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TOP STORY
Federal Firearms Preemption Bill Proposed In A New York State Of Mind
U.S. Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) on July 31 introduced HR 3576, a proposed bill that would prevent any state and municipal government from imposing laws and regulations on rifle and shotguns that would be stricter than federal laws and regulations on these firearms.
Collins’ pre-emption bill, titled “The Second Amendment Guarantee Act (SAGA),” explicitly limits “the authority of states to regulate conduct, or impose penalties or taxes in relation to rifles or shotguns.”
In a statement published by the Associated Press, Collins told the Associated Press that SAGA was drafted in a New York State of mind, and seeks to nullify the state’s 2013 SAFE Act.
Adopted in a knee-jerk response to the December 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, the SAFE Act requires firearm registration, an “assault rifles” ban, a high-capacity magazine ban, and an expansion of background checks — none of which, as pointed out by Brietbart’s AWR Hawkins, “would have prevented the attack on Sandy Hook.”
Collins told the AP that SAGA would “protect the Second Amendment rights of New Yorkers that were unjustly taken away by Andrew Cuomo. I am a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment and have fought against all efforts to condemn these rights. I stand with the law-abiding citizens of this state that have been outraged by the SAFE Act and voice my commitment to roll back these regulations.”
According to the Albany Times-Union, Gov. Cuomo called Collins’ bill “political posturing,” and said if Congress adopts SAGA, New York State “will sue.”
For more, go to:
— GOP Rep. Introduces Legislation to Nullify State-Level Gun Controls
— Andrew Cuomo: I’d Sue the Feds to Keep NY Gun Control in Place
— NY Congressman Wants To Take Away Hawaii’s Gun-Control Rights
— Tom Reed supports Chris Collins’ gun rights bill
— Rod Watson: I stand with Collins on SAFE Act ‘abomination’
— US Concealed-Carry Gun Bills Prompt Warning in New Mexico
— Group says federal gun bill poses threat to Virginia’s public safety
— Connecticut’s Strict Gun-Control Laws May Soon Be Lifted By The Federal Government
— Concealed-handgun carry bill triggers pushback from coastal mayors, police chiefs
— Gun control groups support new bill to close ‘Charleston Loophole’
— Trump’s surgeon general nominee tries to separate guns from gun violence
— Gun control groups cite Zimmerman as reason to block national reciprocity
— Surgeon general nominee, asked about gun violence, treads carefully
CREDIT CARD-SIZED PISTOL
This Will Give Your Billfold More Bang With Its Bucks
Its dimensions are 3 1/2 inches-by-2 1/8 inches and a half-inch wide. It weighs 7 ounces. It can fold into wallet billfolds along with credit cards and driver licenses. It’s the LifeCard, a single-action .22 folding pistol introduced in late July by Trailblazer Firearms, a North Carolina-based start-up that promises it will be “the last gun you’ll leave behind.”
LifeCard’s no-snag designed pistol’s frame and grip handle, which can store up to four bullets, is constructed from fully-machined aluminum billet and hard-coat black anodized. The tilt-up barrel, bolt and trigger are made of steel with an Isonite finish for corrosion resistance.
Trailblazer Firearms President Aaron Voigt told Ammoland on Aug. 1 that LifeCard will be available for purchase by late August. It will be distributed by Ellett Brothers and Jerry’s Sport Center.
A former Marine and Army infantryman, Voigt grew up hunting and shooting in the mountains around Asheville, N.C. He’s been developing the LifeCard since 2010. “Initially,’ he told Ammoland, “I had no idea that going from concept to actual product would take seven years, but in essence, that time spent was valuable and will show in every aspect of this remarkable product. I am looking forward to putting this pistol on the market and can’t thank my family and friends enough for all the support and patience.”
Voigt said LifeCard is only the beginning for his newly-founded company. “Trailblazer Firearms fully intends to spearhead innovative new firearms products starting with the LifeCard. New designs and true innovation have been the exception and our goal is to be the pioneer laying new trails for gun enthusiasts, designers and manufacturers,” he said.
For more, go to:
— GET FIRED UP WITH THIS FOLDABLE, CREDIT CARD-SIZED HANDGUN THAT FITS IN YOUR WALLET
— Trailblazer Firearms Lifecard Folding Pistol : Setting a New Paradigm in Firearms
— New Soft Side Zip Up Pistol Case from STI International
— Maybe The Greatest Innovation in Firearms in 150 Years
— Triggrcon 2017: Innovation in the Firearms Industry
— From obsolete to trendy: The second coming of roller locked firearms
STATE ROUNDUP
Seattle Forced To Disclose ‘Embarrassing’ Gun Violence Tax Revenues — Now It Must Reveal Costs To Defend It
When Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess convinced the council to adopt its “Gun Violence Tax” in 2015, he predicted it would generate between $300,000 and $500,000 annually to “study the root causes of gun violence in hopes of reducing the costs to taxpayers.”
