States Push Back Against Obama's Gun Policy With a Slew of Gun Rights Bills

Brittany M. Hughes | May 24, 2016
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If President Obama's goal truly is to whittle down the Second Amendment until it's no more than a blurry inkstain on the U.S. Constitution, it's not working very well.

The latest in a string of state actions affirming residents' gun rights came Tuesday, as West Virginia residents 21 and older can now carry a concealed weapon without a permit within state lines. The law was passed back in early March.

According to one local report, concealed weapons are still prohibited in places like federal government properties, the state capital, regional jails, schools, detention facilities and courthouses. People also still won’t be able to take their newly permitless weapon into private business with weapons bans, and are advised to remember the law doesn’t apply when a person carries a weapon across state lines without the appropriate permit.

Proponents of the law say the new policy also includes harsher punishments for those who’ve been prohibited from carrying handguns. Via WSAZ3:

...supporters point to tougher penalties within the law that they believe will help crack down on illegal activity.

"The penalties are greatly increased and it really put some teeth into the laws," Parsley said, "where before they were kind of treated as lower level crimes, and now they're big-time felonies."

The law creates enhanced penalties for anyone who is prohibited from carrying a handgun. If criminals or a mentally ill person unlawfully has a concealed weapon, they can be charged with an additional penalty that is punishable by up to three years in prison. Criminals who use guns during a felony can be charged with a felony, which carries up to 10 years in prison.

West Virginia isn’t the only state that allows people to carry concealed weapons without a permit. States including Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Montana, Vermont and Wyoming also allow the practice, while some states like Texas allow people with permits to openly carry handguns.

Missouri passed a similar bill earlier this month allowing residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit, along with a “stand-your-ground” law protecting a person’s right to defend themselves from danger in a place where they are lawfully present. While more than 30 states already have some form of “stand-your-ground” or “castle” law, the Missouri bill marks the first new such policy since 2011, according to the National Rifle Association.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a law in April allowing residents in his state to carry concealed weapons without a permit.

Whether a state allows concealed carry with a permit or without, data shows gun sales and memberships at the National Rifle Association have skyrocketed under President Obama’s presidency, during which the president has enacted a series of executive actions aimed at curbing gun violence by making it more difficult for people to buy guns. Obama’s unilateral gun reforms, which he failed to convince Congress to pass as laws, include expanded background checks, much stricter regulations on who can sell firearms and how, and – of course – dumping copious amounts of taxpayer money into administrative staffing, mental health programs and smart gun technology research.

From Bloomberg, via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The attempts at new firearms restrictions, and the industry's long-held belief that Obama opposes gun rights, helped the NRA boost its membership to more than 5 million from about 4 million eight years ago. There have been an average of 1.48 million background checks for gun purchases every month for the past eight years, double the average during the previous eight, FBI data show.

So far in 2016, there have been an average of 2.46 million background checks per month.

U.S. gun makers, led by Ruger and Smith & Wesson, churned out a record 5.17 million firearms in 2013, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

This year, Ruger reported its second-highest quarterly revenue after the first quarter. Smith & Wesson reported firearms revenue of $195 million last quarter, up 56 percent from the previous year.

You’d think after nearly eight years of being president, Obama would’ve gotten clued in to one of America's great fundamental truths: when you unilaterally take aim at the constitutional rights of millions of U.S. citizens, you’re much more likely to end up shooting your own agenda in the foot.

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