Arizona AG says Phoenix firearm donation to Ukraine is against the law

The Metropolis of Phoenix’s donation of
greater than 500 firearms to the Nationwide Police of Ukraine final month was
unlawful, in response to Arizona Legal professional Common Kris Mayes. 

Town already transferred 500-600
unclaimed firearms to Gruelle, a personal firm based mostly in Philadelphia,
which was set to ship these firearms — value round $200,000 — to the
Ukrainian Nationwide Police in Kyiv. 

The Phoenix Metropolis Council in late June accepted the ordinance permitting the firearms donation, and it executed its contract with Gruelle on Aug. 4.

That was after Rep. Quang Nguyen, of
Prescott Valley, and Rep. Selina Bliss, of Prescott — each Republicans —
wrote a letter to the Phoenix Metropolis Council July 3, asking it to rescind
its ordinance as a result of it violated state legislation. When Phoenix refused to do
so, Nguyen and Bliss filed a grievance with Mayes, a Democrat, which required her workplace to research whether or not the ordinance violated the state legislation governing the disposal of unclaimed firearms

They challenged Phoenix’s ordinance
utilizing what’s often called an SB1487 grievance, named after a 2016 legislation that
permits any legislator to ask the lawyer common to evaluation an motion
by any municipality or county in the event that they imagine that motion violates state
legislation. 

Mayes on Wednesday concluded that the ordinance violates state legislation,
so Phoenix should both forfeit all of the revenue tax cash that the state
shares with cities and cities — round $680 million — or repeal or amend
the ordinance to return into compliance with state legislation. 

“I’m deeply disenchanted that the
Legal professional Common’s opinion doesn’t assist us in our work to scale back gun
violence,” Mayor Kate Gallego, a Democrat, instructed the Arizona Mirror in a
assertion. “We are going to vote quickly to return into compliance with the Legal professional
Common’s opinion. State leaders should do higher to prioritize public
security and provides cities the instruments to maintain weapons utilized in violent crimes
from re-entering our communities.”

A spokeswoman for the town didn’t
instantly reply questions from the Mirror concerning the present location
of the firearms and when or how they might be returned to Phoenix. 

“We respect the Legal professional Common’s
report affirming the Metropolis of Phoenix ordinance’s violation of state
legislation,” Nguyen and Bliss stated in a joint assertion. “It’s irritating
that Mayor Kate Gallego and Councilmembers have been knowledgeable of this as far
again as July 3,
but Mayor Gallego then willfully disregarded state legislation and rushed the
switch of those firearms overseas. Then, whereas a pending investigation
into the ordinance’s legality was underway, the Metropolis tried to cancel
the association altogether to keep away from the Legal professional Common’s report.
That’s not management, it’s shameful. As public officers, it’s
crucial that we uphold the rule of legislation and respect our state
structure. Witnessing Mayor Gallego blatantly neglect this
accountability, particularly with full consciousness of the legislation and its
implications, is disheartening.”

Town instructed the lawyer common
that it deliberate to think about whether or not to repeal the ordinance throughout its
subsequent assembly, set for in the present day, however the ordinance and its repeal should not listed on the general public agenda for the assembly. Metropolis spokesman Dan Wilson instructed the Mirror that metropolis
employees are within the technique of reviewing the lawyer common’s opinion,
and that the Metropolis Council will think about repealing the ordinance throughout
its Sept. 26 assembly.

“Whereas no statute affirmatively bars
donations, the Phoenix Ordinance is nonetheless illegal to the extent
it conflicts with state legislation mandating how cities should eliminate
firearms,” Mayes wrote. 

State legislation says that an company in
possession of an unclaimed firearm should promote the firearm to a enterprise
licensed to obtain and eliminate it, in compliance with state and
federal legislation. Arizona legislation doesn’t deal with donations of firearms, however
says that the enterprise that purchases the unclaimed firearms should promote
them to the general public. 

“If it’s a stretch to characterize
the Metropolis’s switch to Gruelle as a sale, it’s a bigger leap to use
this characterization to the following donations to a Ukrainian
nonprofit group, Ukrainian residents, and legislation enforcement,” Mayes
wrote. 

Mayes additionally disagreed with Phoenix’s likening the firearm donation to then-Gov. Doug Ducey’s donation of surplus army gear
to Ukraine final 12 months, saying that totally different legal guidelines govern gear
donations and firearm donations and that Ducey had a unique authorized
authority because the governor than Phoenix does as a metropolis. 

Town has 30 days to resolve the ordinance’s violation of state legislation, the lawyer common’s workplace stated within the opinion. 

“Whereas the Workplace believes that
controlling authorized authorities compel this conclusion, this report ought to
not be construed as a rebuke of the general public spirit underlying the Metropolis’s
want to assist Ukraine or as an endorsement of the coverage underlying
Arizona’s firearms disposition statutes,” Mayes wrote. “Nor ought to it
discourage future assist and donations to Ukraine or elsewhere that may
be carried out in compliance with Arizona legislation.”