Legal Commentary

Puerto Rico law limiting use of shooting ranges

By David Kopel

An official with Puerto Rico?s Justice Department has announced that the Department will propose changes in the island?s firearms laws, to bring them into line with Heller and McDonald. However, two of the proposed changes appear to be unconstitutional:

Torres said the measures will include a requirement that shooting ranges keep logs of how much ammunition their members use and cap the number of bullets each client can fire in target practice at 500 per year....

The House legislation under analysis would require gun clubs to maintain logs that include information relative to the quantity and caliber of the ammunition that shooters use onsite. It would revoke licenses from any such business that does not comply with the legislation....

The measure will also limit the quantity of weapons that a person can possess to take to a gun club.

The round-by-round registration requirement would be enormously burdensome to shooting ranges, and beyond the practical ability of many clubs to implement. The ban on target practice (beyond 500 rounds per year) is contrary to public safety; firearms owners should be encouraged to practice with their firearms, so that they will be more skilled in using them for self-defense, hunting, or any lawful purpose. While courses to achieve basic competence may only involve firing a few dozen rounds, more advanced courses, which might take several days, can easily exceed 500 rounds per person. Moreover, going the range on one?s own once a month, and firing, say 100 rounds at each practice session, is a good way to improve one?s abilities.

The First Amendment equivalent would be a limit on hour many hours a year a person could spend reading at a private library.  

A similar issue is being litigated in Chicago, where a new law mandates that gun owners have safety training, including range time, but prohibits the operation of shooting ranges within the city?even though indoor ranges are well-established and safe throughought the rest of the nation, including in New York City.

I will be discussing the Puerto Rico proposal at 9:20 p.m. ET tonight on NRA News.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on October 12, 2010 (boomark / email).