Latest news with #SecondAmendment
The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Trump wants Supreme Court to crack down on gun rules
Now the Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to declare that such rules in Hawaii, California, New York, Maryland and New Jersey violate the Constitution. "The United States has a substantial interest in the preservation of the right to keep and bear arms and in the proper interpretation of the Second Amendment," Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in explaining why the Department of Justice wants the high court to weigh in. That's not the only example of how the change in administrations is affecting litigation over gun regulations. Justice Department stopped defending federal handgun rule In a move alarming to groups working to prevent gun violence, the DOJ declined to continue to defend a federal law setting 21 as the minimum age to own a handgun after an appeals court ruled the restriction unconstitutional. "For the government to step back and say, `Hey, here's a major piece of federal firearms legislation that was passed by Congress; we're just not going to bother to defend it any longer,' that's a really, really significant thing," said Esther Sanchez-Gomez, litigation director for the Giffords Law Center. The DOJ has also told the Supreme Court that the federal government no longer opposes all aspects of a Missouri law - blocked by lower courts after the Biden administration and others challenged it - that would penalize state police for enforcing federal gun control laws. "This is the first time we've seen a Justice Department really actively fight for the Second Amendment rights of all Americans," said Hannah Hill, vice president of the National Foundation for Gun Rights. Hill said it's taken the administration longer than she'd hoped to take a stand and her group is eager for President Donald Trump to repeal federal regulations - including rules on untraceable "ghost guns" that the Supreme Court upheld in March. "But you're seeing a slow pivot of a massive ship back toward the Constitution," she said. "And I'm extremely encouraged by the trajectory." Trump: `No one will lay a finger on your firearms' During a 2024 campaign stop to address thousands of members of the National Rifle Association in Pennsylvania, Trump promised that "no one will lay a finger on your firearms" if voters put him back in the White House. "Your Second Amendment will always be safe with me as your president," Trump said. Soon after taking office, Trump signed an executive order directing a review of Biden-era firearm policies and of the positions the government has taken in gun-related litigation. Legal challenges to firearm rules spiked after the court created a new test for gun laws in its 2022 decision striking down a New York law that required state residents to have "proper cause" to carry a handgun. The court said gun rules must be similar to a historical regulation on weapons to pass constitutional muster. Lower courts divided over age restriction on handguns As the administration was changing hands in January, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a decades-old federal law banning handgun purchases by 18- to 20-year-olds fails that test. "The history of firearm use, particularly in connection with militia service, contradicts the premise that eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds are not covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment," U.S. Circuit Judge Edith Jones wrote for the court. In July, the DOJ told a lower court that the government is not going to appeal that decision to the Supreme Court. But the high court may still take up the issue. More: Supreme Court rules Mexico can't sue US gunmakers over cartel violence In June, the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reached the opposite conclusion as the 5th Circuit, ruling against a similar challenge. "From English common law to America's founding and beyond, our regulatory tradition has permitted restrictions on the sale of firearms to individuals under the age of 21," U.S. Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote for the court. The four 18- to 20-year-olds challenging the age restriction have appealed that decision to the Supreme Court. The DOJ has not yet filed its response. More: Supreme Court sides with Biden and upholds regulations of ghost guns to make them traceable Debate over the right to carry a gun in public In its brief supporting a challenge to Hawaii's law prohibiting the carrying of handguns onto someone else's property without their consent, the government said that the rule "effectively nullifies" the general right to carry a gun in public that the court upheld in 2022. "Someone carrying a firearm for self-defense cannot run errands without fear of criminal sanctions," Sauer told the court. Sanchez-Gomez, the litigation director for the Giffords Law Center, said property owners have always had the ability to restrict weapons. But Hawaii's law makes the default that handguns aren't allowed unless there's express permission, rather than that they are allowed unless they're expressly prohibited. When the court limited states' control over who could publicly carry guns, she said, the focus turned to where in public they could bring them. Alex McCourt, an assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, said the Supreme Court could take up the case not so much because the Trump administration wants them to but because one appeals court upheld Hawaii's rule while a different appeals court rejected New York's. "The fact that we have these differing opinions across the country probably weighs even heavier in the Supreme Court's mind," he said. Still, McCourt said, it's relatively rare for the high court to weigh in on gun laws. "They often say no," he said. Justice Department backs challenge to bans on AR-15s In June, the justices declined to hear a challenge to Maryland's ban on assault-style weapons, although Justice Brett Kavanaugh said he expects his colleagues "will address the AR-15 issue soon, in the next term or two." Days later, the Justice Department urged the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down a similar law in Illinois. "Because the Act is a total ban on a category of firearms that are in common use by law-abiding citizens for lawful reasons, it is flatly unconstitutional," lawyers for the DOJ wrote in a legal brief supporting the challenge. The Firearms Policy Coalition, one of the groups fighting Illinois' law, called the DOJ's filing a critical step toward Trump fulfilling his promise to defend the Second Amendment. "We hope Solicitor General Sauer will stand with us on this issue at the Supreme Court," coalition president Brandon Combs said in a statement, "when this case inevitably heads up."
