By Tanya Metaksa
What’s New—The Epstein files demonstrate the “gun privilege “of the rich: Alabama: HB360, legislation creating a Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday, advanced from the Alabama House and is now before the Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee; California: AB2047, which would bar the sale or transfer of most 3‑D printers in the state unless they include “firearm blocking technology”; Colorado: Today, Monday, March 2, the House State, Civic, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee will hold a hearing to consider the three firearms bills; Hawaii: Tomorrow, March 3, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary will consider SB2575; Iowa: New news about SF2263 and HF621; Kansas: Today, SB503 will be before the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee; Maryland: Handgun roster-type bills,SB630/HB1339, reviewing current handguns, are being considered; Minnesota: As of March 2 three bills have not made it out of the Senate Federal and State Affairs committee; Oregon: On Feb. 25, the House passed HB4145, the bill implementing Ballot Measure 114; Washington: The crossover deadline was Feb. 17, but the legislature changed the rules so that HB2521, the 3D printing ban, could pass the House; West Virginia: SB1071, a bill supported by Gun Owners of America, is a machine gun bill with a new twis
The Epstein files demonstrate the “gun privilege “of the rich
The Feb. 20, issue of The Reload has a “member exclusive” titled Epstein, Guns, and Sex Crimes: A Timeline. The lead is:
Jeffrey Epstein owned guns, perhaps dozens, and even held a Florida concealed carry license in the lead-up to his first child prostitution conviction.
Although I am not going to cover Stephen Gutowski’s trip through the Epstein files, there are a few items that caught my eye that I thought other gun owners would find interesting. He did have a Florida concealed carry license from 1991 to 2004, which he let lapse. He has a ranch, Zorro Ranch, in New Mexico, where he instructed staff to purchase guns in 2002. He has a gun safe in Florida — in his shower!.
Ghislaine Maxwell, his accomplice, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison, was able in 2006 to receive a New York City residence firearms permit, which expired and was scheduled to either be renewed or expire in 2012, but was canceled when she moved to Florida prior to 2012.
State Legislatures
All state legislatures, except Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, and Texas, are in session in 2026.
Alabama: HB360, legislation creating a Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday, advanced from the Alabama House and is now before the Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee.
California: AB2047, which would bar the sale or transfer of most 3‑D printers in the state unless they include “firearm blocking technology” that detects and prevents printing of known gun blueprints, with criminal penalties for disabling that software starting in 2029. This bill was introduced at the last minute to beat the 2026 deadline. It would effectively place all private 3‑D printers under government oversight, insert a state‑mandated software gatekeeper between individuals and the exercise of their Second Amendment rights, and subject associated digital files to government control, thereby raising serious First and Second Amendment concerns by conditioning constitutional rights on government‑approved technology.
Colorado: Today, March 2, the House State, Civic, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee will hold a hearing to consider the three firearms bills:
HB26-1072 cancels Colorado’s red flag gun law and says the state cannot take away someone’s guns unless they first get strong, formal due process protections.
HB26-1126 would require gun dealers to obtain a separate state permit specifically to transfer firearms, increase mandatory training requirements for dealers and their staff, and impose new, stricter security measures at the dealers’ own expense. It would also expand recordkeeping obligations to cover all firearm transactions, not just handgun sales, and authorize fines of up to $100,000 for a dealer’s second or subsequent violation.
SB26-004 would let many more people ask a court for a red flag order, including broadly defined “institutional” actors connected with schools, colleges, or health-care facilities.
Georgia: Two bills, SB499 and HB1324, removing firearm suppressors from the list of dangerous weapons is now before the House Rules Committee.
Hawaii: On March 3, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary will consider SB2575, which increases Hawaii’s already unconstitutional “red flag” law to a Class A felony from a misdemeanor without due process.
Iowa: We wrote last week about SF2263, which allowed carrying a gun in municipal and college lots, and HF621, which permitted law-abiding citizens with a Right-to-Carry permit to have a firearm in their car in school pick-up zones, having passed the House Education Committee. However, when these bills reached the Senate for final passage, the Senate changed the bill to require those in school parking lots to not carry loaded. Thereby requiring the legal gun owner to unload and store the firearm before entering the parking lot. Immediately after that vote, the Senate approved SF2280, a bill that lets members of the General Assembly carry concealed firearms anywhere in Iowa, including on school grounds. In doing so, senators expanded their own self-defense carry privileges immediately after voting to withhold even a small portion of that right from ordinary Iowans.
Kansas: On March 2, SB503 will be before the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee. This proposal will remove suppressors and short-barreled firearms from the current Kansas controlled weapons list.
Maryland: Handgun roster-type bills, SB630/HB1339, reviewing current handguns, are being considered.
Minnesota: As of March 2 the following bills have not made it out of the Senate Federal and State Affairs committee:HF3433 bans semiautomatic military-style assault weapons. However, lawful owners who acquired firearms before Jan. 1, 2027, must register by May 1, 2027, follow strict storage rules, and renew certification every three years, or dispose of, modify, or remove the firearms. HF3402 prohibits large-capacity magazines holding over ten rounds, with no grandfathering for existing owners. Owners must surrender, modify to hold ten or fewer rounds, destroy, or remove them from Minnesota by July 1, 2027. HF3351 repeals Minnesota’s statewide firearm preemption laws. This allows cities, counties, and other local governments to enact their own gun regulations, creating varying rules across the state.
Oregon: On Feb. 25, the House passed HB4145, the bill implementing Ballot Measure 114. HB 4145 would legislatively override the ballot measure with major additions that were NOT approved by voters: The bill is scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Rules Committee. With March 8 being the mandatory adjournment date, Oregonians must try to convince their State Senators to vote against this bill.
Washington: The crossover deadline was Feb. 17, but the legislature changed the rules so that HB2521, the 3D printing ban, could pass the House. It establishes a new crime for possessing digital files and/or code related to firearm parts. This raises First, Second, and Fifth Amendment concerns.
West Virginia: SB1071, a bill supported by Gun Owners of America, which states: “SB 1071 is one of the most important opportunities our state has had in a long time to restore freedom, strengthen our economy, and show the rest of the country what responsible, lawful leadership looks like.
“To recap, SB 1071 creates an Office of Public Defense that would have the authority to sell and transfer machine guns to qualified law-abiding adults.
“This bill is built on a smart, lawful approach that operates within the language already written into federal law. We are not rewriting rules, and we are not inventing new authority; we are using the framework that already exists, and that makes this effort hard for opponents to challenge.”
Additionally, Mark W. Smith, a Second Amendment attorney (@FourBoxesDiner on X.com and the Four Boxes Diner on YouTube.com), who reviews current cases and delineates judicial activity, uploaded a video supporting the bill and reviewing its background.
Smith states that the key legal theory highlighted is that the Hughes Amendment lacks a “jurisdictional element” tying the prohibited conduct (possession of a machine gun) to Congress’s enumerated powers in Article I, particularly the Commerce Clause. He relies heavily on then‑Judge Samuel Alito’s dissent in United States v. Rybar, where he argued that the machine‑gun ban in § 922 is unconstitutional on its face because it regulates purely intrastate possession without requiring proof that the firearm was possessed “in or affecting interstate commerce,” and without any congressional findings showing a connection to interstate commerce.
The video argues that West Virginia’s proposed “machine gun sales” legislation is not just a pro‑gun measure but a deliberate vehicle to endanger, and potentially destroy, the federal Hughes Amendment’s post‑1986 machine‑gun ban by exploiting its lack of an Article I “jurisdictional hook.” And the state would increase its treasury through machine gun sales.
