New gun laws take effect with the new year

Gun laws across the US states are undergoing changes in 2025, with many states strengthening gun safety laws while others have expanded the rights of firearm owners, reflecting the polarization on the issue of gun control in the country, writes Sean Nolan for Jurist.

While new laws taking effect January 1, 2025 in California, Colorado, New York, Delaware and Minnesota have focused on increasing gun control in various ways, laws in New Hampshire and Kentucky have expanded in favor of strengthening the right to own and use firearms. Legislation enacted during 2024 in South Carolina and Louisiana that legalized open carry without a permit further paints a picture of a country moving in two different directions.

In California, several laws are taking effect, including AB1483, AB1598, and AB2917. New rules include the strengthening of limitations pertaining to the purchase of handguns, including consumer warnings on firearm sales, and creating guidance for courts when considering restraining orders related to gun violence. New York has enacted a similar law to California’s, requiring consumer warnings when purchasing firearms.

Colorado’s new law requires gun owners who store their weapon in an unoccupied vehicle to do so in a locked out-of-view hard-sided container. Colorado also increased training requirements for concealed carry permits while prohibiting particular misdemeanor offenders from obtaining the permits. The new concealed carry laws will go into effect later this year in July.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire’s new gun laws for 2025 bar employers from preventing employee storage of firearms in locked vehicles, and increase privacy protections for gun owners. The new Kentucky law similarly increases privacy protections by prohibiting use of merchant category codes for firearms dealers. The codes are used to help financial institution track where a purchase is made from but do not necessarily detail what is being bought.

In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which represented the first comprehensive gun reform bill undertaken by Congress in 30 years. The bill expanded background checks and restrictions on who can own a gun but fell short of the goals set by progressive lawmakers. Last year the administration issued an executive order intended to reduce gun violence, and in July the Department of Justice expanded firearms background check requirements for gun dealers.

With the pro-gun Trump administration, Republican majority Congress, and a gun rights friendly US Supreme Court, the country stands to face a potential reckoning over the widening gap in the treatment of gun violence and safety issues across the nation.

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Police Chief: Open-carry law makes our job harder

Columbia, SC Police Chief Skip Holbrook writes in the Columbia State, Violent crime is on the rise in many large cities. Columbia is not immune. Targeted attacks on law enforcement (Dallas, Baton Rouge) and a rise in line-of-duty deaths have further complicated an incredibly stressful and dangerous job.

It’s against this backdrop that the S.C. House passed a bill to make it legal for people to openly carry handguns in the state, with certain location exceptions. The bill won’t become law this year, but it will be front and center when lawmakers return to Columbia in January, and we need to understand its implications.

The right to bear arms is fundamental to our democracy, but the sale, purchase, ownership and carrying of guns comes with great responsibility and use of common sense, and I firmly believe an open-carry law will significantly complicate police interactions with citizens, resulting in many unintended consequences. Open-carry law or not, when citizens see someone with a gun, they will call the police. When responding to “person with a gun” calls, officers have few details to help them quickly determine an armed individual’s intent and whether that person poses a threat to public safety or the individual.

No doubt, we would encounter many innocent, law-abiding people who were armed in compliance with an open carry law. But some will be violent criminals, perhaps even gang members, who don’t yet have a felony on their record that prohibits them from possessing weapons. Also let’s not forget the numerous and frequent protests, demonstrations and marches in our city.

Open carry could make it extraordinarily difficult for police to protect those exercising their right to assemble and protest peacefully. There is no denying that easily accessible firearms add fuel to already emotionally charged situations, which too often results in tragedy.

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