New Zealand Radio Station says U.S. Territory will enact Gun Laws Tougher than Current Ban

No doubt it was merely a mental slip, but it is hard to make a gun law tougher than an outright ban, which is the current state of the law in the Northern Mariana Islands.   From radionz.co.nz:

Lawmakers in the Northern Marianas are looking at enacting legislation that will make it tougher for individuals to own handguns, in the event a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Weapons Control Act prevails.

The current law in the Northern Mariana Islands is a complete ban on the ownership of handguns.   The ban is being challenged, in part, because of the Pertuta decision in the Ninth Circuit.  Guam has already passed a shall issue concealed carry permit system because of the Peruta decision.

The ban in the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and Palua, was passed when Micronesia was a single territory of the United States, in 1972.   Correspondence with the former peace corps volunteer who wrote the law revealed that there was no problem with gun crime at the time.   The law was passed purely as a precautionary measure, much like the highly restrictive gun ban in Australia was passed 24 years later.    Hoplophobic fears of politicians are a bad reason to pass legislation that restricts whole peoples freedoms.  The justification for the ban was that there was no "need" for the people to own guns, and especially, handguns.

It was the Chairman's view that the abuse of firearms was a serious problem in the United States, and that he did not wish it to become a problem in the Trust Territory, where there was no real need for firearms.

It seems likely that the court in the Northern Mariana Islands will strike down the ban on the ownership and carry of handguns.

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