Notwithstanding the Second Amendment, rules and regulationsacross the United States outline certain restrictions for who canlegally possess a firearm. In the state of California, factors suchas a felony conviction or a history of mental health issues meanroughly 20,000 gun owners are holding onto their firearmsillegally. Slowly but surely, though, Golden State police officersare prying them away. There’s more, though: backers of the programsuggest this becomes a nation-wide practice, and are asking theWhite House to help make it happen.
“Very, very few states have an archive of firearm owners likewe have,” Garen Wintemute of the Violence Prevention ResearchProgram tells Bloomberg News. Wintemute helped set up aprogram on the West Coast that monitors not just licensed gunowners but also watches for any red flags that could be raisedafter admittance to a mental health institute or a quick stint inthe slammer.
Wintemute says that as many as 200,000 people across the UnitedStates may no longer be qualified to own firearms, and inCalifornia they are making sure that number drops day by day. Inone example cited in this week’s Bloomberg report, journalistsrecall a recent scene where nine California Justice Departmentagents equipped with 40-caliber Glock pistols and outfitted inbulletproof vests knocked on a suburban residence, requested tospeak to a certain gun owner and then walked away with whateverarsenal they could apprehend.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris seized roughly 2,000weapons last year, reports Bloomberg, as well as 117,000 rounds ofammunition and 11,000 high-capacity magazines. But as concernsescalate about a possible war against the right to bear arms inAmerica, will other states soon follow suite?
In California, some shortcuts are already meaning weapons arebeing removed from lawful owners. Bloomberg reports cite theexample of 48-year-old Lynette Phillips, a California woman who wasrecently hospitalized for mental illness. When a team of agentswent to collect her two registered firearms, they also walked outwith one registered to her husband.
“The prohibited person can’t have access to a firearm,”regardless of who the registered owner is, said Michelle Gregory, aspokeswoman for the attorney general’s office.
In other cities and towns across the country, Americans arestanding up against what many say are unconstitutional attempts todisarm the United States. In New York State, new legislation ismaking it harder for Americans to purchase firearms, and oneprovision will provide gun owners with a felony charge if theyignore new registration rules — which is enough on its own to makeowning guns illegal. Across the board more states are demandingstricter background checks, but as efforts to remove weapons fromthe hands of Americans — voluntarily and involuntarily — are rampedup, though, those that disagree are doing what they can to keeptheir country armed.
In the wake of last year’s massacres in Aurora, Colorado andNewtown, Connecticut — among others — lawmakers and the public atlarge have called on Americans for a mass disarming. Gun buybackprograms are being touted in countless cities, and in Californiathe attorney general is hoping for even more help at getting gunsaway from their once-lawful owners — Attorney General Harris hasasked Vice President Joe Biden for help and has asked statelawmakers to increase the number of agents tasked with collectingweapons up to 33. She also told Mr. Biden that she thought theefforts coming out of California could be a good model of anational program, reports Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, though, others are making sure weapons aren’t beingput to waste. Residents in Maine hit the polls this week to vote ona law that would require everyone in the town of Byron to registera high-powered weapon.
"It was never my intention toforce anyone to own a gun who doesn't want to. My purpose was tomake a statement in support of the Second Amendment,” HeadSelectman Anne Simmons-Edmund tells US News & World Report.
"I'm just here because I'drather see weapons stay with people, rather than turned in to bemelted," a man named Joe, who declined to provide his lastname, tells the Bainbridge Island Review. "I'm here to exercise the Second Amendment,"he added. "Even if I don't get anything, honestly, I'd just rathersee people keep them."
