Feel free to add this to your talking points when urging Senator Andy Billig to HOLD ESSB 5038 (the Open Carry Ban) from a concurrence vote.

Link to Article

From the article linked above:

At a Monday press conference, House Speaker Laurie Jinkins told reporters that the Washington State Patrol (WSP) asked the legislature to add an emergency clause to Senate Bill 5038, which would prohibit the open carry of firearms near demonstrations, or on State Capitol Campus grounds.

WSP wanted an emergency clause, Jinkins said, due to “the violence that has been seen on or around the Capitol Campus over the course of the last year.”

This comment caught the WSP by surprise.

   "The WSP did not ask the legislature to add an emergency clause to SB 5038. The WSP received several inquiries regarding the amendment after March 28 floor action when a statement was made that WSP had requested it. WSP spoke with legislative personnel involved and re-iterated that the WSP did not make, and was not planning to make, any such request. WSP does not know the origin of how this evolved into the amendment that was voiced, but we do know that it was not at the request of our agency,” said Captain Neil Weaver, in an email to the Wire.

More LOL:

A spokesperson for Speaker Jinkins referred the Wire to Rep. Drew Hansen (D – Bainbridge Island), whose amendment added the emergency clause to the bill. An emergency clause would make the bill take effect immediately.

In an email to the Wire, Hansen said the following:

   "The Senate prime sponsor told me that she was informed that the WSP was concerned about the lack of an emergency clause; that’s why I said that on the floor. We certainly never intended to misrepresent the WSP’s position—that was the information we had as of Sunday; if the WSP says this isn’t correct then we have no reason to dispute that.”

And finally, blame it on technology (Zoom):

The Senate prime sponsor is Sen. Patty Kuderer (D – Bellevue). If WSP did not request an emergency clause, how did Sen. Kuderer come to believe they had? Reached by phone Tuesday, Kuderer said the situation boils down to a Zoom-era misunderstanding

   "Senator Hunt and I had a conversation, and I guess what I thought he said was not what he said. He has not spoken with state patrol, he made a comment about expressing whether they should be concerned about this and I heard that they were concerned about this. So that’s how that got relayed … In the remote session, we haven’t had the ability to talk to people face-to-face, and unfortunately this was a misunderstanding, and that’s what happened.”

So, the Washington State Patrol did not - after all - request the emergency clause.

SO LET'S KEEP UP THE PRESSURE ON YOUR SENATOR AND SENATOR BILLIG TO NOT HOLD A CONCURRENCE VOTE ON ESSB 5038 NOW THAT WE KNOW THE EMERGENCY CLAUSE WAS ADDED UNDER FALSE PRETENSES!!!

NRA-ILA Easy Link Here


Bill Info Page for ESSB 5038 - Use the green "comment on this bill" button to contact your Senator.

Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig’s telephone #:  360-786-7604 (office)  Email:  [email protected]

The emergency clause also strips away the ability to add ESSB 5038 as a referendum to the November ballot, which would give Washington voters a chance to repeal 5038.  This was more than likely the REAL REASON the emergency clause was added.

LET'S PUSH BACK LOUD AND HARD!!!


(Edit to clarify thread title)

Done, yet another comment has been submitted.

The morons in King County voted to make the Sheriff an appointed position instead of being elected by the people.

Therefore, I have no confidence that we could defeat this in a referendum.  But I will still fight.

THANK YOU POPPADUC!!!

Here is the body of the email that I just sent to Senator Billig.  Y'all are free to copy and modify if you want (or use it as-is):

Dear Senator Billig (or your Senator),

    It has come to my attention that the Washington State Patrol did not - in fact - request the emergency clause that the House added to ESSB 5038 during Sunday's floor debate.  This would be amendment #467 that was added by Representative Drew Hanson.  This amendment was added under the false pretense that the WSP requested it.  The floor debate is archived with TVW.  I was watching the floor debate when Representative Hanson made the statement (now proven false) that the WSP requested said amendment.

    For further information, I direct your attention to this article:  https://washingtonstatewire.com/senator-clarifies-misunderstanding-that-washington-state-patrol-requested-an-emergency-clause-in-open-carry-bill/

    In the above linked article, Captain Neil Weaver is quoted in an email as saying:  "The WSP did not ask the legislature to add an emergency clause to SB 5038. The WSP received several inquiries regarding the amendment after March 28 floor action when a statement was made that WSP had requested it. WSP spoke with legislative personnel involved and re-iterated that the WSP did not make, and was not planning to make, any such request. WSP does not know the origin of how this evolved into the amendment that was voiced, but we do know that it was not at the request of our agency,” said Captain Neil Weaver, in an email to the Wire.

   Somebody is lying, however I strongly doubt that it is the Washington State Patrol.  Please do not allow ESSB 5038 to have a concurrence vote.  Thank you.

Respectfully,

twodeucetrey

My email (copied to my own Senator, the parking criminal T'wina Nobles):

Dear Senator Billig,

In the late night Sunday, the House added Amendment 467 to ESSB 5038.  The amendment by Representative Drew Hanson added an emergent clause to the Bill, supposedly at the request of the Washington State Patrol.  It turns out that this was a false statement and the WSP never requested emergency status for this Bill.  Representatives pushed this change under false pretenses, which is clear in the archived record of the discussion and floor debate.

More information about this can be found in the following article:  https://washingtonstatewire.com/senator-clarifies-misunderstanding-that-washington-state-patrol-requested-an-emergency-clause-in-open-carry-bill/

In the above article, Captain Neil Weaver is quoted as writing:  "The WSP did not ask the legislature to add an emergency clause to SB 5038. The WSP received several inquiries regarding the amendment after March 28 floor action when a statement was made that WSP had requested it. WSP spoke with legislative personnel involved and re-iterated that the WSP did not make, and was not planning to make, any such request. WSP does not know the origin of how this evolved into the amendment that was voiced, but we do know that it was not at the request of our agency.”

This Bill is an attack on both the First and Second Amendments, and passage with falsified urgency would make for even worse legislation.  Please do not allow ESSB 5038 to have a concurrence vote to put a stop to this bad Bill and false urgency.  Thank you.

Respectfully,

Mr & Mrs Teddydog


I borrowed heavily from you, but made it different as well.  Thanks.

Nicely done letter, Teddydog!!

So did this steaming pile get voted to concurrency or whatever the F?  Is it all done?  Waiting for Useless Jay's autograph?  Still not done in the Senate?

rob

I have not seen any evidence that ESSB 5038 has received a concurrence vote in the Senate.  I'm sure another round of emails to the Senate urging them to not vote on 5038 wouldn't hurt.  I think that the lie being exposed about the WSP requesting the emergency clause is making the Senate a bit hesitant to move forward (and perhaps said lie should be strongly emphasized in any communication sent to members of the Senate).

Not to rest on our laurels, however both chambers are pretty preoccupied with fiscal and budget matters as we rapidly move toward the 25 April deadline for regular session.  Thus if ESSB 5038 does not receive a concurrence vote by 25 April (assuming the "ledge" doesn't go into extra sessions) it will be dead until January 2022 (the start of session for the second half of the 2021 - 2023 biennium).

Thanks for asking and your continued interest in this matter!

Trey