ABA midyear meeting. Securing Safeguards

• Author: Matt Reynolds
• Pages: 64-64

ABA Insider | ABA MIDYEAR MEETING

ABA MIDYEAR MEETING

Securing Safeguards

ABA House votes in favor of restrictions on ‘ghost guns,’ firearm permits

and safe storage

BY MATT REYNOLDS

The ABA will call for tighter

controls to curb gun violence

after the House of Delegates

adopted three resolutions

addressing gun permits, so-called ghost

guns and safe storage.

The Standing Committee on Gun

Violence was the primary sponsor of

the three resolutions. Standing com-

mittee chair Joshu Harris and advisory

member Monte Frank urged delegates

to adopt the resolutions. Harris is

legislative director for Philadelphia city

council member Kenyatta Johnson, and

Frank is a member at Pullman &

Comley in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Frank described how gun violence

touched him personally when his

17-year-old cousin was shot in the back

of her head in Chicago. She survived, he

said, but her friend was killed.

“Yes, gun violence has landed on

my door, and I know it has impacted so

many of you,” he said.

Resolution 107A addresses loop-

holes in state and federal laws that

allow gun buyers to purchase partially

built frames and receivers (where the

operating parts of the ring mechanism,

including the trigger, hammer and ring

chamber are attached) to make home-

made rearms known as ghost guns.

Resolution 107A was also co-sponsored

by the Section of Civil Rights and Social

Justice and the Criminal Justice Section.

The report accompanying the

resolution said the Bureau of Alcohol,

Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

ruled that unnished rearm frames or

receivers do not have to contain serial

numbers. Under those rules, the do-it-

yourself guns do not need to meet the

same registration requirements as tradi-

tional rearms. Gangs have also taken

advantage of the loopholes to stockpile

untraceable rearms.

There are several pending state

laws to address ghost guns in Illinois,

Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania

and Washington. Congress has ad-

dressed the issue with two pending bills:

the Ghost Guns Are Guns Act and the

Untraceable Firearms Act, according to

the committee’s report to the House of

Delegates.

Adam Skaggs, a special advisor to

the Standing Committee on Gun

Violence and chief counsel & policy

director at Giffords Law Center to

Prevent Gun Violence in San Francis-

co, said ghost guns are increasingly

being used by people who can’t legally

possess or buy rearms. “This is a

niche part of the industry and [has

gone from] a growing threat several

years ago to a clear and present danger

today,” Skaggs said in an interview.

Resolution 107B urges authorities

to require people to apply for a permit

from a designated law enforcement

or public safety agency before being

allowed to purchase a rearm. It also

asks that authorities, at the very least,

require prospective gun buyers to

apply in person, be ngerprinted and

be subject to background and criminal

records checks.

“Having a permit to enable a pur-

chase of rearms is probably the most

signicant item in that ght against

gun violence deaths,” Frank said in an

interview.

Resolution 107C calls for federal,

state and local governments to enact

regulations for the safe storage of

rearms, require gun owners to comply

with the rules, and promote safe gun

storage education programs.

Resolutions 107B and 107C were

co-sponsored by the Criminal Justice

Section, the Section of Civil Rights and

Social Justice and the Commission on

Domestic & Sexual Violence.

The three measures easily passed by

majority vote, but not without some

opposition. Darin Scheer, a delegate

from the Wyoming State Bar and senior

counsel at Crowley Fleck in Casper,

Wyoming, told the House of Delegates

he could not support Resolution 107B

because the issue was “still very much

up for debate.

“I don’t think that the ABA should

be in the business of recommending

one-size-ts-all, top-down requirements

for an issue like this that is constitu-

tional,” he said. Q

Photo illustration by Sara Wadford/Shutterstock

ABA JOURNAL | APRIL-MAY 2020

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