Sweeping gun control legislation drafted

Capitol Hill officials bemoaned yesterday the U.S. District Court for the NMI ruling that essentially found the CNMI’s law on handguns unconstitutional.

A comprehensive 57-page legislation to regulate the possession of firearms will be considered in a House of Representatives emergency session set today for this purpose.

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, Senate President Francisco M. Borja (Ind-Tinian), and House Speaker Rafael Demapan (R-Saipan) met with CNMI Attorney General Edward Manibusan to go over the draft legislation from the AG’s Office yesterday.

The governor’s spokesman Ivan Blanco said the Torres administration is actively working with the Office of the Attorney General and the Legislature to enact the necessary laws and subsequent administrative regulations to “ensure safety measures are in place including, but not limited to, background checks, waiting periods, setting fees, course requirements, and other safety regulations.”

“The administration is disappointed with the decision and is evaluating its right to appeal the lower court’s holding and other possible legal options to prohibit the introduction of handguns into the CNMI,” Blanco said.

While the administration expressed a desire for a possible appeal of the ruling, an AG spokeswoman signaled otherwise.

AG public information officer Carla Torres told Saipan Tribune yesterday that Manibusan does not have plans to appeal the ruling.

The AG-drafted bill set for the House today says the AG office “fought admirably and tirelessly” the lawsuits that challenged the Commonwealth Weapons Control Act but that unfortunately, the district court found that the Second Amendment applied to the CNMI.

When asked, Carla Torres said the decision to not appeal was not because of “costs,” and instead they wish to turn their focus on the handgun legislation.

“Over 40 years the Commonwealth Weapons Control Act has protected the people of the Commonwealth from gun violence,” Manibusan said in a statement yesterday. “In light of the district court’s decision in Radich [v Commonwealth], my office will continue to ensure the safety and security of the people of the Commonwealth. We have been working with the governor and the Legislature in crafting legislation on the use and possession of firearms consistent with the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Heller.

“That legislation with a section by section analysis is now before the Legislature for its consideration and action,” Manibusan, the CNMI’s first-elected AG, added.

The AG-drafted bill, House Bill 19-148, says that this section by section analysis is intended “to have the same degree of persuasive authority” as the analysis of the CNMI Constitution and the section by section analysis of the CNMI Covenant have on the interpretation of both fundamental texts.

The House session to consider the proposed law begins at 1:30pm in the House Chamber.

New legislation

“This morning, we woke up to very concerning news surrounding the U.S. District Court’s ruling declaring that the ban of handguns in the CNMI is unconstitutional,” Rep. Angel Demapan (R-Saipan) said yesterday. “This is very troubling news for many of us in the community who share a grave concern for the safety and security of life and property.

“Nonetheless, we will not rest,” Demapan added. “The Legislature is already in the process of working with the administration and the Office of the Attorney General to enact necessary legislation to provide regulations in the wake of the court’s ruling. In the same token, I am hopeful that the Attorney General will consider exhausting all available options to appeal the court’s decision.

Current firearms laws, which ban handguns, rifles in calibers larger than .223, and shotguns with a bore diameter of .410, protect human life and ensure public safety by outlawing firearms whose primary purpose is offense against human beings, the bill states.

“The history of the Commonwealth demonstrates that offensive firearms have never been needed by the community, and the use of offensive firearms during World War II only brought suffering on an almost unimaginable scale to the people of the Northern Marianas Islands, the bill states. The vast majority of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth strongly oppose the legalization of handguns because they rightly fear that the large-scale introduction of handguns will undermine our peaceful communities, “the bill states.

The AG-drafted bill says the Legislature “reluctantly accepts that it must legalize the ownership and possession of firearms to the extent required by the Second Amendment.”

The bill enacts a “Special Act for Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) to create a framework for firearms ownership, possession, and use that complies with the Second Amendment, while affording the greatest possible degree of protection to the people of the Commonwealth and its guest.

The bill agrees with previous U.S. Court of Appeals in the Ninth District in Jackson v. City & City of San Francisco that “requiring firearms to be either kept on the person of an individual over 18 or secured with a trigger lock in a gun safe, furthers the important interest in public safety and satisfies intermediate scrutiny.”

The bill adopts the City of San Francisco’s legislative history and the court opinion’s in the Jackson case.

The bill also finds that “crimes must be created” to address the expected increase in firearm violence if the Second Amendment applies to the Commonwealth.

The bill regulates the sale, possession, and transportation of firearms; the authority to carry firearms in certain places, the possession of ammunition; penalties for violations, among others.

Prohibited firearms, per the proposed bill, are sawed-off shotguns, a silence, sound suppressor or sound moderator, machine gun, short-barreled rifle, an assault weapon, or a .50 BMG rifle.

The bill also defines and regulates what is allowed under “self-defense with deadly force, and defense of a third party, among others, and regulates and penalizes theft of firearms, the possession of a stole firearm, among others.

The bill establishes a chapter known a the “Gun Free Zone Act” to establish “gun free” zones in or around government buildings, jails, courthouses, public meetings, poker machines, places of worship, public hospitals, schools, and private property, among others.

The bill mandates that the Department of Public Safety “shall not register, and shall seize” any unregistered firearm that was present in the CNMI prior to the effective date of the SAFE law.

DPS will also seize any illegal firearm or firearm that was illegally present in the CNMI prior to March 29, 2016, the bill states.