The firearm procurement process in Toledo, Ohio, is being used by Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz (D) to force gun makers to adopt more controls.
This means gun makers who are vying for contracts to supply firearms to the Toledo Police Department must agree to abide by more controls that Kapszukiewicz wants put in place.
The Huffington Post reports that Kapszukiewicz is asking firearms makers their positions on “assault weapons” for the civilians, on private gun sales, and on gun tracing technology, and on strict storage requirements.
Kapszukiewicz’s questions:
- Do you manufacture assault weapons for civilian use?
- Do you sell assault weapons for civilian use?
- Which firearms does your company agree to not sell to civilians?
- Do you require your dealers to conduct background checks?
- Does your company have a plan in place to invest in gun- and ammunition-tracing technologies?
- Do you use, at a minimum, industry best practices for inventory control and transactions?
The Post describes Kapszukiewicz’s gun control city contract policy as “the first of its kind in the U.S,” but other Democrat mayors have tried to use city contracts as leverage for gun control as well.
On April 17, 2018, Breitbart News reported that Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) to use city contracts to punish banks that will not restrict and/or regulate clients involved in the firearms industry. Under Emanuel’s plan, banks doing business with the city had to support raising the minimum age for long gun purchases to 21 and had to support a ban on “high capacity” magazines, among other things.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.