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.
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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