The tax assesses a $25 tax on every firearm and between 2-and-5 cents for every round of ammunition sold in the city. Since it went into effect on Jan. 1, 2016, however, the tax has only generated about a fifth of Burgess’s projections.
Make that $108,013.04, exactly, over 18 months.
Not that the city of Seattle wanted to disclose these facts. In fact, the city did not want facts to distract the public from the fantasy that the “Gun Violence Tax” is an effective tool in limiting and paying for “gun violence.”
It took a July 28 ruling by King County Superior Court Judge Lori K. Smith to force the city to comply with public record requests that would confirm it has actually spent more defending the tax in court — and all continue to do so — than it has collected in revenue from the “Gun Violence Tax.”
Smith issued her decision in a Public Records Act suit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF). The gun-rights group filed suit after the city refused to fulfill a public record request from Dave Workman, editor of SAF-owned TheGunMag.com.
SAF Founder Alan Gottlieb called the actual, factual, real-life revenues that the city was forced to reveal “an embarrassing shortfall.”
“It was silly for Seattle to withhold this information,” he continued, “but we’re pretty certain why the city did it.”
Most likely because now the city has to tell its constituents how much money it has spent defending the “Gun Violence Tax” in court. Those figures — which will certainly far eclipse $108,013.04 — weren’t quite handy, as yet, because the meter is still running on that bill.
Now the meter is running on the city to tell its taxpayers how much they’re paying lawyers to defend a tax that isn’t doing what its supporters said it would.
For more, go to:
— Seattle spent more defending gun-tax lawsuit than it collected in revenue from tax, gun group claims
— NJ senator looking to restart ‘smart gun’ efforts in New Jersey
— NRA Backs Gillespie in Virginia Governor’s Race
— Florida: How firing a warning shot got a man 20 years in prison
— US Concealed-Carry Gun Bills Prompt Warning in New Mexico
— New North Dakota hidden gun law already raising questions
— Wisconsin Republicans, Democrats Spar Over Gun Safety Course
— VIDEO: New York Deputies Knock on Vietnam Vet’s Door, Confiscate Guns
— Texas community colleges allow guns starting Tuesday
— Concealed guns now legal on Kansas college campuses
— Tennessee: Law governing firearm silencers causing confusion
— Ohio lawmaker wants elected officials to carry guns in public buildings
— Stack of New Arkansas Laws Take Effect Next Week
— California: Fresno Mayor Opposes Concealed Carry, Carries Gun
IN THE COURTS
Chicago’s Lethal ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban Challenged in Refiled Suit
Illinois residents Matthew D. Wilson and Troy Edhlund have refiled their 2007 lawsuit seeking a permanent injunction against Cook County’s “assault weapons” ban.
Wilson and Edhlund, joined in the suit by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and Illinois State Rifle Association, refiled Wilson v. Cook County in Cook County Circuit Court on July 28. They are represented by attorney David G. Sigale of Glen Ellyn, Ill.
The fait filed their original suit after the adoption of the Cook County Assault Weapons Ordinance in November 2006. They claim the law violates the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution, as applied to the states by the 14th Amendment, because of vagueness in its definition of “assault weapons” which Second Amendment advocates and legal scholars have long claimed to be a politically contrived term that means nothing.
SAF Founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb said refiling the lawsuit is timely because the “recent violent history in the city of Chicago clearly demonstrates that this prohibition has not prevented a single slaying or injurious shooting.”
The suit maintains that under the ordinance, commonly-owned semiautomatic sporting shotguns and rifles could be banned due to the language of the law.
“Laws like this should never be written in the first place,” Gottlieb said in a press release, “and especially they shouldn’t be written by people who do not appear to know anything about firearms.”
For more, go to:
— SAF Supports Lawsuit To Nullify Cook County ‘Assault Weapon’ Ban
— Gun Rights Advocates File Lawsuit against Cook County’s ‘Assault Weapons Ordinance’
— The Next Heller Case? Wilson v. Cook County Goes to Trial
— [Wilson, Edlund v Cook County](https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/AssaultWeaponsCook.pdf0/
— Appeals Court Judge criticized Florida’s mandatory minimum gun laws
— Where Would We Stand Without Heller?
— Michigan Couples Sue Over State’s Attempt to Disarm Adoptive and Foster Parents