USA Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
Trump DOJ wants Supreme Court to bring down hammer on gun rules
WASHINGTON − After the Supreme Court in 2022 made it harder to restrict who can arm themselves in public, some states took a different approach. Five Democrat-led, mostly densely populous states passed laws that prohibit bringing a handgun onto someone else's property without that person's express consent. Now the Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to declare that such rules in Hawaii, California, New York, Maryland and New Jersey violate the Constitution. 'The United States has a substantial interest in the preservation of the right to keep and bear arms and in the proper interpretation of the Second Amendment,' Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in explaining why the Department of Justice wants the high court to weigh in. That's not the only example of how the change in administrations is affecting litigation over gun regulations. Justice Department stopped defending federal handgun rule In a move alarming to groups working to prevent gun violence, the DOJ declined to continue to defend a federal law setting 21 as the minimum age to own a handgun after an appeals court ruled the restriction unconstitutional. 'For the government to step back and say, `Hey, here's a major piece of federal firearms legislation that was passed by Congress; we're just not going to bother to defend it any longer,' that's a really, really significant thing,' said Esther Sanchez-Gomez, litigation director for the Giffords Law Center. The DOJ has also told the Supreme Court that the federal government no longer opposes all aspects of a Missouri law – blocked by lower courts after the Biden administration and others challenged it – that would penalize state police for enforcing federal gun control laws. 'This is the first time we've seen a Justice Department really actively fight for the Second Amendment rights of all Americans," said Hannah Hill, vice president of the National Foundation for Gun Rights. Hill said it's taken the administration longer than she'd hoped to take a stand and her group is eager for President Donald Trump to repeal federal regulations − including rules on untraceable "ghost guns" that the Supreme Court upheld in March. "But you're seeing a slow pivot of a massive ship back toward the Constitution," she said. "And I'm extremely encouraged by the trajectory." Trump: `No one will lay a finger on your firearms' During a 2024 campaign stop to address thousands of members of the National Rifle Association in Pennsylvania, Trump promised that 'no one will lay a finger on your firearms' if voters put him back in the White House. "Your Second Amendment will always be safe with me as your president," Trump said. Soon after taking office, Trump signed an executive order directing a review of Biden-era firearm policies and of the positions the government has taken in gun-related litigation. Legal challenges to firearm rules spiked after the court created a new test for gun laws in its 2022 decision striking down a New York law that required state residents to have "proper cause" to carry a handgun. The court said gun rules must be similar to a historical regulation on weapons to pass constitutional muster. Lower courts divided over age restriction on handguns As the administration was changing hands in January, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a decades-old federal law banning handgun purchases by 18- to 20-year-olds fails that test. "The history of firearm use, particularly in connection with militia service, contradicts the premise that eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds are not covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment," U.S. Circuit Judge Edith Jones wrote for the court. In July, the DOJ told a lower court that the government is not going to appeal that decision to the Supreme Court. But the high court may still take up the issue. More: Supreme Court rules Mexico can't sue US gunmakers over cartel violence In June, the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reached the opposite conclusion as the 5th Circuit, ruling against a similar challenge. "From English common law to America's founding and beyond, our regulatory tradition has permitted restrictions on the sale of firearms to individuals under the age of 21," U.S. Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote for the court. The four 18- to 20-year-olds challenging the age restriction have appealed that decision to the Supreme Court. The DOJ has not yet filed its response. More: Supreme Court sides with Biden and upholds regulations of ghost guns to make them traceable Debate over the right to carry a gun in public In its brief supporting a challenge to Hawaii's law prohibiting the carrying of handguns onto someone else's property without their consent, the government said that the rule 'effectively nullifies' the general right to carry a gun in public that the court upheld in 2022. 