The administration of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres defended the CNMI\u2019s new gun control laws on Friday as a law that could be \u201ca role model\u201d for other U.S. states and jurisdictions facing seemingly uncontrolled and continued gun violence.<\/p>\n
The administration was responding to queries regarding its position on recent reports that the a legal challenge to the new law, Public law 19-42, was likely, particularly over a provision that asseses a $1,000 excise tax on pistols.<\/p>\n
Guns.com, for one, published an article last Tuesday on the new law, quoting gun right activists disdain who called the new CNMI law as a \u201cnaked attempt to circumvent\u201d the federal court ruling that struck down the hand gun ban<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment cannot tax a constitutional right out of existence,\u201d UCLA professor of Law Adam Winkler said in Guns.com article. \u201cI expect this tax to be struck down quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The article also stated that gun rights advocates who backed the lawsuit that struck down the Commonwealth\u2019s ban on handguns \u201care gearing up for action.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expected the Governor to sign it,\u201d Second Amendment Foundation Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb said in the article.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur SAF legal team is working on the next step. It seems that the anti-gun rights politicians never learn,\u201d Gottieb added.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the Torres administration said the new law, the Special Act for Firearms Enforcement, or SAFE Act, is intended to regulated the possession of firearms in the Commonwealth, including \u201cseveral provisions to ensure the prevention of and the proliferation and misuse of firearms in the CNMI. \u201c <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Commonwealth has enjoyed a peaceful society through the unique treaty under the Covenant with the United States for 40 some years,\u201d the administration said. \u201cIt is the law\u2019s intent that the possession and use of handguns will be for self-defense and not for the indiscriminate use to harm human life or to intimidate. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen many cases of illegal gun possession and use,\u201d the administration added, \u201cwhich have needlessly harmed human life. In such instances, government officials and families of victims often call for stricter gun rules to prevent further loss of life. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe CNMI is taking pre-emptive steps to safeguard our community. It is envisioned that perhaps, CNMI\u2019s PL 19-42 can be a role model for other areas seeking stricter gun rules and safer communities,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
On March 28, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona ruled that the CNMI\u2019s ban on handguns as unconstitutional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The administration of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres defended the CNMI\u2019s new gun control laws on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[26,21,1158,3124],"class_list":["post-225687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-cnmi","tag-life","tag-pl","tag-ucla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}