Arizona Democrats Have a Trifecta. Gun Control Groups Have a Wish List. – Bearing Arms

Democrats in Arizona have taken complete control of the state government for the first time in 60 years, and gun control groups are already salivating at the prospect of turning back the clock on the right to keep and bear arms. 

Heading into Election Day, Republicans controlled both chambers of the legislature, albeit with fairly narrow majorities. They had 33 of the 60 seats in the state House, and 17 of the 30 seats in the Senate. Democrats not only flipped the chambers, but will have larger majorities to work with in the next session: a 37-23 advantage in the House and a 20-10 advantage in the Senate (if current projections hold). 

That’s going to make it much more difficult to fend off the onslaught of gun control that’s coming. Second Amendment groups won’t be able to put pressure on a handful of rural Democrats to block the gun control lobby’s agenda. Democrats can actually afford to lose quite a few of their members in both the House and Senate and still send anti-Second Amendment bills to Gov. Katie Hobbs, who’ll be more than happy to sign them into law. 

We saw a dozen major gun control bills signed into law in Virginia last year when Democrats gained a governing trifecta, and it sounds like the gun control lobby is using that state as its blueprint to turn Arizona into East California when it comes to its gun laws. 

GIFFORDS has assigned Arizona an “F” ranking on its Annual Gun Law Scorecard. The organization would impose an “A” ranking if Arizona were to impose certain mandates and bans on gun ownership.

The organization is advocating to mandate:

• Universal background checks
• Owner licensing, limiting gun purchases to individuals who pass a background check and periodic licensing renewals to include safety training courses and tests
• Extreme risk protection orders, also called “red flag laws,” suspending gun ownership for those deemed a danger to themselves or others by the court
• Waiting periods for the purchase of guns; current states with waiting periods require purchasers to wait anywhere from three to 30 days. 
• Concealed carry permits, issued by law enforcement and restricted to those over the age of 21 and proven “suitable” to carry
• Child access prevention laws like those existing in California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Rhode Island

The organization also seeks to ban:

• Open carry, but if a ban isn’t possible then limiting open carry to those who pass a background check and safety training standards, and require open carry firearms to be unloaded and permitted only in certain locations
• Assault weapons, such as the AR-15 and other semi-automatic firearms 
• Large-capacity magazines
• Ownership for individuals subject to a domestic violence protective order or convicted of a violent misdemeanor against a former or current dating partner, cohabitant, or family member 

Arizona was the state that kicked off the permitless carry revolution back in 2010, and it could become the first state to repeal its permitless carry law next year. My guess is that will actually be one of the top priorities for groups like Giffords, along with expanded background checks, “assault weapon” and magazine bans, and a permit-to-purchase law or license to possess a firearm in addition to a license to carry.

Democrats will probably introduce every one of those items above, but may hold a few of them until the 2028 session. If they want, though, they’ll most likely have the numbers to adopt every one of the policies on Giffords’ wish list.

Of course, passing these laws is one thing. Defending them in court is another, and Arizona gun owners can expect plenty of legal challenges if Democrats decide to go all-in on the gun control lobby’s agenda. But lawsuits take time, and even a temporary victory for gun control advocates could leave thousands of Arizonans facing new restrictions on their Second Amendment rights. Securing those temporary wins may be even more difficult given that Arizona is in the Ninth Circuit, which is one of the appellate courts most hostile to the right to keep and bear arms. 

There’s also a political calculation here. Arizona Democrats didn’t campaign exclusively on gun control, and many of the voters who helped deliver their new majorities weren’t clamoring for California-style restrictions on firearms. If lawmakers mistake their election victories for a mandate to dismantle Arizona’s gun laws, they could face a backlash in 2028. 

If Virginia is any example, though, I don’t expect Democrat leadership to moderate their overhaul of the state’s gun laws. And even if some rural Democrats object to the demands of the gun control lobby, I suspect they’ve got the numbers to make life miserable for the state’s gun owners in the very near future. 

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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