By Brandon via concealednation.org
According to the Second Amendment Foundation, a recent court victory gives Puerto Rico residents the ability to open carry and concealed carry without a permit. The ruling in the class action lawsuit has apparently blown everyone’s expectations out of the water. The lawsuit challenged Puerto Rico’s gun laws, some of which the court ruled unconstitutional. As of now, it seems that no regulations are in place to stop anyone on the island from carrying a firearm, permit or not. In addition, the ruling abolished the territory’s gun registry, as well as the need to obtain a permit to purchase a firearm. Read the full news story below from SAF . . .
BELLEVUE, WA – A surprising victory for gun rights in Puerto Rico has eliminated the firearms registry and licensing requirements to purchase and carry in the Commonwealth, the Second Amendment Foundation has confirmed.
As of now, according to Sandra Barreras with Ladies of the Second Amendment (LSA), the group that brought the lawsuit, “there is no regulation to purchase or carry (and) all purchases will be handled in accordance with federal firearms regulations.”LSA is affiliated with SAF through the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR).
The class-action lawsuit challenged various articles in Puerto Rico’s gun law, which the court declared unconstitutional. Because of the ruling, Barreras said, Puerto Ricans may now carry openly or concealed without a permit, and they do not need to obtain a permit before purchasing a firearm.
This was a class action lawsuit involving more than 850 individual plaintiffs, she reported to SAF offices. The news was greeted with delight, especially because in reaching its decision, the court cited the Heller and McDonald Supreme Court cases, and the recent ruling in Palmer v. District of Columbia. Both the McDonald and Palmer cases were won by SAF.
“Cumbersome firearms regulations have never prevented criminals from getting their hands on guns,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “They have only inconvenienced law-abiding citizens, or deprived them outright from exercising their rights under the Second Amendment.”
Gottlieb said the lawsuit was brought in a Puerto Rican Commonwealth court, rather than a federal court. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and thus is subject to federal court jurisdiction.
“This case turned out better than anyone had really anticipated,” he commented. “We’re very pleased to have played an advisory role in this case, and if there is a government appeal, we’ll definitely be there with whatever support we can provide to our good friends in Puerto Rico.”
Interesting…wonder if it’s possible to bring a class action lawsuit against Ms Harris in CA?
Very interesting. We have a good friend who invited us to live in PR. I’m fairly sure she is armed but this is amazing. I doubt it will hold up.
Wow, this is amazing. I know there is a thriving and growing shooting sports scene in PR. We have a lot of relocated PR residents around here and they are our fastest growing segment of new club members. I’d love to head down to PR to shoot an IDPA match and not have to deal with arcane laws that were on the books. This is nice.
Those responsible and educated gun owners in PR are overwhelmed by the SAME class we have here in NYC. Until 1968 you’d see every ethnicity in the city at ranges, in hunter safety classes and carrying cased rifles to school to practice for scholastic competitions. Then after the deaths only a couple of months apart of MLK AND RFK the Dems went absolutely mouth foaming rabid on guns and shove GCA 1968 up our asses.
THAT is when the NRA became poltical and FAST. There was a battle at Members’ Meeting where the go along “reasonable” assholes got shoved out the door and thank God. About the same time NYC created the ONLY long gun registry in a city in America. They also created the NYPD “licensing” board. They set about on a 47 year campaign to isolate, marginalize and “weirdify’ legal gun ownership and gun owners.
Today the ONLY concept most minorities in NYC have of guns comes from movies, TV and having ILLEGAL guns shoved in their faces in robberies so why do we expect reason from them. I had a PR at work who was otherwise very intelligent but a fountain of anti-gun talking points. when the TucsoN Maggot came up I told him how Bill Clinton (his political saviour until the Usurper) had ordered the FBI to stop using drug and psych tests from the Services in the mindless belief that by removing that “stigma” they’d seek help on their own.
Then years later the Tucson Maggot failed BOTH tests but the NICS system was not allowed to look there so he bought his gun. Then his Mommy whined to her buddy, Sheriff Dupnik, to get him a CCW because Constitutional Carry hadn’t come to AZ yet and HE signed off on it. Then after that lying meat puppet Giffords got shot he ran to every camera and mike in America to decry the “too easy access to guns” and was LAUDED.
Giffords is still an lying shit sack. She billed herself as the “Glock carrying liberal” but only because AZ is so strong on the 2A. My co-worker sneered at that info as did our hoplophobic boss who both claimed I must have “pulled that propaganda out of Wayne La Pierre’s ass.
Neither sees any diff between an honest citizen who submits prints, photos and authorizes a full search of criminal history and mental health and is limited to ONE gun every 3 months IF they let you buy it and 200 rounds (total not each gun) and a sociopathic gang banger who has never spent a legal day in his life.
