Attorney William Kirk says Mississippi has passed a gun law that could actually address violent crime instead of placing more restrictions on lawful gun owners.
In a video on Washington Gun Law, Kirk discussed Mississippi Senate Bill 2710, a new law set to take effect July 1, 2026. Kirk said the measure stands out because, in his view, it targets the people driving firearm violence rather than disarming citizens who already follow the law.
“We talk here all the time about gun laws that are supposedly going to save lives and make communities safer, but all they really do is disarm lawful and responsible gun-owning Americans,” Kirk said.
This law, he argued, is different.
According to Kirk, Mississippi’s new legislation focuses on underage individuals who possess and use firearms during crimes, as well as people who unlawfully provide firearms to minors.
Mississippi Takes A Different Approach
Kirk said many state gun laws are sold to the public as lifesaving measures but end up affecting people who were never the source of the problem.
He described Mississippi Senate Bill 2710 as a rare example of legislation that identifies a real cause of gun violence and tries to address it directly.
“The state is Mississippi,” Kirk said. “The piece of legislation we’re talking about today is Senate Bill 2710. It has already been signed into law by the governor and will become effective July 1 of this year.”
Kirk said the bill is designed to deal with one of the most serious public safety problems in the country: young people who are not legally allowed to possess firearms but are still using them in violent crimes.
He said that while convicted felons are often found unlawfully possessing guns, underage offenders make up another major group of prohibited people involved in street violence.
In his view, the Mississippi law does not pretend that every gun owner is the problem. Instead, it goes after people who are already breaking the law.
That distinction is important. Gun control debates often become broad and emotional very quickly, but Kirk’s argument is that good lawmaking should begin with a narrower question: who is actually committing the crimes?
Targeting Juvenile Gun Crime
Kirk said street gangs and other criminal groups often use underage people to commit firearm offenses because the juvenile justice system may punish them far less severely than the adult system.
He said juveniles can already be charged as adults in some serious cases, such as homicides or major sex offenses, but those cases usually require either automatic transfer or a hearing where juvenile court declines jurisdiction.
Mississippi Senate Bill 2710 expands that concept to several firearm-related offenses, according to Kirk.
“What Senate Bill 2710 does is take a lot of other offenses involving firearms that juveniles are consistently wrapped up in and it says if you’re charged with any one of those offenses, we are going to automatically decline juvenile jurisdiction,” Kirk said.
That means the case would move into circuit court, which Kirk described as Mississippi’s adult felony court system.
In plain terms, juveniles accused of certain firearm crimes could be prosecuted and sentenced as adults.
The covered offenses, Kirk said, include carrying prohibited weapons, underage possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm on school property, possession of a stolen firearm, displaying a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of machine gun conversion devices, and committing another felony while also committing one of those firearm offenses.
Kirk summed it up in his usual direct style.
“You are automatically going to big boy or big girl court,” he said.
A Message For People Supplying Guns To Minors
Kirk said the law also sends a strong message to people who sell, transfer, or give guns to minors knowing those guns may be used for crimes.
He said Senate Bill 2710 significantly increases penalties for those offenders, especially when stolen firearms are involved.
Under the law as Kirk read it, a person convicted of selling, delivering, transferring, or attempting to transfer a stolen firearm to someone under 18 faces a punishment of at least 10 years and up to 20 years in the Department of Corrections.
“That’s right,” Kirk said. “A 10-year mandatory minimum period of incarceration for trying to transfer a firearm to a person who’s under age 18.”
The penalties grow even more serious if the firearm is later used in a violent crime.
Kirk said the law provides a sentence of at least 10 years and up to 30 years if the transferred stolen firearm is later used in a crime of violence.
If the gun is used in attempted murder, murder, capital murder, or child homicide, Kirk said the maximum rises to 40 years.
That part of the bill is especially notable because it looks upstream. It does not only punish the person who pulls the trigger. It also targets the person who helped put the weapon into the wrong hands.
That is a more practical way to think about violence prevention. If a 16-year-old has a stolen gun, the law should ask not only what the teenager did with it, but who supplied it and why.
Why Kirk Says The Law Could Work
Kirk praised the law because he believes it matches the punishment to the actual source of violence.
He said the bill identifies a specific problem, names the group responsible for part of that problem, and uses serious incarceration as a deterrent.
“Rarely do we talk about legislation that actually, like, oh, that actually identifies what the problem is,” Kirk said. “Oh, that actually attempts to solve the problem.”
In Kirk’s view, Mississippi’s approach is very different from laws that ban certain firearms, limit magazine capacity, add new restrictions on permits, or create hurdles for people who are already lawful gun owners.
He argued that those kinds of laws often miss the point because lawful gun owners are not the ones committing most violent firearm crimes.
Kirk said Mississippi’s law instead focuses on people who are unlawfully possessing guns and using them to commit crimes.
He also said the law may act as a warning to gangs and criminal networks that use minors because they expect the juvenile system to be more forgiving.
That may be the core of the policy debate. If adults are using juveniles as shields from harsher penalties, then moving certain gun crimes into adult court could change the incentive. Whether it works in practice will depend on enforcement, prosecution, and how courts handle these cases, but the theory is clear.
A Blueprint For Other States?
Kirk said other states that truly want to reduce firearm violence should look closely at Mississippi’s bill.
He called it a blueprint for lawmakers who are serious about public safety but do not want to disarm lawful citizens.
“I highly recommend that any other state that actually wants to do something about what is labeled as gun violence take a very close look at the blueprint written here by the state of Mississippi,” Kirk said.
His point was not that every state should copy Mississippi word for word. Rather, he argued that lawmakers should copy the logic: identify the people committing the crimes, target the people supplying them, and impose penalties that match the danger.
That is what makes the law interesting even for people outside Mississippi. Many gun laws are written as broad symbolic statements. This one, according to Kirk, is aimed at the pipeline between illegal gun suppliers and underage offenders.
There is still room for debate over how juveniles should be treated in the justice system. Some people will argue that automatic adult prosecution can go too far, especially for teenagers who may still be capable of change. Others will argue that serious gun crimes require serious consequences, no matter the age of the offender.
Kirk’s position is clear: if young people are committing firearm crimes, especially with stolen guns or weapons supplied by others, the state should respond with force.
A Rare Gun Law Kirk Supports
Kirk said Washington Gun Law often covers bad legislation, and even when the channel discusses good bills, those bills usually repeal older restrictions rather than create a new enforcement tool.
That is why he sees Mississippi Senate Bill 2710 as unusual.
In his view, it does not burden ordinary gun owners. It does not treat lawful possession as suspicious. It does not claim to stop violence by banning people from owning commonly held firearms.
Instead, he said, it punishes underage offenders who commit gun crimes and the people who supply them with firearms.
For Kirk, that is the difference between politics and problem-solving.
The law takes effect July 1, 2026. Once it does, Mississippi will have a tougher system for certain juvenile firearm offenses and for adults or others who transfer stolen guns to minors.
Kirk’s broader message to viewers was also familiar: lawful and responsible gun owners need to know the law in every situation and understand how it applies to them.
But in this case, his message to lawmakers was just as direct.
Mississippi, he said, has shown what it looks like to write a gun law around the people actually causing violence.
And for once, Kirk said, that kind of law might work exactly as designed.
A former park ranger and wildlife conservationist, Lisa’s passion for survival started with her deep connection to nature. Raised on a small farm in northern Wisconsin, she learned how to grow her own food, raise livestock, and live off the land. Lisa is our dedicated Second Amendment news writer and also focuses on homesteading, natural remedies, and survival strategies. Lisa aims to help others live more sustainably and prepare for the unexpected.
