Gun control legislation moves forward

Concerns from the House of Representatives minority bloc obstructed a move into an emergency session to deliberate on gun control legislation the Office of the Attorney General had drafted, despite the AG office airing a need for immediate action on the legislation yesterday.

Senators, hearing the trajectory of conversation in the House over the PA, instead called for an emergency hearing for 6pm last night, a little over half an hour after the House session ended with a 12 yes to eight no vote to effectively end the chances of the legislation being acted by the House for a couple of days. The House needed a two-thirds majority vote to enter into an emergency session, and the House would have been only able to introduce but not act on the bill in their regular session today.

The Senate met and passed the bill.

Senate President Frank Borja (Ind-Tinian) and Senate vice president Arnold Palacios (R-Saipan) and Sens. Sixto Igisomar (R-Saipan), Justo Quitugua (Ind-Saipan), Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota), and Jude Hofschneider (R-Tinian) were present for the emergency session last night and voted unanimously.

Palacios said the Senate passed the bill including an amendment to ban guns within 500 feet of a building or vicinity owned or controlled by a non-governmental organization such as organizations that advocate against sexual, domestic, and stalking violence.

The amendment further adds to provisions the AG drafted in the bill that creates “gun free zones” in or around government buildings, schools, courts, and places of worship, among others.

Palacios said he fully understands the concerns of the community but there seem to be a misunderstanding that the lawmakers lifted the ban on handguns when it was the federal court’s decision.

“This is a step in the right direction. The attorney general said he would be coming back for more legislation to further regulate firearms and ammunition in the Commonwealth” but that these are also “pending on outstanding cases” regarding gun control in other U.S. courts.

“This is the first step in protecting the public in light of the district’s court position,” Palacios told Saipan Tribune over the phone last night.

The House deliberated on the need for an “emergency” session for a couple of hours before actually calling themselves into session at around 4:30pm.

This, and the effective no-vote to enter session and allow for public comment angered some in the crowd who had waited in the House gallery for hours to comment.

A loud bang of the House chamber door turned lawmakers’ head when audience stormed out of the chamber after House Speaker Ralph Demapan (R-Saipan) apologized there would be no public comment.

House minority bloc members raised concern with, among others, a need to appeal the U.S. District Court for the NMI’s ruling that found the gun ban unconstitutional, a need for provisions to make guns virtually inaccessible with taxes on gun imports or on stores seeking to open firearm businesses; more time to consult with other attorneys, their counsel, and other friends on concerns with the bill, and typographical errors regarding the formatting of the bill.

“Anyone in this chamber could possess a handgun” or carry it into public spaces, like schools, Attorney General Edward Manibusan stressed yesterday. “And there is nothing that my office or I, or law enforcement can do.”

On questions on appealing the case ruling, Manibusan cited the Supreme Court ruling that struck down a ban on handguns, saying the CNMI’s “success on merits is probably nothing.”

“Our success of appeal is almost…nothing at all,” he said.

House vice speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero, who eventually voted for an emergency session, asked the AG’s office why they should go into emergency session and act “immediately.”

“What we face here is an emergency,” chief solicitor James Zarones responded. Firearms, he said, now can be possessed anywhere in the CNMI under any condition and the police was “powerless to stop them.”

“Until a new law is passed that will be true in the Commonwealth and that is true right now,” he said.

“The clock is already running,” he said for the Department of Public Safety as it could now or will be “flooded with applications” for gun permits.

DPS can approve a permit within 15 days after background checks and can take up to 60 days but is not authorized by law to defer applications after this time, according to Zarones.

Zarones emphasized the lifting of the ban was not just for handguns, but for rifles and shotguns.

People, he said, can possess a rifle and a semiautomatic and can take it to a school “today, if they feel that is necessary for self-defense.”

“The court specifically stated any law in the Commonwealth interpreted” against firearms “can no longer be enforced,” he said.

Manibusan, explaining some of the background to the case, said the case was filed in 2014 and since the case’s beginning his office started putting together draft legislation.

Noting that he attended case hearings in recent months, Manibusan said, “I felt at the time the court was going to rule in favor of the plaintiff.”

Zarones said that Section 2206 of the CNMI’S Weapon Controls Act has been struck down to extent that it can be intended to regulate the possession for firearms for self-defense.

The court specifically stated that any law to the contrary cannot be enforced, he said.

Still, a House counsel later argued that federal judge Manglona’s ruling was “ambiguous” as 2206 was not specifically cited, though, Zarones had told lawmakers that 2206 was at the heart of the lawsuit the plaintiff had won on Monday.

Zarones said the NMI now has to replace laws to allow for possession of firearms for self-defense “but limits the location for self defense.”

“We do believe they would survive any kind of challenge. Absolutely,” Zarones said, when asked.

Zarones, citing the Heller case, said traditional restriction on firearms were constitutional.

The Second Amendment rights are “not unlimited,” Manibusan also said, citing the Heller case.

This ruling could be sued in the NMI’s favor, he said.

“The court clearly says it is not an unlimited right,” Manibusan said. People, he added, have a right to regulate the “time, place, and manner” of the use of firearms “so long as it is reasonable.”

Rep. Roman Benavente (Ind-Saipan) said he just glanced at the legislation Tuesday night, and said even then “a lot of flaws” and inconsistencies appeared. The lawmaker asked if there was a “light at the end of the tunnel” to appeal the case.

“We put our heart out. We put out every bit of argument to make,” Manibusan said. The AG team argued on grounds of culture, the NMI Covenant, all facets of traditions of life, he added.

Manibusan also said: “The Supreme Court, the highest court in the U.S., already spoke in Heller. I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel for us.”

The district court also found the NMI’s argument had no merit.

Any government official who enforced handgun prohibition “will be subject to personal liability and government will be open to contempt,” Zarones also said.

Rep. Joseph Leepan Guerrero (R-Saipan) urged his colleagues for action, saying that gun control legislation was introduced in the prior, 18th Legislature but “nobody cared.” “Are we going to allow the next Dick and Harry to bring firearms to a store, theater, bowling alley, Shirley’s? McDonald’s?” Guerrero said.

“If we fail to act on this bill…are we going to see an unfortunate activity out there? We need to start somewhere,” he said.

Rep. Blas Jonathan Attao (Ind-Saipan) broached the subject of raising taxes on import of guns or on business opening gun store, noting that liability insurance for firing ranges was some $1 million.

Manibusan assured lawmakers this was not the only bill they had on the way to the Legislature. “This is a first of a series of bills…We are working on that right now.”

They could charge $1,000 for possession of firearm but that “we could get sued right away” as this could be argued to infringe on the right to possession, Manibusan said.

Manibusan, at one point, pointed to outside the chamber entrance, saying that someone could walk out with .38 revolver on the street, or “walk in here.”

“We can regulate that. That’s why [passing the bill is] urgent,” he added.

“I’d rather do something to improve the framework because this is a matter of life and death, most especially for our children,” said Rep. Angel Demapan (R-Saipan). “We need to clear on how hand guns can move in community right now, right here.”