JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Plaintiffs who want to block Mississippi’s open-carry gun law won a quick order overturning it. Now they have to act quickly to save that order.
Presiding Supreme Justice Michael Randolph ordered Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith and the other plaintiffs to answer by 5 p.m. Monday a request from Attorney General Jim Hood to throw out a lower court ruling.
Neither Smith nor his attorney Lisa Ross immediately answered phone messages Monday afternoon.
Hinds County Circuit Judge Winston Kidd ruled this past week that the law was vague, granting an injunction in an emergency hearing Friday to prevent irreparable harm.
Smith and others requested that the law be blocked. The law was to take effect Monday.
The law clarifies that people in Mississippi don’t need any kind of state-issued permit to carry a gun that’s not concealed.
The bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, reiterated Monday that the law only clarifies the state constitution’s existing right to bear arms.
“House Bill 2 is nothing new when it comes to your right, the citizens’ rights, to keep and bear arms in Mississippi,” Gipson said in a news conference at the state Capitol. “That’s been the law of the land in Mississippi not since July 1, but since 1890 and even earlier.”
Some sheriffs and police chiefs, however, have said they fear people could become trigger-happy and hurt civilians or law enforcement officers. Gipson said police chiefs and sheriffs needed to accept the changes, saying Kidd’s ruling was “judicial activism” that overstepped his powers and that the lawsuit was an attempt to criminalize guns.
“A right unexercised is a right lost and what we’ve seen over the last few weeks is a rediscovery of the right to bear arms in Mississippi,” Gipson said.
In his appeal, Hood argues the state judge’s ruling violates the right to bear arms and the Legislature’s right to regulate concealed weapons.
Hood said the plaintiffs in the case made no allegation or argument that the law is unconstitutional. Instead, he argues they only offered some vague policy statements, “none of which represent a legal sufficient basis for the judiciary to overturn the will and judgment of the Legislature.”
Hood said the plaintiffs waited 116 days between the time the law was signed by the governor and the date it was take effect to file a complaint. Hood said his office had effectively been ambushed, receiving only 30 minutes to review the complaint before the hearing before the state judge.
Hood had issued a nonbinding legal opinion June 13 saying guns would still be banned on school and college campuses, and that law-enforcement officers could ban the open carry of guns in courthouses and other public buildings. Hood also said people would still be able to ban weapons on private property.
Gipson said he had worked with Hood, a Democrat, to draft the appeal over the weekend.
“When Jim Hood and Andy Gipson agree on something, you know something is up,” Gipson said. Republicans in 2012 trimmed Hood’s powers to hire outside lawyers in an effort that carried heavy partisan overtones.
Though Kidd set a July 8 hearing on the matter, Gipson said he hoped the Supreme Court would wipe away Kidd’s ruling before that hearing.
