Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

Big Wins In The States In 2008

Thursday, November 20, 2008

by CHRIS W. COX
NRA-ILA
Executive Director

The year 2008 could go down as one of the most important years in our lifetime, as far as the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is concerned. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protects an individual right, and that laws banning handguns and prohibiting the use of guns for protection in your home are unconstitutional—a decision that may ultimately have a greater long-term impact on the ownership and use of firearms and ammunition than the Gun Control Act of 1968, the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1986 and the now-expired Clinton Gun Ban of 1994 combined.

But it was at the state level where most of the legislative activity that immediately affects gun owners took place. Many important pro-gun bills were passed, most by overwhelming margins in both houses of the legislatures, and numerous bills that would have restricted our right to arms for defensive, hunting and sporting purposes were defeated.

I’d like to go over how these issues played out during the past year, not only to report on our successes and our far fewer setbacks, but also because many of the same issues will be on the front burner in 2009 in many states. No doubt some of them will be taken up by Congress, and there’s no time like the present to start preparing.

Most gun owner victories in 2008 were on issues that directly or indirectly have a major impact on the long-term future of the right to arms for all gun owners and that will be NRA-ILA statewide priorities for some time to come:   

      • Right-to-Carry improvements and expansions were adopted in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and South Carolina. South Carolina also adopted a law protecting the confidentiality of carry permit holders’ personal information. Forty states now respect the Right to Carry.

      • “Castle Doctrine” laws, which affirm the right to respond with force in self-defense and protect victims from lawsuits by criminals or criminals’ families, were adopted in Ohio, West Virginia and Wyoming. Twenty-three states now have such laws.

      • “Worker protection” laws, which guarantee the right to leave firearms locked in vehicles in businesses’ parking lots, were adopted in Florida, Georgia and Louisiana.

      • “Emergency powers” laws, which prohibit government confiscation of firearms during declared states of emergency, were approved in Kansas, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Twenty-six states now have this important protection.

      • Shooting range protection was improved in Idaho, Mississippi and Missouri. Forty-seven states protect ranges from attempts to close them down due to noise and other such factors. Idaho improved its state preemption of local gun ordinances that are more restrictive than state law.

      • Numerous improvements to hunting regulations were adopted, including youth hunting measures in Indiana, Nebraska, New York, South Dakota and Virginia, a pistol hunting expansion in New Hampshire, a cougar hunting provision in Washington, a measure establishing firearm and hunter safety education programs in West Virginia schools, a provision allocating nearly $150,000 for air rifles and marksmanship supplies for rifle teams in Albuquerque, N.M., public schools, as well as hunting preserve and landowner protections in Missouri. Tennessee’s legislature passed a constitutional amendment protecting the right to hunt and fish, which may be confirmed by next year’s legislature and placed on the ballot for approval by the voters in 2010.
 
While many states passed pro-gun laws this year, several stand out as the battlegrounds where most of our victories were won.

FLORIDA—One of gun owners’ greatest legislative achievements in 2008 was Florida’s passage of “The Pre-servation and Protection of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in Motor Vehicles Act of 2008,” introduced by Rep. Greg Evers, R. The debate over the law pitted the president of the Unified Sportsmen of Florida—former NRA President Marion P. Hammer—against the Florida Chamber of Commerce. At the end of the day, Hammer and the people won. The bill, signed into law by Gov. Charlie Crist, R, affirms the right of law-abiding Florida gun owners to lock a firearm inside a private motor vehicle in a business’s parking lot, and has already been upheld in federal court.

GEORGIA—House Bill 89, introduced by Rep. Timothy Bearden, R, and signed into law by Gov. Sonny Perdue, R, allows an individual who qualifies for a carry permit to lock a firearm inside a private motor vehicle on a publicly accessible parking lot. The law also prohibits gun dealer entrapment schemes, such as those orchestrated by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and allows carry permit holders to carry in state parks.

KANSAS—Senate Bill 46, introduced by Sen. Phil Journey, R, and signed into law by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, D, allows the sale, manufacture, import and possession of firearms regulated by the National Firearms Act.

