Wyoming –-(Ammoland.com)- First, the ugly truth…
Representatives Harshman, Paxton, Sommers and Goggles had a barrage of unwarranted claims against the bill.
In fact, the stunts pulled on the floor of the Wyoming house would certainly have made Obama and Feinstein very proud.
I’ll give you a partial rundown:
Bringing parliamentary poison to the bill, another offender, Representative Matt Greene brought language that had absolutely nothing to do with this bill – an amendment that allows concealed carry in the Capitol.
Representatives Paxton and Sommers argued that the local school officials should hold your right to self defense in their clutches. This is the usual position taken by anti-gun politicians — that unelected bureaucrats should have the final say on your God-given rights.
Harshman also argued that if we passed our bill, that now 18 year olds would be able to carry on school grounds.
??? No facts or figures by Harshman, just more anti-gun fear mongering…by using an obscure and unused “MAY ISSUE” section of law that lets a sheriff make a “recommendation” to the state agency that issues permits.
Under this statute there’s a process where a sheriff ONLY get’s to make a “recommendation” to the state agency that may issue a permit, emphasize MAY, then approve someone 18 to 20 years old.
BUT if there really was a problem with the bill…a simple amendment to prohibit 18 to 20 year olds would have solved it.
But then Harshman couldn’t have led the bill to slaughter now could he?
They also made sure to include an inform clause, so that now you must notify the principal of the school or other person in charge. So much for nobody knows that you conceal-carry, which is the whole idea, nobody is supposed to know!
What really happened here is by using an entire host of ambiguous arguments — the anti-gun cabal re-wrote, or better said, GUTTED this bill on the floor of the house.
And all of this GUTTING was done by a “voice vote”, meaning that the vultures stripped the bill on the floor without any accountability to their votes. And they like it that way.
Against the wishes of leadership, the bill sponsor Representative Allen Jaggi called a recorded vote on an amendment to restore the original language. Thank him because he’ll take a lot of heat for this.
Of course, this amendment failed, but it reveals that only a very small minority get the words in the Wyoming Constitution that say, “shall not be denied.”
The “Ayes” in this crucial recorded vote are the true supporters of this bill and the Second Amendment, please thank them.
Ayes to restore original language: Representative(s) Baker, Davison, Gay, Halverson, Jaggi, Kroeker, Loucks, McKim, Miller, Piiparinen, Reeder and Watt.
Nays to restore original language (voted to keep the gutted bill): Representative(s) Barlow, Berger, Blake, Blevins, Blikre, Brown, Burkhart, Byrd, Campbell, Cannady, Coleman, Connolly, Eklund, Esquibel, K., Filer, Freeman, Gingery, Goggles, Greear, Greene, Harshman, Harvey, Hunt, Hutchings, Kasperik, Kirkbride, Krone, Larsen, Lockhart, Lubnau, Madden, Moniz, Nicholas B, Northrup, Patton, Paxton, Petroff, Semlek, Sommers, Stubson, Teeters, Throne, Walters, Wilson, Winters, Zwonitzer, Dn. and Zwonitzer, Dv..
While there will be politicians that disagree with our overall assessment of their actions on the floor — the truth remains that many of our elected representatives still hold on to the wrong-headed notion that gun free zones make us safer, and that crazed blood-thirsty killers are stopped because of the law.
What we really get out of this gun free zone fiasco is that many of these lawmakers could be more proficient at drafting more gun-control in the future.
This is why Wyoming Gun Owners exists — to expose the truth.
Remember it’s not what a politician says, but how they vote that defines if they are pro-gun or pro-gun-control.
Just compare the bills for yourself.
Introduced (original) version click here
House (passed) version click here
Now, the good news…
Due to your activism, at the final reading Representative Harshman was forced to bring a more favorable amendment allowing parents or “legal guardians” to carry in the school of their child’s enrollment.
And while it moves us closer to freedom, Harshman’s so-called compromise actually creates caveats.
For instance a grandparent picking up their grandchild, but not being a “legal guardian” of that child would not be authorized to carry under this amendment.
Here’s where the rubber meets the road — this amendment was brought ONLY after Harshman and his anti-gun pals felt the heat from you!
Even though the anti-gun crowd fought this legislation every step of the way — it was your phone calls and emails that pushed it in the right direction.
This compromised bill passed final reading in the house 46-13 and must now repeat the entire process in the Senate.
To Liberty,
Anthony BouchardExecutive Director
Wyoming Gun Owners
About:
Wyoming Gun Owners is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, single-purpose citizens’ organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the Right to Keep and Bear Arms as guaranteed by Article 1 Section 24 of the Wyoming Constitution and the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Wyoming Gun Owners is the only organization taking action at this level–with an aggressive program designed to mobilize public support for pro-gun legislation as well as opposition to gun control. www.wyominggunowners.org