A county in Arizona is being sued over its plans to impose $1,000 fines on victims of crimes.
That’s right, the victims.
These would be people who have a firearm stolen from them, and then they fail to report it fast enough to authorities.
The Goldwater Institute, however, notes that state law in Arizona bans local governments from regulating firearms.
So, “on behalf of Air Force veteran Chris King and Pima County-based Arizona Citizens Defense League, the Goldwater Institute is suing the county to stop this unlawful mandate.”
Should victims of gun crime ever be fined?
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The institute explained, “The new reporting ordinance isn’t just illegal—it takes aim at the wrong people. Rather than target criminals who steal firearms, the new requirement revictimizes law-abiding gun owners who experience the loss or theft of a firearm. Some may not even realize they are victims until much later.”
King, who is a county resident and NRA-certified firearms instruction, pointed out, “When my apartment was burglarized, both my wife and I were on active-duty out of state, and I didn’t even discover my firearm had been stolen until a week later.
“We’re a nation of laws, and Arizona law clearly prohibits local governments from imposing regulations contradictory to the laws of this state. Why do Pima County officials think they’re above the law?”
The institute report noted the county’s board of supervisors, led by Rex Scott of district 1 and board chair Adelita Grijalva, worked two years on the gun control plan.
While the state has been clear in its protection of 2nd Amendment rights, some cities and counties have tried various work-arounds.
“For example, in 2013, the city of Tucson passed a similar firearm reporting ordinance, which the Arizona Attorney General found illegal. Over the next several years, Tucson destroyed nearly 5,000 unclaimed or forfeited firearms under another preempted ordinance. (In 2017, the Arizona Supreme Court found those actions and ordinance unlawful.) And just last year, the city of Phoenix rammed through an ordinance that quickly disposed of nearly 600 unclaimed and seized firearms by sending them to the National Police of Ukraine. The Arizona Attorney General, belatedly, agreed that Phoenix’s ordinance violated state law,” the report noted.
The new gun control demands that those who are victims of the theft of a firearm report it within 48 hours or be fined.
In the state, its law “precludes local governments from enacting an ordinance that ‘relates to firearms and is more prohibitive than or that has a penalty that is greater than any state law penalty.'”
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