US attorney general paves way for more convicted criminals to own guns

US attorney general paves way for more convicted criminals to own guns

US Attorney General Pam Bondi has started a process to make gun ownership easier for those with criminal convictions in Washington, DC.

The administration of President Donald Trump’s administration is pressing harder to fulfill campaign promises to gun rights organizations, which allege that restrictions on gun ownership violate the Second Amendment of the Constitution. In February, Trump mandated a review of the government’s gun laws.

Gun control advocates have meanwhile expressed concerns about the administration’s ability to accurately determine who convicted of crimes would not be a threat to public safety.

Regardless of whether they actually pose a threat, people with serious criminal convictions have been disenfranchised from exercising the right to keep and bear arms, which is a right that is constitutionally equivalent to the right to vote, the right to free speech, and the right to free exercise of religion.

She continued, “No longer.”

Bondi wants to reclaim the authority to choose whom to turn over weapons to her office in the plan.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is currently in charge of overseeing that exemption process. However, Congress has relied on its spending authority for decades to halt the processing of exemption requests.

The proposed change, according to the Department of Justice, “will keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals and illegal aliens while providing citizens whose firearm rights are currently under legal disability” have an option to regain those rights.

According to the department, the US attorney general would have “ultimate discretion” to grant relief.

Some people would be “presumptively ineligible” for the restoration of their gun rights, according to the statement, “absent extraordinary circumstances.” “violent felons, registered sex offenders, and illegal aliens” are some of them.

A “proposed rule” was submitted to the Federal Register on Friday, outlining the strategy. Before being adopted, it will go through a final public comment period.

US Pardon Attorney Edward Martin Jr. stated in a statement on Friday that his team was already creating a “landing page with a sophisticated, user-friendly platform for Americans petitioning for the return of their gun rights,” which will make the process simpler for them.

Brady, a gun control organization, was one of the groups that voiced opposition when details of Bondi’s plan first surfaced in March.

The group’s president, Kris Brown, stated in a statement that “if and when gun rights are restored to an individual, it needs to be through a robust and thoughtful system that minimizes the risk to public safety.”

She added that the administration’s decision to grant gun rights to those who were found guilty of a crime and later pardoned for their role in the US Capitol’s destruction on January 6, 2021 raised questions about how it would exercise its discretion.

Source: Aljazeera

234Radio

234Radio is Africa's Premium Internet Radio that seeks to export Africa to the rest of the world.