Striking a blow for gun safety, the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled that the Second Amendment does not provide a right to carry a gun, concealed or openly, in public. The court reviewed more than 700 years of English and American legal history that gives the government the power to regulate arms in public. "The Second Amendment does not guarantee an unfettered, general right to openly carry arms in public for individual self-defense," the 9th Circuit ruled. "Accordingly, Hawai‘i’s firearms-carry scheme is lawful." The 11-judge court upheld a Hawaii state law that requires a license to carry a [...]

How many of us were surprised about the recent killings of 18 people in Colorado and Georgia? How many thought, “well another mass shooting, but what can I do about it?” How many Arizona citizens remember that this March, the Arizona Senate panel gave the go-ahead for more people to bring loaded weapons into more places.   "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is not to sell the bad guy a gun." One measure approved by the Judiciary Committee would allow more than 390,000 Arizonans with permits to carry a concealed weapon into most public [...]

Four  Pima County Supervisors, the new Pima County Attorney, and the new County Sheriff all support background checks at the Pima Gun Show, and oppose letting prohibited buyers get guns at the gun show. Citizens for a Safer Pima County is a grass-roots group formed several years ago, specifically to eliminate gun sales to prohibited buyers on public property (i.e., Pima County Fairgrounds). As a public service, CSPC has solicited input on two gun safety questions from 2020 candidates running for the Board of Supervisors, for County Sheriff and County Attorney. Here are the questions we asked, followed by the candidates’ responses: The [...]

During a surging pandemic, Crossroads of the West Gun Show returned to Pima County Fairgrounds last weekend. It brought together indoors hundreds of people, milling from tables of AR-15s, to shelves of revolvers, to racks of high capacity magazines and cases of AK-47s. But the truth is that this show has never been safe for the residents of Pima County. Because unlike a licensed gun store, a great many of the weapons bought here require no background check. It’s known as the Gun Show Loophole. Originally lawmakers intended it to cover “private sellers,” i.e., gun collectors and exchanges between family [...]

Chris Nanos would like a second shot at serving as the Pima County Sheriff Position. Appointed in 2015 to complete the term of retiring Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, Nanos, a man with decades of law enforcement and executive management experience, became engulfed in an F.B.I. investigation of the department thanks to questionable acts by two leading deputies before his taking the position. No charges were filed against Nanos but the albatross of the investigation created an electoral opportunity for Republican Mark Napier to win in 2016 what he lost in 2012. Now four years later the Pima County Deputy Sheriff’s [...]

Given the spike in gun sales we're seeing in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, we've put together a toolkit to educate the public about the dangers of stockpiling weapons. I would love it if folks could amplify the message or record a #StopTheCoronavirusGunSurge video (last page of the toolkit). We've been following this fairly closely and so I'm attaching an update below on where things stand. Very few news stories include quotes highlighting the dangers of panic-buying weapons and it would be helpful to get more health care, responsible gun owner, and law enforcement voices into the mix. Guns Down America’s [...]

The Pima County gun show is an ongoing crime scene -- operated by two criminals who sell guns without background checks to felons, domestic abusers and prohibited persons. The public wants universal background checks for private gun sales on public property, but the Fair Commission has stonewalled on closing the gun show loophole. All it needs to do is pass a rule requiring background checks -- but the Commissioners refuse to even discuss it. Bob Templeton, and his son, Jeff Templeton, have felony convictions for federal firearms violations that could prevent them from organizing gun shows in California. [...]