Repressive States: No Right to Carry, Ban on Semi-Autos, No Suppressors, and High Taxes

Nine states show up again and again as the most repressive states in the union of the United States of America. With the occasional exception, these states refuse to honor the Constitution; they have extremely restrictive policies on who may bear arms, they ban common rifles, they ban the ownership of suppressors, and they tend to have high taxes. They are all controlled by the Democratic Party.

The nine most repressive states are California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island.

Of those nine states, all but Rhode Island have enacted bans on some semi-automatic firearms, usually under the politically defined label of “assault rifles.”

Washington State has also banned certain semi-automatic rifles. Litigation challenging such bans as unconstitutional is moving forward in several states, including Maryland, New York, California, Illinois, and New Jersey. At some point, the Supreme Court will rule on one or more of these cases.

Of the nine repressive states, eight of them have laws that prevent most of the population from exercising their Second Amendment rights, especially the right to bear arms outside of the home.

Of the nine repressive states, eight have “may issue” laws whereby a government official has discretion to deny a carry permit based on his subjective opinion.

In this way, Martin Luther King was denied a carry permit in Alabama in 1956. John Stossel was denied a carry permit in New York City. Illinois is shown as a “shall issue” state. Illinois was forced by the Court of Appeals in the Seventh Circuit to pass a “shall issue” law or risk being forced to become a permitless carry state.

Of the nine repressive states, all but one ban the possession of silencers/suppressors in their state.

Suppressors/silencers are effective safety devices, which are common in Europe and many other countries. The American Suppressor Association maintains a map showing which states ban the legal possession of silencers/suppressors. Maryland does not ban the ownership of suppressors and allows them to be used for hunting. Suppressors/silencers are banned in California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island.

Now, taxation, of the nine most repressive states, six are in the top ten highest tax states: New York, Hawaii, California, New Jersey, Illinois, and Delaware.

All of the nine most repressive states are Democratic party trifectas, as shown by Ballotpedia. A Democratic party trifecta means both houses of the legislature and the governorship are in the hands of the Democratic party.

A similar situation existed with states in the South when they refused to follow Supreme Court rulings to desegregate public schools. Eventually, under a Republican administration, President Eisenhower enforced the desegregation order in Arkansaw schools. Do not expect a Biden, or any Democratic administration, to use troops to enforce Second Amendment rights in the repressive states.  Just as the Democratic party was the party of government power and segregation through the 1950’s, the Democratic party is the party of government power and repression of Second Amendment rights since the Supreme Court rulings in Heller (2008), McDonald (2010), Caetano (2016) and Bruen (2022).

About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.