'Someone carrying a firearm for self-defense cannot run errands without fear of criminal sanctions,' Sauer told the court. Sanchez-Gomez, the litigation director for the Giffords Law Center, said property owners have always had the ability to restrict weapons. But Hawaii's law makes the default that handguns aren't allowed unless there's express permission, rather than that they are allowed unless they're expressly prohibited. When the court limited states' control over who could publicly carry guns, she said, the focus turned to where in public they could bring them. Alex McCourt, an assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, said the Supreme Court could take up the case not so much because the Trump administration wants them to but because one appeals court upheld Hawaii's rule while a different appeals court rejected New York's. 'The fact that we have these differing opinions across the country probably weighs even heavier in the Supreme Court's mind," he said. Still, McCourt said, it's relatively rare for the high court to weigh in on gun laws. 'They often say no,' he said. Justice Department backs challenge to bans on AR-15s In June, the justices declined to hear a challenge to Maryland's ban on assault-style weapons, although Justice Brett Kavanaugh said he expects his colleagues 'will address the AR-15 issue soon, in the next term or two.' Days later, the Justice Department urged the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down a similar law in Illinois. 'Because the Act is a total ban on a category of firearms that are in common use by law-abiding citizens for lawful reasons, it is flatly unconstitutional,' lawyers for the DOJ wrote in a legal brief supporting the challenge. The Firearms Policy Coalition, one of the groups fighting Illinois' law, called the DOJ's filing a critical step toward Trump fulfilling his promise to defend the Second Amendment. 'We hope Solicitor General Sauer will stand with us on this issue at the Supreme Court,' coalition president Brandon Combs said in a statement, 'when this case inevitably heads up.'
Al Jazeera
3 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
US attorney general paves way for more convicted criminals to own guns
Washington, DC – United States Attorney General Pam Bondi has begun a process to make it easier for individuals with criminal convictions to own guns. The move on Friday comes amid a wider push by the administration of President Donald Trump to make good on campaign promises to gun rights groups, which criticise restrictions on firearm ownership as violations of the Constitution's Second Amendment. Trump ordered a review of government gun policies in February. Gun control advocates, meanwhile, have voiced concerns over the administration's ability to adequately assess which convicted individuals would not pose a public safety risk. In a statement released on Friday, Bondi said individuals with serious criminal convictions have been 'disenfranchised from exercising the right to keep and bear arms — a right every bit as constitutionally enshrined as the right to vote, the right to free speech, and the right to free exercise of religion — irrespective of whether they actually pose a threat'. 'No longer,' she added. Under the plan, Bondi seeks to return the power to determine which individuals convicted of crimes can own firearms directly to her office. That exemption process has currently been overseen by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. However, Congress has, for decades, used its spending approval powers to stem the processing of exemption requests. The Department of Justice said the proposed change 'will provide citizens whose firearm rights are currently under legal disability with an avenue to restore those rights, while keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals and illegal aliens'. The US attorney general would have 'ultimate discretion to grant relief', according to the department. It added that, 'absent extraordinary circumstances', certain individuals would be 'presumptively ineligible' for the restoration of their gun rights. They include 'violent felons, registered sex offenders, and illegal aliens'. The plan was outlined in a 'proposed rule' submitted to the Federal Register on Friday. It will undergo a final public comment period before it is adopted. In Friday's statement, US Pardon Attorney Edward Martin Jr said that his team was already developing a 'landing page with a sophisticated, user-friendly platform for Americans petitioning for the return of their gun rights, which will make the process easier for them'. When details of Bondi's plan initially emerged in March, the gun control group Brady was among those who voiced opposition. 'If and when gun rights are restored to an individual, it needs to be through a robust and thoughtful system that minimizes the risk to public safety,' the group's president, Kris Brown, said in a statement. She added that Trump's restoration of gun rights to those who were convicted — and later pardoned — for their role in the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, raised concerns over how the administration would exercise its discretion. 'This would be a unilateral system to give gun rights back to those who are dangerous and high risk, and we will all be at greater risk of gun violence,' she said.
