HB306 makes it a crime for a person to purchase or transfer any firearm “for, on behalf of or at the request or demand of” another person who is a “felon” or “intends to use, carry, possess, sell, or otherwise transfer” a firearm “in furtherance of a felony or misdemeanor.”
The Senate passed HB306 on March 16, 2023, by a vote of 28 to 10. We have assigned pluses to the nays because this bill effectively requires a background check for every firearm purchase or transfer, without any exception for gifts or family members. Moreover, it does not contain a time limit for prosecution or differentiate between a “felon” convicted of a violent capital or first-degree crime (e.g., murder or rape) and persons guilty of lesser fourth-degree offenses (e.g., theft or possession of illegal drugs). Law-abiding citizens, including those who have made just restitution for their past wrongs, need their Constitutional rights restored. The Second Amendment guarantees that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” whereas the Fifth and the 14th Amendments prevent “any State” from depriving or denying “any person” of their “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”