You don’t have to do a ton of legislative history research on gun control to know that the country’s federal statutes and regulations are being pretty closely scrutinized by lawmakers, even if the debate has managed to stay out of the legislative news for a few months now.
However, you might not know that there are some particularly interesting legal statutes on the books regarding gun control, many of which may come as a big shock to you. For example, did you know that there’s a legal statute in Missouri that allows an intoxicated person to use a firearm so long as they’re “acting in self-defense?”
If you thought that was shocking, here are a few of the most surprising legal statutes about guns.
Who Needs to Be 18?
Despite popular belief, you don’t have to be 18 to buy a gun anywhere in the United States. Despite federal legal statutes forbidding the sale of shotguns to persons under 18 and handguns to people under 21, some states have legal statutes putting the minimum age limit lower. For example, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence reports Montana’s minimum legal age is just 14.
Don’t Worry. You Can Still Pack Heat in a Gun Free Zone.
There are states in this country that allow citizens to bring their firearms into “gun-free zones,” like schools, churches, and even daycare centers if they want. States like Michigan and Mississippi all have legal statutes expanding their list of places where guns are allowed.
Why Do They Need to Know About Your Gun?
Believe it or not, some states actually want to introduce legal statutes that make it a crime for an employer or a doctor to ask about citizens’ guns. Florida was the first state to have such a law, which was eventually struck from the book, but other states like North Carolina and Alabama have since followed in its footsteps.
Though the gun control debate is often reignited in the wake of a tragedy, it’s laws like these that often become the subject of the argument. More like this: www.legintent.com
