We saw what was likely the last debate of the election this week, and we finally got a lengthy exchange on guns. You could even call it substantive!
Unfortunately, as I detail for members, you could also call it generic. Neither candidate hit the other campaign’s biggest weaknesses on guns.
Speaking of the election, it finally seems to be having the expected effect on gun sales. They’ve now risen three months in a row.
In Massachusetts, two months after she signed a new gun-control law, the governor used an emergency declaration to short-circuit a grassroots campaign to undo it. Contributing Writer Jake Fogleman also examines the ACLU’s unexpected brief backing Second Amendment rights for non-violent felons.
Plus, the California lawyer who defeated the handgun ban Harris backed joins the podcast to discuss his 20-year fight with the presidential candidate. The Dispatch is also back offering free trials to all Reload subscribers.
VP Debate Turns to Gun Policy
By Stephen Gutowski
Thursday’s Vice Presidential debate sparked the most substantive back-and-forth on gun policy of the entire campaign.
During a–perhaps surprisingly–civil exchange between Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz, the Vice Presidential candidates laid out their views on school shootings, city gun violence, and rural suicides. The pair detailed competing visions on gun policy but also found several areas where they had at least some agreement.
“I think that Governor Walz and I actually agree we need to do better on this,” Vance said during the CBS News debate. “The question is just how do we do it?”
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Analysis: VP Debate Discussed Guns, Skipped Some of the Biggest Stories [Member Exclusive]
By Stephen Gutowski
The Vice Presidential candidates spent a good chunk of Tuesday’s debate talking about gun policy but little time on the major gun stories of the race.
Ohio Senator JD Vance (R.) and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D.) had a lengthy exchange about firearms. It was civil. It was even substantive.
However, neither brought up some of the most controversial stories of the race. Kamala Harris’s history of supporting gun confiscation efforts, including her newly-resurfaced backing of a 2005 San Francisco pistol possession ban, was absent from the discussion. So was Donald Trump’s status as a felon who is currently prohibited from owning any guns at all.
Why the two men at the bottom of the ticket avoided these topics is a bit perplexing. They were somewhat limited by what they were asked, but either candidate had the opportunity to bring up whatever they liked. After all, the two questions they were asked focused on whether parents of school shooters should be prosecuted and Walz’s flip-flop on banning “assault weapons,” which both candidates moved beyond to broader topics pretty quickly.
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Gun Sales Grow as Election Day Approaches
By Stephen Gutowski
Americans are increasingly buying guns in the run-up to the presidential election.
Background checks associated with gun sales were up year-over-year for the third month in a row, according to an industry analysis of FBI numbers released on Wednesday. In September, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), there were 1,156,223 sales-related checks–an increase of 1.3 percent over the previous year. August and July saw similarly modest boosts in sales checks, too.
Overall, the gun industry trade group reported there were over 3.4 million sales-related checks in the third quarter–a 4.5 percent increase over the same period in 2023.
Massachusetts Governor’s ‘Emergency’ Action Thwarts Challenge to Gun-Control Law
By Jake Fogleman
With the stroke of her pen, the Governor of Massachusetts has foreclosed an effort by gun-rights advocates to block the state’s new omnibus gun-control law.
More than two months after signing H.4885 into law, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey (D.) on Wednesday issued an “emergency preamble” to the measure by unilateral executive action. The move puts the wide-ranging law into effect immediately rather than its original effective date of October 23. It also preempts an ongoing grassroots campaign led by a Massachusetts gun store owner to collect enough signatures to prevent the law from taking effect at all.
“This gun safety law bans ghost guns, strengthens the Extreme Risk Protection Order statute to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others, and invests in violence prevention programs,” Healey said of her decision in a statement. “It is important that these measures go into effect without delay.”
Podcast: California Gun-Rights Lawyer on 20 Years of Fighting Kamala Harris in Court
By Stephen Gutowski
As District Attorney in 2005, Harris supported Proposition H. It banned the sale, purchase, and even possession of pistols by nearly every city resident. The measure never went into effect, but only because gun-rights activists won the court fight over it before that could happen.
Chuck Michel, President of the California Rifle and Pistol Association, was the lawyer who won that case. He joined the podcast to discuss both the fight over Proposition H and the numerous other fights over gun restrictions he had with Harris during her time in California.
You can listen to the show on your favorite podcasting app or by clicking here. Video of the episode is available on our YouTube channel.
Plus, Contributing writer Jake Fogleman and I talk about what bearing Harris’s past support for a handgun ban might have in the current election. We also talk about new FEC records showing the NRA trailing the national gun rights groups in political fundraising by millions of dollars in August. Finally, we wrap up by talking about the record drop in murder in 2023 and the rise of gun ownership among self-identified liberals.
Analysis: ACLU Goes to Bat for Non-Violent Felon Gun Rights [Member Exclusive]
By Jake Fogleman
The American Civil Liberties Union (ALCU) has a long track record of supporting various gun control laws despite its traditionally oppositional stance to government restrictions on constitutional rights. However, the group has now found at least one gun law it thinks violates the Second Amendment.
On Tuesday, the ACLU and several of its state chapters filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in United States v. Duarte. The brief asks the en banc court to reaffirm a since-vacated panel ruling from May that sided with defendant Steven Duarte and overturned his conviction for possessing a firearm after prior convictions for drug possession and vandalism. The group argued that a blanket lifetime ban on felons owning guns violates the Second Amendment.
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Outside The Reload
Fourth Circuit weighs meth user’s Second Amendment rights | Courthouse News Service | By Joe Dodson
That’s it for this week in guns.
I’ll see you all next week.
Thanks,
Stephen Gutowski
Founder
The Reload
