If you read down the list
Wyoming now allows Judges to carry in court, while disallowing others to carry. This is actually not a strengthening of gun laws, as prior to it's passage Wyoming law under W.S. 6-8-104(t) bans concealed weapons in courtrooms, prisons, schools, churches, and government meetings, among other places. So we went from NO concealed carry to allowing the Judge to carry.
Utah added a provision that allows people to voluntarily leave their guns with the police for 60 day if they feel someone living with them might pose a danger - OK that's not tighter regulation its VOLUNTARY.
Utah also added a provision to allow a court to prohibit the subject of a dating-relationship protective order from possessing firearms. Here my understanding of Utah laws is probably inadequate. But in every case I've ever heard of - Judges have had that ability. The problem is the way the laws are set up it's ripe for abuse. I guess I'm going to concede that this is actually a form of stronger gun control as I have no evidence to the contrary - Color me surprised. I'll have more on this topic later.
Arkansas has added a House Bill 1503 which WSJ shows as Strengthing gun control but as near as I can tell - it protects Gun shop owners from Sting Operations from Bloomberg's lap dogs as they attempt to show how easy it is to illegally purchase guns. - So No not more gun control.
While in Mississippi they've added a law Facilitates the reporting of mental-health data to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Also allows individuals prohibited from buying guns because of a mental-health disability to petition to have their gun rights reinstated. While I'm not a big fan of the BIG BROTHER Mental Police as this is another area ripe for ABUSE - I don't see this as strengthing gun control, it's really just an attempt to enforce existing laws. Since it also provides a mechanism for undoing the damage it can cause, I view this as a good thing.
So if I were coloring those maps I think I would have had THREE:
- Additional Restrictions (Red) that would have included New York and Connecticut (big surprise) and Colorado - which was a bit of a surprise for me, but then Bloomberg has a LOT of money to throw at this.
- Better Enforcement (Green) that showed state who were attempting to make enforcement of existing laws easier Utah & Mississippi.
- More Rights (Blue) Where States are doing the right thing.
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