GOAL Post 2006-10 Legislative Update from Olympia 10 March 2006

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - GOAL Post 2006-10 Legislative Update from Olympia 10 March 2006

Posted: 3/10/2006 4:34:31 PM EDT

GOAL Post 2006-10

Legislative Update from Olympia 10 March 2006

LAST GOAL POST FOR 2006 (GOAL ALERTS TO CONTINUE)

IT’S OVER – 2006 LEGISLATIVE SESSION ENDS EARLY

ALMOST NO IMPACT ON GUN OWNERS

TWO BILLS AWAIT GOVERNOR’S SIGNATURE

CEASEFIRE WANTS TO PROHIBIT ALL PRIVATE GUN SALES

MID-TERM ELECTIONS CRITICAL FOR GUN OWNERS

This will be the last regular GOAL Post published during 2006. GOAL
Alerts and other notices to list members will be published as events
occur that we believe are of importance to gun owners (e.g. reports of
public agency actions impacting gun owners, political events, etc).
Publication of the weekly GOAL Post will resume in January 2007 (unless
the governor calls a special legislative session earlier).

The legislature adjourned its 2006 regular session one day early,
shutting down on Wednesday the 8th vice Thursday the 9th of March.
From a gun owner’s perspective this was pretty much a do-nothing
legislature – not a bad thing when the “other side” controls all three
steps in the process.

House Judiciary Committee chair Representative Pat Lantz (D-26) once
again played it safe by declining to move bills until and unless they
came out of the Senate first. This is an astute political move on her
part – why put Democrat House members at risk in an election year by
forcing a vote on a controversial issue (gun control) unless it was
absolutely necessary? That didn’t stop her from moving one good pro-gun
bill, HB 2622, that would have opened our state’s CPL reciprocity a bit
more (sponsored by Representative Brian Blake (D-19)). That bill passed
the House with 95 “aye” votes, only to die in the Senate Judiciary
Committee.

Ah, the Senate Judiciary Committee! This was the year that public notice
of a hearing on SB 5343 (gun show “loophole”) was delayed, while
Washington Ceasefire got the word at least two days in advance of public
notice. Then the live (and archived) audio coverage of the hearing was
“lost due to a technical glitch,” a rare occurrence with quality
TVWashington coverage – the same hearing where a WASPC (Washington
Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs) representative revealed
closing the alleged gun show loophole wasn’t enough, that they wanted to
prohibit ALL private transfers of firearms. WASPC also acknowledged they
had no hard evidence that gun shows were a source of criminals’ guns.
Knowing the votes were not there to pass the bill out of committee, it
wasn’t scheduled for a committee vote – until pro-gun Democrat Senator
Jim Hargrove was unable to attend and committee chair Senator Adam Kline
called the bill up for an unscheduled vote. The bill still failed, with
rural Democrat Senator Marilyn Rasmussen (D-2) siding with the four
Republicans on the committee to kill the bill on a 5-3 vote.

The two gun-related bills that passed the legislature, ESHB 2951
(retired police officer concealed carry certification) and SHB 2958
(penalty for illegal use of toxic—lead—shot), are at the Governor’s
office awaiting her action. I expect she will sign both bills.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (the Brady Bunch) just
published their annual state-by-state “report card,” grading states on
their restrictions on law-abiding gun owners. Washington received a D+.
(I guess we’re going to have to try harder to get an F.) Washington
Ceasefire put out a press release in conjunction with the “report card,”
where Ceasefire Executive Director Natalie Reber called for “mandatory
background checks on ALL gun purchases.” The next time they tell you
they only want to close the “gun show loophole,” throw that back at
them. Gun show legislation is only the next step in their quest to
restrict ALL gun transfers in the state. (Ceasefire also proved once
again their ignorance and ineptitude, referring to SB 5343 as Senate
Bill 157. She can’t even get bill numbers straight, but she wants to
tell you what guns you can own, how to buy them, how to store them, etc!)

In eight months voters will once again have an opportunity to give their
legislators a “report card” by returning them to office or “throwing the
bums out.” It goes without saying the outcome of November’s election
(and September’s primary election) will have a major impact on your
right to keep and bear arms. 24 of 49 Senate seats and all 98 House
seats will be up for grabs. Several legislators are retiring this year,
leaving open seats that could go either way. The two major state
political parties will hold their conventions in Yakima this year, the
Republicans on 26-27 May (the Memorial Day weekend) and Democrats a week
later, 3 June. It’ll be interesting to see how each party addresses the
gun issue in their platform.

Candidate filing is in late July and we enter a hectic six-week primary
campaign period, followed by an even more hectic six week general
election period. (A bill passed by the legislature this year moves the
primary up a month, to the third Tuesday in August. This doesn’t take
effect until 2007.) Candidates will be looking for support – cash
donations and grassroots grunt-work such as stuffing envelopes, making
and posting yard signs, etc. Grassroots support – volunteers – can make
all the difference in an election, especially in local legislative
elections.

