Legislative Update on Bills

There will be a filibuster run tomorrow at the State Capitol Assembly Appropriations starting at 9am hearing. This should be interesting. The two gun bills being heard along with 187 more are AB 144 (open carry ban) and AB 809 (long Gun registration). I expect people to testify and approximately 30-40 people to show for this hearing including the tea parties. It may not sink the bills but it will create a delay which is much desired

SB 124 the ammunition reclassification to include metal piercing that has the potential to ban many types of ammunition went into suspense file on Monday with it anticipated not to return. We will not know whether it will return until 5/27 hearing.

SB 427 the ammunition registration bill is anticipated to go into suspense Monday in appropriations on Monday, May 9th so we will be watching in person and testifying on the bill in case it gets pulled from suspense.

AB 144 was updated to change some wording prior to tomorrow's hearing adding an author and making changes that effectively mess up one area worse than the bill was (thank goodness) and making other changes that mean little in the overall scheme. I believe the person writing this bill (Irwin) feels this is correct revisions.

AB 809 Long Gun registrations is expected to be moved into a suspense file. Knowing what Canada did and the costs of the current registration the costs are significant and will double the administrative costs to the state and enforcement provisions. Currently there is a process to register that happens but the DOJ or ATF would need to come into the dealer to know exact record numbers and serial numbers.

SB 661 the expansion of school zones to 1500 feet has procedural issues and will not be making it to a first committee this year but instead be put into a 2 year bill status and brought back next year if law enforcement can work through current problems with enforcement of provisions already put in place. Apparently the exemptions are so many that prosecutors get very few prosecutions and are subjected constantly to appeals that are won by defendants.

SB 798 the BBGun law mandating all bbguns being sold be certain colors is moving directly to the floor bypassing appropriations. This bill could create obstacle to owning guns of colors.

The Open Carry Bill remains to be the most dangerous bill and most damaging to all our rights to defend ourselves and thus will be worked on hard by GOC, NRA and CRPA groups. This bill will not hold in the courts and has substantial problematic issues. It will mess up many items and create many conflicting laws. It will also undo protections under federal laws and trigger a hurricane of problems. Currently the issues that created open carry have been running through the courts and it would mess up many cases if it passes. It is preferred that we not start all over in the courts with this added information of banning open carry so we need it to fail and will do what we can to cause a failure.

There is rumor that this will help fix CCW laws, however, it will not due to the many conflicts of such a law banning all access to 2nd amendment rights.

If you have any questions please post as comments and I will try to answer them when I look back at these websites