In the wake of the tragic school shooting in Florida, the Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to California’s 10-day waiting period gun law.
Considered to be the second longest on the nation, California’s “cooling off period” was put into place to allow state authorities sufficient time to run background checks as well as give anyone who might be purchasing a firearm with the intent of harming themselves or someone else an opportunity to “cool off.”
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Jeff Silvester and Brandon Combs, two California gun owners, have challenged the law, saying that they do not believe it should apply to individuals who have already been through the process of legally owning a gun, according to The Hill.
In addition to the 10-day waiting period challenge, it is also reported that the Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge over a California law requiring that a portion of every $19 transfer fee on gun sales go to support “enforcement efforts against illegal firearm purchasers through California’s Armed Prohibited Persons System.”
As previously mentioned, the Supreme Court’s decision comes on the heels of the widely reported school shooting that took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Feb. 14.
Following the shooting, both the U.S. Attorney General and Florida Governor have called for a review of mental health reforms.
“Next week in Tallahassee, I’m going sit down with state leaders, we’re going have a real conversation about two things: How do we make sure when a parent is ready to send their child to school, in Florida, that parent knows that child is going to be safe?” Florida Governor Rick Scott said during a joint news conference.
“Number two: How do we make sure that this individual with mental illness does not touch a gun? We need to have a real conversation so we have public safety for our schools in this state,” Scott continued.
“They’re committed to provide the resources and have a real conversation about how do we make sure we have public safety. I want to make sure that my children, my grandchildren, yours, everybody in this state, can wake up and be safe. I’m going to stay here and do everything I can,” Scott later added.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions also spoke, according to ABC News, calling for “effective enforcement of our gun laws — focusing on criminals and dangerous people, mentally ill people.”
“So today I’ve directed my office of Legal Policy to work with our partners at Health and Human Services, Education, Homeland Security, and across this administration to study the intersection of mental health and criminality and identify how we can stop people capable of such heinous crimes,” Sessions added.
