CNMI school group to challenge court gun ruling

Transcript

A Northern Marianas school association says it will appeal a court ruling which threw out the Weapons Control Act, despite the local Attorney-General believing it would be in vain.

Last month a court struck down the 40 year old act, which stopped non-law enforcement residents from owning handguns, saying in violation of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.

The CNMI Attorney-General said an appeal would be useless and unlikely to succeed.

However the Tanapag Middle School Parent Teacher Student Association disagrees.

Their lawyer Joseph Horey told Koro Vaka'uta the grounds they were appealing on.

JOSEPH HOREY:  We believe that when the Covenant which established the Commonwealth here and extended certain provisions of the Constitution here, in order to determine how the Constitution extends and how it applies you need to look at what was expected and intended at that time that we adopted it.  Evidence and the records from that time indicate that the framers of the Covenant did not intend to be prohibited from regulating guns here.  They thought they would be able to regulate that and that that would be part of the self-government process here in the CNMI, that those kind of issues would be left for local resolution.

KORO VAKA'UTA:  Why the Tanapag Middle School?  Why has this institution picked it up of all places?  Why is it of particular interest to them?

JH:  This is a parent-teacher association that I am a part of.  This is a school where two of my kids are students at that school so once this came out we started discussing it and talked about it among ourselves.  Everyone was interested and enthusiastic in wanting to get involved in this.  There are a lot of other people here who feel the same way.  There certainly has been a lot of opposition to the ruling and a lot of dissatisfaction with that and a lot of dissatisfaction with the Attorney-General's posture in not wanting to appeal it.  As a school, as a PTA, it is an issue that concerns parents, it concerns kids.  A lot of what you hear about gun violence in the States, a lot of it takes place in school.  Shootings in elementary schools and middle schools and the kind of precautions that the schools have to take and the issues they have to deal with and think about in terms of just the safety of the kids.  It is something we have never had to worry about before.  We don't want to worry about it.

KV:  Since the original ruling we had the SAFE Act was brought into law and the AG, the Attorney-General, has mentioned that this is just the beginning of what will happen with more legislation to help keep firearms under control if you like.  Is that not seen as enough to safeguard kids and the people of the CNMI?

JH:  It's just like throwing a bunch of snakes into a room.  You give people bandages and venom antidote and snake-bite kits and snake repellent and all this kind of stuff.  It would be better off to just not have the snakes in the first place.  Yeah, if we have to have the guns then I guess we have to have whatever protective laws we can but we would be better off without all that and without the guns.

KV:  As you mentioned the Attorney-General has been unwilling to go ahead with an appeal whether it be cost or risk of chances of success, what makes you think the Tanapag Middle School will or do any better if you like?

JH:  I don't really understand where the Attorney-General is coming from.  Nothing has changed since they defended our laws in the first place.  The arguments they were made are as solid now as they were then, it's just a case of trying to convince the Appellate Court that.  I don't understand the Attorney-General's pessimism.  I don't think our chances are as bad as he thinks they are.

A hearing to hear the motion for intervention will be heard on May 26th.