to a minor, unless in appropriate circumstances like shooting competitions or hunting; and Senate Bill 255, which would make allowing or failing to prevent a gun sale through public platforms without a background check a third-degree felony. 'Someone has to be responsible for the disposition of a firearm, end of story,' Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, the bills' sponsor, said in an interview. 'If you illegally transfer it to a minor, you should be held accountable to what happens to that gun if you knowingly did that.' Bregman said SB 255 would allow the state to set its sights on social media platforms like Telegram. Victoria DeAnda, a freshman at the University of New Mexico, said she commonly sees young people selling firearms on the social media platform Snapchat as well. Gun sales on such apps, she noted, easily fly under the radar of adults. 'They don't know, and that's one of the biggest problems of student and youth gun violence, is that parents really don't know what's happening in their children's lives,' she said. House Bill 202, sponsored by several House Republicans as well as Rep. Meredith Dixon, D-Albuquerque, might also help address another major source of guns for juveniles. The bill would make available $750 tax credits to New Mexicans who purchase devices such as gun safes and lock boxes. 'Our state requires gun owners to responsibly store their firearms to help protect our children from gun violence. By fully covering the cost of storage safes, this legislation makes it easier to comply with this law so weapons are kept out of the hands of children,' Dixon said in a statement. Reeb, also a sponsor of HB 202, added the bill would complement the Bennie Hargrove Gun Safety Act, passed in 2023, which created a criminal charge for parents and guardians whose children got their hands on firearms because they were negligently stored. That law, named after a boy who was shot and killed by a fellow student at an Albuquerque middle school, has been used 15 times to charge people across the state, according to data provided by the Administrative Office of the Courts. Two of those cases were in Santa Fe. For all the challenges with tracking and curbing the flow of guns, young people who have them are often unsubtle about it. Wesley Clum, a senior at the private Bosque School in Albuquerque, said it's not uncommon for students around him to have access to guns at home. He added students who have guns often tout the fact they do and see the weapons as something of a status symbol. 'It's a culture of feeling powerful,' he said.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pared-down gun seizure bill clears second committee
Speakers, including members of Moms Demand Action, line up in favor of House Bill 12 during a House Judiciary Committee meeting Wednesday. The bill amends an existing law allowing a judge to order the seizure of a person's guns if they pose a risk to themselves or others. (Photo by Patrick Lohmann / Source NM) A bill that would make it easier and faster for police to seize guns belonging to a person deemed a risk to themselves or others passed a judiciary committee test Wednesday afternoon on a party-line vote. A more-expansive version of the bill was among Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's legislative priorities last legislative session, but it died without escaping the House of Representatives. The governor applauded its passage Wednesday in a news release: 'This revision to existing law closes a dangerous gap that puts lives at risk,' she said. 'I commend the House Judiciary Committee for their swift action on this legislation, and I strongly urge both chambers to act with the same sense of urgency this issue demands.' House Bill 12 amends a 2020 law that created a civil procedure enabling a judge to approve a temporary seizure of a person's guns based on requests to law enforcement from family members, employers, school officials and others. The 2020 law says gun owners may have up to 48 hours to surrender their weapons after a judge approves an officer's petition. In a news release, House Democrats shared a few other public safety bills that have passed their first committee and are slated to be heard in House Judiciary in the coming days; House Bill 31: Fourth-Degree Felony for Shooting Threat House Bill 38: Possession of Weapon Conversion Device House Bill 39: Juvenile Record in Firearm Background Checks House Bill 50: Penalties for Vehicle Thefts House Bill 4: Criminal Competency and Treatment House Bill 86: Human Trafficking Changes House Bill 73: Childhood Sexual Abuse Statute Of Limitations The amended version, sponsored by Rep. Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos) and Joy Garratt (D-Albuquerque), seeks to clarify that if an officer deems a person a risk in the course of their official duties, the officer doesn't need a request from a third party before seeking a judge's approval to order a weapons seizure. The bill also eliminates the 48-hour window and requires a gun owner served with an order to surrender firearms 'immediately' to police. In 2024, according to state court data, judges in 15 counties reviewed 94 petitions to grant year-long seizure orders and approved 74 of them. Eighteen were denied or dismissed, and judges extended two others. Garratt said the denied petitions demonstrate that judges aren't rubber-stamping police requests to receive weapons. 'They go before a judge,' Garratt said. 'They're not automatically granted.' The bill passed by a vote of 7-4, along party lines, and now heads to the House Floor. Republican lawmakers said they were concerned the bill didn't actually do much, was overly broad or created permanent records of a brief moment of crisis. The bill sponsors countered that the bill simply clarified that officers can bring these petitions themselves, which has caused judges in different judicial districts some confusion. Opponents in the audience said the bill was too punitive for people who had not been convicted of crimes, but supporters, including members of Moms Demand Action, said acting quickly to remove firearms from volatile situations can save lives. The 2024 version would have allowed health care professionals to request that a judge consider a temporary gun seizure. It would have also permitted district courts to issue 24/7 search warrants over the phone if a person refused to surrender their guns.