LOUISIANA—Senate Bill 51, introduced by Sen. Joe McPherson, D, and signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal, R, protects the right to transport and store firearms in locked, private motor vehicles and prohibits property owners, tenants, public or private employers and businesses from infringing this right in publicly accessible parking areas.

MICHIGAN—Bills introduced by Senator Randy Richardville, R, and Representatives Paul Opsommer, R, and Joel Sheltrown, D, and signed into law by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, D, eliminates the requirement that individuals acquiring handguns report to law enforcement headquarters to submit their handguns for a post-purchase “safety inspection.”  The law—which applied even to brand-new handguns—had been a burden on Michigan gun owners since the 1920s.

MISSOURI—House Bill 2034, introduced by Rep. Brian Munzlinger, R, and signed into law by Gov. Matt Blunt, R, includes shooting range and hunting preserve protections, liability protection for landowners who allow hunting on their land, Right-to-Carry reform, Right-to-Carry permit confidentiality protection and a provision allowing the manufacture, purchase and possession of suppressors.

Regrettably, several misguided bills became law this year in NEW JERSEY. One requires that a person report a lost or stolen firearm within 36 hours after discovery. Yet another prohibits the transfer of handgun ammunition to anyone who does not have a valid New Jersey firearm ID card, or handgun carry or purchase permit, with an exemption for people who purchase ammunition at the range for competition or target practice. Two others—one to limit handgun purchases to one per month and another to increase firearm permit and license fees—are pending at press time.

In most instances, though, the anti-gun agenda ran into a brick wall. In CALIFORNIA, anti-gun bills that failed included proposals to expand the state’s “assault weapons” ban; to repeal state preemption and allow cities and counties to impose ordinances that are more restrictive than state law; to require a permit to buy handgun ammunition, register handgun ammunition purchasers and restrict private transfers of handgun ammunition; to ban handguns that don’t possess a programmable biometric “smart” gun feature to prevent the gun from being fired by anyone other than its authorized user; and to ban gun shows at San Francisco’s Cow Palace. Though California’s legislature approved a bill to increase the training requirement for purchase of a handgun and to limit areas where loaded firearms may be possessed, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R, vetoed both measures.

Bills to ban ammunition that isn’t “encoded” with a serial number and registered to the purchaser and, in most cases, to require that an individual forfeit his non-serialized ammunition, were soundly defeated in Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Washington. Our adversaries in Maryland tried a different angle, proposing to prohibit handguns that don’t “micro-stamp” fired cases, but they, too, were unsuccessful.
An “assault weapons” ban was defeated in a House committee in LOUISIANA.

In ILLINOIS, a staggering 17 anti-gun bills failed, including not only the “encoded ammunition” proposal just mentioned, but also bans on ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, on firearms that have tubular magazines holding more than ten rounds, on countless semi-automatic firearms and on .50-caliber rifles and ammunition. Other bills would have subjected handgun dealers to state regulation, regulated nearly all private sales of firearms, imposed mandatory firearm storage requirements, limited the purchase of handguns to one in a 30-day period and required the provision of a trigger lock with every handgun sold.

Seven anti-gun bills failed in NEW YORK, including proposals to ban .50-caliber rifles, frangible ammunition and handguns that do not incorporate a so-called “childproofing” device or mechanism. Also defeated were bills to expand the state’s “assault weapon” ban, expand its unsuccessful ballistic imaging program, create new requirements and liability for gun dealers and regulate black powder guns as modern firearms.

A CONNECTICUT bill to delay processing of a pistol license, a NEW HAMPSHIRE proposal to restrict the concealed carrying of firearms and MASSACHUSETTS bills aimed at banning the sale and use of ammunition containing lead and at increasing firearm license fees, were all defeated.

In WISCONSIN, bills to restrict gun shows and require criminal record checks for hunting licenses were defeated. In NEBRASKA, a bill to require trigger locks and mandatory reporting of stolen firearms failed. Finally, in COLORADO, two anti-hunting measures and a proposal that could have hurt gun shows by allowing the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to stop conducting instant checks on Sundays fell short.

