Second Amendment proponents fear public health emergencies … – The Statehouse File

WASHINGTON, D.C.Last week, U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, R-Indiana, and 20 other Republican senators introduced a bill that, if passed, would prevent the president and secretary of Health and Human Services from declaring a public health emergency to impose gun control. The governor of New Mexico did so earlier this month.

The Protecting the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Act is cosponsored by senators from Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Braun previously introduced this idea as a bill in 2021 and also as an amendment in July 2023. Braun reasoned that this bill was necessary in the initial press release by saying gun control organizations were encouraging the Biden Administration to administratively restrict your right to keep and bear arms. Sixteen of the cosponsors for the 2023 measure also supported the measure in 2021. U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, supported a similar bill in 2021 but is not currently listed as a cosponsor of this version.

U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, R-Indiana.

This latest attempt comes after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-New Mexico, instituted a public health emergency for part of her state earlier this month, placing a 30-day ban on the right to open or conceal carry firearms in public. When announcing the temporary ban, Lujan Grisham said it was to curb gun violence and illegal drug use in Albuquerque and Bernalillo counties.

Lujan Grishams ban sawbipartisan backlash from the police tasked with enforcing the ban and lawmakers who questioned the constitutionality of the order. The ban drew lawsuits from gun-rights groups as soon as it went into effect. Some lawmakers even went so far as to call for her impeachment.

Many said that public health emergencies would not be abused to impose gun control, but after we saw the vast expansion of executive power during COVID and the New Mexico Governor use a public health emergency to effectively suspend the 2nd Amendment in her state, no one can doubt that this needs to be addressed, Braun said in a press release. We need to set into law that no one can remove the right to defend ourselves and our families with the stroke of a pen.

Lujan Grishams order comes after more that a year of gun-control activist groups calling for the Biden administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to do so at the national level. The groups began urging Biden to make an emergency declaration on gun violencemore persistently after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Ulvade, Texas, in May 2022.

Recently, The Washington Post reported insider scoop on the Biden administrations plans to create a new office to address gun violence.

Greg Jackson, the executive director of the Community Justice Action Fund, and others in gun violence prevention groups could have key roles in the office, according to the Posts sources.

Gun violence is currently the leading cause of premature death in the U.S., with guns killing more than 38,000 people and causing nearly 85,000 injuries each year, according to the American Public Health Association. The American Medical Assocation declared gun violence a public health crisis in 2016 after 20 years of continued gun violence was attributed as a major cause of death in the U.S.

In the press release, Braun raised the potential for the Biden administrations new office to have gun-control activists in these roles as a ploy to declare a public health emergency and impose gun control.

In the press release about the bill, U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-North Dakota, said, Its simple: terrorist attacks are national emergencies, and pandemics are public health emergencies; gun are neither.

Using legitimate presidential power as a backdoor to violate the Second Amendment is disingenuous at best and diminishes the gravity of real emergencies, he said.

U.S. Sen. Thoms Tillis, R-North Carolina, said in a press release, The illegal action by the Governor of New Mexico to suspend the 2nd Amendment through a public health emergency should be concerning to every American.

I am deeply concerned that this stunt might be replicated on the national level by a left-wing politician in an effort to enact gun control, and Congress must take action to prevent that from ever happening, Tillis said.

After Braun introduced the bill on behalf of himself and the 20 cosponsors in the first congressional session on Sept. 21, the bill was referred to the Senates Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

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Second Amendment proponents fear public health emergencies ... - The Statehouse File