The chief executive officer of a Pennsylvania nonprofit and an attorney from Washington state say gun control laws touted as life-saving measures could have the opposite effect.
“They are making laws that make it impossible, and even criminal, to use our service,” Sarah Joy Albrecht, founder and CEO of Hold My Guns (HMG), told The Epoch Times.
The Washington State Attorney General’s office did not respond to an email seeking comment for this story.
Ms. Albrecht said HMG arranges the transfer of firearms to a Federal Firearms License (FFL) holder for storage. While the reasons for the transfers are confidential, HMG’s primary mission is suicide prevention by temporarily making guns unavailable to struggling people.
She said stricter enforcement of federal rules, laws restricting the transfer of guns to 18- to 20-year-olds, and a new Washington state gun ban have prevented HMG partners from accepting some guns for storage.
“I would like to see research on how refusing transfers to 18- to 20-year-olds makes communities safer,” she said.
However, stricter enforcement of federal laws and new bans on legal semi-automatic rifles, so-called assault weapons, make it impossible for HMG to provide storage services.
“They are essentially making it illegal to safely store firearms,” Ms. Albrecht said.
Since HMG’s service is a legal transfer, the guns are logged into the FFL’s records and kept in its secure storage until they are returned to the owner. The gun owner must be able to pass a federal background check to get their guns back.
On March 14, President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14092, which he claimed would reduce gun deaths. The order also called on federal agencies to find ways to tighten existing regulations.
In response, on July 24, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued an open letter to FFLs laying out strict guidelines on when background checks are required in firearms transfers.
According to the letter, no background check is necessary if the FFL only provides a locker and doesn’t take possession of the guns. Under this arrangement, the FFL has no access to the guns, and the gun owners can retrieve them whenever they want.
However, if the FFL takes possession of the firearms for secure storage such that the owner cannot readily access the guns, a background check must be performed as if the gun owner were buying the guns.
Checks Could Result in Loss of Rights
Mr. Kirk said they could lose their guns if the background check revealed that the gun owner sought mental health treatment.“We tell them to get help,” Mr. Kirk told The Epoch Times. “But when they do, suddenly they can never exercise their Second Amendment rights again.”
Both said that bans, such as those recently passed in Washington, complicate matters further.
Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law banning the manufacture, importation, distribution, and sale of AK-47 and AR-15 and 50 other types of semi-automatic rifles on April 25. While existing rifles are “grandfathered” under the new law, the transfer of the grandfathered rifles is prohibited.
Ms. Albrecht said the ban means that gun owners who could benefit from temporarily storing these rifles have no legal recourse.
“They are essentially making it illegal to store firearms,” Ms. Albrecht said.
Mr. Kirk said the laws will likely cost lives rather than save them. He doesn’t understand the logic behind the policies.
“If I was the governor of a state, I would want more services like [HMG]. Programs that actually save lives, not these crappy gun laws that we keep passing,” Mr. Kirk said.
The ban has been unsuccessfully challenged in court several times, most recently on Sept. 1.
The bill prohibits manufacturing, importing, distributing, and selling more than 50 types of guns, including AK-47 and AR-15-style rifles, which are classified as assault weapons.
State Attorney General Bob Ferguson proposed the ban in 2017 following a mass shooting at a house party in Mukilteo, Washington, in 2016. The shooter had used an AR-15-style rifle.
Mr. Kirk said the Washington ban is only one of several state bans nationwide. The other states are California, Illinois, Hawaii, Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York.
Questions Must Be Answered
For example, it is legal for 18- to 20-year-olds to own handguns. However, an FFL cannot legally transfer a handgun to someone in that age group. If a 20-year-old gun owner takes a pistol to a gunsmith for repairs, they must ensure the repairs are made and the gun returned the same day.Mr. Kirk pointed out that if the gunsmith has to keep the gun overnight, that would require the gunsmith to take the gun in as part of his inventory, which is a legal transfer. The gunsmith could not legally transfer the gun back to its owner.
He said that guns that can’t be legally returned to their owners can be sold, destroyed, or kept by the FFL.
According to Mr. Kirk, the constitutional questions raised by the gun bans and transfer laws will have to be answered soon if gun owners’ rights are to be adequately protected.
“These issues will have to get before the Supreme Court by the next term. Lawful, responsible gun owners need these answers,” Mr. Kirk said.