As you can see, supporters and opponents of the right to arms were engaged in many states, on many issues, in the past year. And, I’m happy to report, virtually all of the legislative victories in the states in 2008 were ours. If we work together during the states’ next legislative sessions, we can maintain our winning momentum toward the complete validation and vindication of the most important of our individual rights.

TRENDING NOW
MA Supreme Judicial Court Holds Old Nonresident Carry Licensing Scheme Unconstitutional But Upholds New Law

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

MA Supreme Judicial Court Holds Old Nonresident Carry Licensing Scheme Unconstitutional But Upholds New Law

On March 11, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts issued two decisions concerning the Commonwealth’s firearms carry licensing scheme for nonresidents.

Oregon Court Of Appeals Reverses Lower Court Decision, Lifts Hold on Ballot Measure 114

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Oregon Court Of Appeals Reverses Lower Court Decision, Lifts Hold on Ballot Measure 114

On Wednesday, March 12th, the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision that had declared unconstitutional Ballot Measure 114, which imposed a permit-to-purchase scheme and banned the possession of magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition. ...

NRA Statement on President Trump’s Executive Order Protecting Second Amendment Rights

News  

Second Amendment  

Friday, February 7, 2025

NRA Statement on President Trump’s Executive Order Protecting Second Amendment Rights

Today, the White House announced a new Executive Order to protect and expand the Second Amendment rights of all law-abiding Americans. This is the first action taken by President Donald J. Trump to carry through ...

New Mexico: Semi-Auto Ban Legislation Held Over in Committee Until Friday

Thursday, March 6, 2025

New Mexico: Semi-Auto Ban Legislation Held Over in Committee Until Friday

Yesterday the New Mexico Senate Judiciary Committee met to continue discussions on Senate Bill 279 (GoSAFE). The author did not accept the committee substitute to amend the near all-encompassing ban on semi-auto firearms with equally ...

Washington: Gun-Free Zone Expansion Bill Scheduled for Hearing on Tuesday

Friday, March 14, 2025

Washington: Gun-Free Zone Expansion Bill Scheduled for Hearing on Tuesday

On Tuesday, March 18th, the House Committee on Civil Rights & Judiciary will hold a public hearing on Senate Bill 5098, a gun-free zone expansion bill. The hearing has been set for 10:30AM.

New Mexico: Anti-Gun Extremists Introduce Sweeping Gun Ban

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

New Mexico: Anti-Gun Extremists Introduce Sweeping Gun Ban

As they have tried in the past, anti-gun radicals in the New Mexico Senate have introduced Senate Bill 279, the "GOSAFE Act," a near all-encompassing ban on semi-automatic and NFA firearms.

Colorado: FOID Bill Passes House Judiciary With More Amendments

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Colorado: FOID Bill Passes House Judiciary With More Amendments

Yesterday, March 11th, Senate Bill 25-003 underwent another transformation during a late-night hearing in the House Judiciary committee, ultimately passing with amendments along a party-line vote. 

New Mexico Supreme Court Upholds Governor’s “Public Health Emergency” Carry Ban in NRA Challenge

Saturday, March 8, 2025

New Mexico Supreme Court Upholds Governor’s “Public Health Emergency” Carry Ban in NRA Challenge

In 2023, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order declaring gun violence a “public health emergency” and banning the carry of firearms in various locations throughout the state.

Florida: Pro-Gun Bills Advance in House and Senate Committees

Thursday, March 13, 2025

Florida: Pro-Gun Bills Advance in House and Senate Committees

This week, the Florida House and Senate Criminal Justice Committees passed multiple pro-gun bills: House Bill 759 restores the ability for young adults to acquire firearms, Senate Bill 952 and House Bill 6025 are companion bills that further protect our Second Amendment Rights ...

New Mexico: Senate Finance Staff Reviewing Semi-Auto Bill

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

New Mexico: Senate Finance Staff Reviewing Semi-Auto Bill

Yesterday, Senate Finance committee posted that their staff is reviewing SB 279 as a part of their Wednesday meeting. While this is not a formal hearing, this could be a decision point on whether Senate ...

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.