2020 begins with a number of interesting trends facing (lawful) gun owners.
2020 continues with several interesting trends and debates facing (lawful) gun owners and America at large. For many Readers, the questions this Book helps answer informs their views on these topics.
As expansive as the American gun landscape has become, there are only a handful of crucially significant topics that have bubbled to the surface of what American gun owners face on a daily basis. Of those topics, in the process of writing this Book, a distillation occurred whereby two topics have burst onto the scene, mass shootings and red flag laws. Perhaps the most talked-about issue among Congress and gun owners alike, red flag laws, or as they are formally known as “extreme risk protection orders”, are laws passed by a State that allow for law enforcement officers to seize an individual’s firearms if they have been deemed a danger to themselves or others by a Judge. Seventeen states and Washington, D.C. have enacted some form of red flag law, and in August 2020, following the mass shootings in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH, President Trump endorsed the thought of more States enacting red flag laws. However, despite the data revealing that violent crime is declining, the fervor for putting a stop to needless death rises. This is the crux of the issue behind mass shootings and red flag laws, indeed, no lawful gun owner takes any joy from the death dealt out by a firearm, yet they also recoil at the thought of “rapid due process” laws aimed at disarming individual firearm owners. How this plays out is yet to be determined, but hopefully, the information in the GLBS 2020 makes you a more informed gun owner and member of our participatory system of government.
While the gun industry overall is still thriving, there has been some decline, as evidenced by the drop in overall NICS checks from 5,608,875 in 2017 to 5,293,391 in 2018, a decrease just over 5%. The Black Friday total saw a reduction of slightly more than 10% at 182,093, down from 203,086 NICS checks on Black Friday 2017. However, the number of NICS checks for permits rose slightly more than 13% to 12,653,203, which is the highest yearly total to date. This increase in NICS checks for the purpose of obtaining a permit suggests that more people are seeking to carry firearms which lends itself to the position that the gun-owning public is very much alive and well.
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Not forgotten is the 2020 “hot trend” topic of constitutional or permitless carry of concealed or unconcealed handguns without training or permits or licenses. This continues to be a big deal amongst gun owners nationwide, and although this issue seems to have been eclipsed by the recent mass shootings, in January 2020, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2020 was introduced in Congress and if passed would allow a qualified individual to carry a concealed handgun into or possess a concealed handgun in another state that allows individuals to carry concealed firearms. While not quite as progressive as constitutional carry, national reciprocity is nothing to scoff at and in the wake of an increased dialog of gun reform this idea has real potential. Further, all of the emotion surrounding any form of carrying and gun rights, in general, is propped up by the fact that the United States Supreme Court accepted an appeal that will have major Second Amendment ramifications and is the biggest Second Amendment case to reach the court in nearly a decade.
The recent mass shootings, a post-Heller Second Amendment case, a national reciprocity bill, American gun law is perhaps the most fluid it has been since the late 1980s or early 1990s. Knowing all of these changes and emerging issues allows readers of the GLBS series to become informed consumers, engaged voters, and active voices in the raging debate on American gun law. Ultimately, your understanding the dynamic nature of gun laws and how law interacts with each developing trend is a worthwhile pursuit and one that must be completed to Your individual satisfaction through comprehensive research before any carry or transportation of any firearms.
One emergent issue is requiring federal licensing of all potential purchasers of firearms.
