[JURIST] A bill [text] approved by Indiana lawmakers earlier this year repealing the statewide ban on sawed-off shotguns will go into effect July 1. The bill, sponsored by Senator Jim Tomes [official profile], will allow the manufacture, selling and ownership of shotguns with barrels 18 inches or less in length. According to [AP report] Senator Tomes the law will put the state’s gun control policies on par with federal regulations, which state that a person is allowed to own short-barreled shotguns if they pass background checks for permits from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives [official website]. However, the gun must be manufactured with a short barrel, as it is still illegal to modify a shotgun’s barrel to less than the minimum length. Generally sawed-off shotguns are very expensive and typically only purchased by gun collectors.

Gun control has been the center of national attention since the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting [WSJ report] in December 2012. Earlier this month the US Supreme Court denied certiorari [JURIST report] in Jackson v. San Francisco [docket; cert. petition, PDF], a case challenging a San Francisco law requiring gun owners to keep handguns “stored in a locked container or disabled with a trigger lock that has been approved by the California Department of Justice.” In April Supreme Court heard oral arguments [JURIST report] on whether possession of a sawed-off shotgun should be considered a violent felony under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA). In January Michigan Governor Rick Snyder vetoed [JURIST report] gun legislation supported by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and approved by both chambers of the Republican-controlled state legislation. Also in January the NRA sued the City of Pittsburgh [JURIST report] in January alleging a local gun ordinance violated Pennsylvania state law.