Democrats on the Pima County Board of Supervisors enacted a gun safety law designed to curb straw purchases by convicted felons and domestic abusers.
All four Democratic supervisors voted for the ordinance on March 5, 2024.
As usual, Republican Steve Christy voted against the public health and safety measure. Democrat Vanessa Bechtol is running to oust Christy, who is an election denier and anti-vaxxer.
The measure is a brilliant workaround of the state gun proliferation law by requiring gun owners to report the loss or theft of a firearm to law enforcement within 48 hours — or face a $1,000 fine.
100 crimes by prohibited possessors
Rex Scott, who sponsored the ordinance, said, “Prohibited possessors commit a significant number of firearm-related crimes in Pima County,” referring to criminals, felons and domestic abusers.
The quarterly gun show at the Pima Fairgrounds is an open-air arms bazaar where private sellers can unload guns without doing a background check. Reports are that guns are sold out of car trunks.
County Attorney Laura Conover added, “In 2023, the County Attorney’s Office handled more than 100 cases or crimes involving firearms committed by prohibited possessors, including six murder charges. It is well established that reporting requirements, like the proposed ordinance, can assist us in keeping firearms out of the hands of people who should not, by law, have them.”
Prohibited possessors routinely get firearms from straw purchasers who buy firearms on their behalf. The reporting requirements deter them from claiming that a gun they purchased and transferred to a prohibited possessor was lost or taken in an unreported theft or claiming that their firearms were lost or stolen when law enforcement moves to remove them.
The law does not affect the right to possess a firearm legally and would actually help gun owners retrieve a legitimately missing firearm.
Track down stolen firearms
Conover added, “Do we want law enforcement in Pima County to track down the origins of a firearm only after a crime has been committed, only to be told that the firearm was lost or stolen? Or do we want to provide law enforcement with an opportunity to track down lost or stolen firearms before they land in the hands of prohibited possessors or, worse, the hands of young people or people with mental disabilities?
A 2022 U.S. District Court within the Ninth Circuit found that general state laws regarding firearm possession did not preempt a city ordinance requiring gun owners to maintain liability insurance. “[W]ithout any means by which handgun possession can be revoked, the Ordinance cannot be interpreted to be entering the field of residential handgun possession.” National Association for Gun Rights, Inc. v. City of San Jose, 632 F.Supp.3d 1088, 1100 (N.D. Cal. 2022).
Likewise, a reporting requirement for the loss or theft of a firearm that does not provide means by which firearm possession could be revoked does not enter the field of firearm possession.