GOAL endorsements of candidates will be published before the September
primary and November general elections.

BILL STATUS:

Bills considered during the 2006 session:

Bill # Subject Sponsor Status

SB 5343 Gun show loophole Kohl-Welles (D-36) Died S. Jud.

SB 6139 Justifiable homicide Stevens (R-39) Died S. Jud.

SB 6258 School/guns penalty increase Delvin (R-8) Died S. Jud.

SB 6358 Hunter ed waiver for G.I.s Morton (R-7) Died S. NatRes

SB 6426 CPL reciprocity amendment Schoesler (R-9) Died S. Jud.

SSB 6598 Restricting hunting on county lands Haugen (D-10) Died S. Rules

SB 6616 Restricting hunting near schools Haugen (D-10) Died S. NatRes

SB 6878 G.I. late renewal of CPL Doumit (D-19) Died S. Rules

HB 2622 CPL reciprocity amendment Blake (D-19) Died S. Jud.

HB 2824 Threats with a firearm/schools Lovick (D-44) Died H. Jud.

HB 2835 Projectile stun gun restrictions Lovick (D-44) Died H. Jud.

HB 2861 Gun show “loophole” Williams (D-22) Died H. Jud.

HB 2930 Eliminates exceptions to guns/schools Jarrett (R-41) Died H. Jud.

ESHB 2951 Retired police officer certification Campbell (R-2) To Governor

SHB 2958 Illegal use of toxic shot/penalty Sullivan (D-22) To Governor

HB 3065 Justifiable homicide Pearson (R-39) Died H.Jud.

HB 3092 CPL late fee waiver Morrell (D-25) Died H. Jud.

HB 3221 Alien firearms licenses Moeller (D-49) Died H. Jud.

Key to abbreviations: S. = Senate, H. = House, Jud = Judiciary, NatRes =
Natural Resources, Parks & Shorelines (senate), Natural Resources,
Ecology & Parks (House)

GOAL POSITION ON BILLS STILL UNDER CONSIDERATION:

None

PUBLIC HEARINGS SCHEDULED:

None

LEGISLATIVE HOT LINE: You may reach your Representatives and Senator by
calling the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000. Toll free!!! The
hearing impaired may obtain TDD access at 1-800-635-9993. Also toll free!!!

1-800-562-6000 TDD 1-800-635-9993

OTHER DATA: Copies of pending legislation (bills), legislative schedules
and other information are available on the legislature's web site at
www.leg.wa.gov <http://www.leg.wa.gov/> in Acrobat (.pdf) file. The
"Acrobat" version is an exact copy of the hard copy format the
legislators use. You may download a free version of Adobe Acrobat from
Adobe's web site at
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. You may also
obtain hard copy bills, initiatives, etc, in the mail from the
Legislative Bill Room FREE OF CHARGE by calling 1-360-786-7573. Copies
of bills may also be ordered toll free by calling the Legislative
Hotline at (800) 562-6000. You may also listen to floor and committee
hearing action live at http://www.tvw.org/ (you need "RealAudio" to do
this, available free at the TVW web site).

By reading the House and Senate "bill reports" (hbr, sbr) for each bill,
you can see how individual committee members voted. By reading the "roll
call" for each bill, you can see how the entire House or Senate voted on
any bill. The beauty of the web site is that ALL this information is
available, on line, to any citizen.

GET THE WORD OUT: If you want to subscribe to the GOAL Post by e-mail,
send a message to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
with the words “GOAL POST” in the subject line. Please pass GOAL Post on
to anyone you believe may have an interest in protecting our rights.
Better yet, make a couple of copies of this message, post it on your gun
club’s bulletin board, and leave copies with your local gun shop(s).
PERMISSION IS HEREBY GRANTED TO DUPLICATE OR REDISTRIBUTE GOAL POST
PROVIDED IT IS REPRODUCED IN ITS ENTIRETY WITHOUT TEXTUAL MODIFICATION
AND CREDIT IS GIVEN TO GOAL. I can be reached at "[email protected]"
or by telephone at (425) 454-4915. Unfortunately, I am unable to mail
hard copy GOAL Post to individuals. Limited numbers of hard copies MAY
be available at the Second Amendment Foundation book table at WAC gun shows.

Upcoming WAC gun shows:

Monroe 11-12 March

Puyallup 25-26 March

"The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself,
or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this section shall
be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize,
maintain or employ an armed body of men."

Article 1, Section 24

Constitution of the State of Washington

Copyright 2006 Gun Owners Action League of WA

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - GOAL Post 2006-10 Legislative Update from Olympia 10 March 2006

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