05.26.15

Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a “work session” on Rep Bill Post’s HB 3093. Work sessions are where bills are amended and voted to the floor of the Senate (or House if coming out of a House Committee)

3093 is a simple and limited reciprocity bill that passed out of the House with only one “no” vote. (Anti-gun zealot Barbara Warner) But of course, no bill that could be even marginally considered “pro-gun” is going to get past Floyd Prozanski unscathed. An amendment has been introduced to this bill to further muddy the waters on the nightmare “background check” bill recently passed by the Democrats. (It should be noted that the anti-gun groups are already sending out alerts saying that “unqualified” out of staters will be able to carry guns in our schools. As with everything else they say, this is a lie. CHL’s only allow you to carry a firearm on school property in your own state, if your state permits it. But the girls have never let the truth get in the way of their propaganda.)

We believe the changes that are being stuffed into 3093 were requested by House Rep. Brian Clem.

Clem, who likes to promote himself as a friend to gun owners, sold his vote to the Speaker, and voted to impose the universal background check bill on gun owners. But he insisted that he’d extracted some concessions for his sell out. The “dash 9” amendments appear to be the “great bargain” he struck. So what did Clem get? Under this amendment, not only could you lend a firearm to a friend to go hunting, but he could also have it while going to and from hunting! Wow.

Wait, there’s more. Under this amendment you can now loan a firearm, to someone you know, for a whole 7 days! Of course, you will still have to subject that person to a background check, but now, under this great compromise, you could invade their privacy and subject them to the failed background check system in the privacy of your own home by calling the State Police and registering your gun to your friend over the phone instead of dragging them to a gun store and paying whatever fee the dealer wanted to charge.

The police can, of course, still delay or deny with no justification, as they do now. This is nonsense and solves nothing. HB 3093 should just be passed without more garbage being shoved down the throats of gun owners. If the Democrats want to repair some of the damage they did with SB 941 they should do it with real, meaningful changes and not this cynical dog and pony show designed to convince gun owners that sell outs like Clem are “not so bad.”

Please contact the Senate Judiciary Committee and tell them to pass HB 3093 as is, with no garbage attached.