I left out another bit of NYC gun history. When the long gun registry was created they swore on a 20′ stack of bibles that the data would “never” be used for confiscation. Then Stockton happened and David N. (for numbnutz) Dickhead was mayor. He ordered that sack of shit Lee “out of town” Browne, the commisioner, to order all AR-15s and AKs and anything else semi-automatic with a detachable magazine banned and confiscated or sold out of the City. After all, he didn’t make the original promise and felt no reason to honor it.
A year later a young guy from UT was STABBED on the Subway and Dickhead ran to the media claiming “this is why we need the Brady law”.
Thank-you.
good post
Wow. That’s great to hear. One of the most anti gun areas of the U.S. just became more fun friendly than most U.S. states.
The crime rate in San Juan is about the same as Detroit and getting worse. Maybe — and I’m just spitballing here — maybe it’s time to try something a little different, like armed self-defense.
Amazing news! =oD
How long before the politicians start “rewording” existing laws to void the SAF win? My guess is by Tuesday, they will have “new” laws in place.
Wowee-zowee! That was un-frigging-expected! I hope it lasts. Fellow Texans, let’s keep the pressure in our legislators so when the next session rolls around, Texas can finally be as free as Puerrrto Rrrrico!
I’m surprised this was the result in a Puerto Rican court, not even a federal court. Will wonders never cease?
Glad to hear it! The more Constititutuonal carry, the better. Let the law abiding gun owners eliminate some criminals for a while and crime rates will decrease.
If PR stays this way, I’ll be spending some of my vacation dollars there.
Yo quiero hacerlo también!
Overturned or made empty by legislative fiat in 3,2,1.. Because guns are evil and we want to be your big brother.
US Territories enjoy getting US money but often squander it and march to their own rules. It’s good to see them forced to adhere to the US Constitutional framework, understanding what Rights and liberty are about. The continental US needs to adhere to the same standards as some areas aren’t much better than PR.
Next up is making it the 51st State.
No, that would be the 58th state.
Well, legally, the 51st.
But, our fearless leader says we have 57. And what is this legal you speak of? I don’t think it applies to our current admin. At least, not their actions.
We SHOULD have 57– add:
Puerto Rico
Free State of Jefferson (conservative northern California with a bit of Oregon))
Republic of Diego (conservative very southern California)
Free State of Sierra (conservative eastern California)
Columbia (eastern Washington plus Eastern Oregon)
And a couple I can’t remember the names of, one consisting of upstate NY with bits of neighboring upstate, and the other I totally forget at the moment.
Of course, that wouldn’t be the Republic Pres. Obama would dream of; the Senate would never, ever consider any infringing if we looked like that.
Nope, next up is giving PR it’s independence and stripping US citizenship from it’s residents.
What about learning about Puerto Rico before opening your mouth and sticking your foot in it. Puerto Rico Americans are American by birth, the government can’t strip citizenship any less than can’t strip you of your citizenship you idiot.
There are signs at the airports in PR that anyone bringing a firearm onto the island must report to the local police. Would like to know if these are coming down.
They have (numerous) signs like that at the airport on St Thomas USVI but I have never seen any at the airport in San Juan — and I travel there regularly.
Not to coin a phrase, but, WINNING.
If the decision is upheld in higher courts, the registry, the concealed carry only clause, the excessive payments for “registry maintenance”, court hearing for ccw, dual process for permit then for carrying all go down. This is certainly good news.
Wow! That’s crazy! They just essentially went from New Jersey level anti gun all the way to Kentucky level pro gun.
Guam needs to get on this ASAP! Firearms IDs (needs to be renewed every 3 years) for all gun owners and registration for ALL firearms is the law and it’s quite onerous when you have to bring the said firearms into the Police Armory (their operating hours means you have to sign leave to make it in time) and have them inspect the firearm and fire a round in which the casing is supposedly stored for “records.” After you’re done with visiting the Police Armory, you then have to go to Police Records division (in a totally different location!!!) and register each and every gun…@ $49 EACH ($9 for the Armory inspection and $40 for the registration at records).
Wanna pass your firearms down to your kids?…$49 each, no exemptions.
Guam made some headways with the local Guam Gun Owner’s Group advocating for CCL and ultimately getting that law changed, but there is still room for improvement…
Can we get them to now address the US Virgin Islands? It has one of the highest Murder rates (8th) in the World. PR was 19th by comparison. The US is also a territory.
How does this apply to US citizens, but non-PR residents, visiting PR?
Now when violent crime in Puerto Rico plummets, as it inevitably will, we can wave it in the face of the maniacal hoplophobes.
We just have to hope the ruling is not overturned by any corrupt judge(s) with their paws in Bloomberg’s deep pockets.
How fast can Puerto Rican patriots buy guns?
There not letting us carry or buy anytime soon still with the same laws and making us pay even more fee and long waiting time
Puerto Rico law has not changed at all we still have to pay fee and keep waiting so with that I’m saying no one here can just buy a gun and carry like the court said we could