The Tucson City Council passed a symbolic resolution requiring background checks on private gun sales on Tucson owned or managed property. The election year stunt created a policy that is in contravention to Arizona law.
Tucson City Attorney Mike Rankin, known as Tucson’s shadow mayor, advised the Tucson City Council that it really had no right to set an ordinance to restrict firearms sales, but could pass a resolution that created policies for City owned and/or managed properties.
However, according to A. R. S. 13-3108 (Firearms regulated by state; state preemption; violation; classification; definition) a city town or county (a political subdivision) in Arizona “ shall not enact any ordinance, rule or tax relating to the transportation, possession, carrying, sale, transfer, purchase, acquisition, gift, devise, storage, licensing, registration, discharge or use of firearms or ammunition or any firearm or ammunition components or related accessories in this state.”
The move by the City Council was aimed at preventing gun shows at the Tucson Convention Center (TCC). According to gun show organizer Lori McCann, the gun shows she has held for years at the TCC have been the most secure and safest gun shows.
Councilperson Regina Romero visibly forced her voice to crack, when she said as a parent of a small child everyone’s heart broke after the Gabby Giffords’s shooting. She ignored the fact that the mentally ill shooter had purchased his gun legally because local law enforcement and people close to him ignored the warning signs the shooter had exhibited prior to purchasing his murder weapon.
Councilperson Shirley Scott admitted that the Council cannot stop violence with the “stroke of a pen,” but she was going to support the symbolic resolution anyway. Scott conceded that it was mental illness that was behind the mass shootings, but proceeded with her support for Kozchik’s stunt.
Scott specifically asked Rankin about the Gun Show at the TCC and was assured by him that the resolution would stop the sales at the shows. Two gun shows are currently scheduled for the TCC. It is unclear what organizers will do. Private venues have offered their establishments for use. As private business owners, unlike the City of Tucson that relies on taxpayer money, those venues must rely on earning their own through rental revenue.
Kozachik responded to Scott’s inquiry about gun shows with the claim that it was his big gun buyback show that prompted his demand for the resolution. He claimed he saw too many private sales occur between individuals and it caused him alarm.
Scott played on Kozachik’s claim and stated that the City should have background checks for those selling guns within a private transaction setting, “So that they are as wholesome as the other buyers.”
Scott did not define “wholesome.” Later, one Tucsonan did offer a definition though, “Wholesome: the unwillingness to exploit tragedy for political purposes or personal gain.”