USA Today
4 days ago
- Climate
- USA Today
Lynch: Like in once-embattled Northern Ireland, acceptance will be pivotal at 2025 Open
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — When the Open returned to Royal Portrush in 2019, a great deal of ink and oxygen was spent explaining why golf's oldest major championship hadn't visited Northern Ireland in 68 years, the obvious answer being that major sports events usually avoid places where the breeze carries a fresh whiff of gun smoke*. (*Rule doesn't apply in regions where the Second Amendment can be used for air cover). That it took only six years for Royal Portrush to stage another Open is explained by all the questions that were answered in '19. The 148th Open settled as fact that a faded seaside town in Northern Ireland is as capable and deserving of hosting the championship as the faded seaside towns of England and Scotland, which means that the focus at the 153rd Open is where it ought to be: on today's golf, not on yesterday's conflict. The opening round at Royal Portrush unfolded like an 'Ulster fry' — an incongruous mixture of ingredients, some delicious, others revolting, that somehow merges into a nourishing meal, albeit one that lasts longer in the digestive tract than in the memory. Start with the Northern Irish weather, so fickle that a cynic might wonder why anyone would squabble over the right to live in it. The forecast for a calm morning with afternoon showers became a reality of morning downpours and afternoon breezes. Add an early leader so little-known as to be confidential, in this instance Jacob Skov Olesen, a rookie professional ranked 354 in the world who isn't even the best-known Olesen in the field. Then a splash of 'only at the Open' quirk, like the battle for low Højgaard. Sprinkle in veterans proving that age and guile work in links golf, especially if they're well rested with 54-hole schedules (Justin Leonard, Lee Westwood, Phil Mickelson). And top it off with contenders who tantalizingly placed (Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry) or unexpectedly struggled (Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark, whose 76 must have had every carpenter in town waiting expectantly by the phone for a summons to the clubhouse). As with the 152 that preceded it, this Open is as much about acceptance as aptitude. 'You know it's going to be hard. It's going to be tricky. It's going to be difficult,' said Darren Clarke, the 2011 champion golfer of the year. 'You're going to get a few funny bounces, but you've just got to go with it.' There are a few other things you know you're going to get at an Open. Like savvy fans who politely applaud shots that finish 30 feet from the hole because they know it was quality. Or players being forced to summon artistry in an era dominated by science, because they know that the most decisive part of a ball's journey begins when it hits the turf. Stock shots that stop and spin may be the norm most weeks in modern professional golf, but not at an Open. Which is why there's no more entertaining spectacle in the game than watching the mastery of those who have figured out the links puzzle and the misery of those who haven't, guys determined to paint by numbers when the challenge calls for tie-dye. Clarke has been in an expansive, entertaining mood this week. He keeps a home in Portrush, but has long since decamped to the Bahamas, where red faces can be attributed to sunshine rather than the Bushmills distillery. At a nearby hostelry, there's a snug corner where a plaque displays his name and a seat shows the wear of his arse. 'Coming in here shooting 4-over, maybe I should have spent more time in the Harbour Bar than out here,' he said with a laugh. Clarke has been around long enough — this is his 33rd start in the championship — to know that days like this will have many of his peers quietly wishing they had done the same. There are worse places to try to figure things out.
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Trump Jr.-Backed GrabAGun Stock (PEW) Tumbles on NYSE Debut
GrabAGun (PEW), an online firearm marketplace backed by Donald Trump Jr., saw a rocky start to its public trading on Wednesday. Shares of the company plunged about 24% on Wednesday. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. The debut followed a $179 million special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger with Colombier Acquisition Corp. II, giving GrabAGun a quick entry to public markets. Trump Jr., who owns about 1% of the company and sits on its board, rang the opening bell earlier today. GrabAGun CEO Marc Nemati said the company wants to attract younger buyers who shop online and value their Second Amendment rights. Trump Family's Investment Focus GrabAGun's listing is the latest instance of President Trump's family investing in companies aligned with conservative political causes. It also shows renewed interest in SPAC deals by the Trump family. Last year, Trump Media (DJT), the parent company of Truth Social, went public through a SPAC deal. Donald Trump Jr. is the sole trustee of the trust holding President Trump's over 114 million DJT shares, which were placed there before he took office in January. Some other companies of which Trump Jr. is a member of the board are drone manufacturer Unusual Machines (UMAC), 'anti-woke' online marketplace PSQ Holdings (PSQH), and financial advisory firm Dominari Holdings (DOMH).
