February 14, 2021 – SAPA UPDATE – GREAT NEWS!

I'm slow getting this update out largely because we needed some clarity before issuing a Call to Action.

The single most important thing you can do to help is now very clear. It will only cost you about 75 cents and a little time, but at this juncture it is the best way you can help.

SEND A REAL PAPER LETTER TO:

Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz.

Simply tell him how important it is to pass the Second Amendment Preservation Act WITH the enforcement provisions intact.

Mail it to:

Senator Dave Schatz
201 W Capitol Ave., Rm. 326
Jefferson City, Missouri 65101

I had a very good meeting with Senator Schatz Wednesday, and I can tell you that he is our friend on this issue. It was Sen. Schatz, after all, who assigned the Senate version of SAPA to a friendly committee.

It's important to send letters (not emails and not phone calls) to Sen. Schatz right now because SAPA is not high on the list of senate priorities, like it is in the House. He doesn't think the threat of new rounds of gun control from the Biden administration is imminent.

Please understand that as President Pro Tem he has a great deal to say about how much opportunity SAPA has to even be considered and debated by the whole Senate.


GREAT NEWS! HOUSE PASSED SAPA 103 YES to 43 NO

The reason Sen. Schatz is so important at this time is the fact that HB 85 has gone completely through the House process and has been reported to the Senate and “first read.”

The House passed SAPA by a vote of 103 yes, to 43 no, with 16 absent. Click here for vote tally.

Note that it's fairly safe to assume that the “absent” votes are people who don't support SAPA. Missing a vote amounts to a no vote.

Besides Rep. Jered Taylor, Speaker Rob Vescovo is our House hero. He has been supportive of SAPA from the start and fostered it through the process.


THE AMENDMENT

The Missouri Sheriffs Association continues to be the greatest obstacle to passage. They claim concerns about working with federal agencies in joint task forces. Their public opposition has been based on their perceived need to charge criminals with federal gun crimes instead of Missouri gun crimes because they can get longer sentences in federal courts.

Of course, SAPA does not prohibit participation in joint task force work with the feds as long as only Missouri gun laws are enforced.

They also complained about penalties that were aimed at individual officials. This complaint was actually resonating with some reps and eroding support for SAPA.

It was not an altogether illegitimate concern. Consider a young cop who is ordered by his superior to enforce some federal gun control law, and his boss claims that their “legal department” checked the SAPA law out and his participation was fine.

Who should be held accountable when it's NOT fine?

If it was something very obvious, like an “assault weapon” ban, then I would say “both,” but there could be situations that require more training and guidance to properly apply the law.

House leadership, which has been fully supportive of SAPA, thought that shifting the enforcement from individual officials to the agency that employs them was a worthwhile change to go from a position where we might barely pass the bill to overwhelming support. We got the overwhelming support, at 103 yes votes, but note the Republicans who still “walked” – that is made themselves scarce so they would not have to vote at all. There were 11 Rs who were absent for the vote.


A GOOD MOVE

Overall, I think the House changes were a good thing. I also think we should try to strengthen the enforcement provisions in the Senate.

Here's the version of HB 85 that passed the House: https://www.house.mo.gov/billtracking/bills211/hlrbillspdf/0767H.03D.pdf

Making SAPA a senate priority, like it has been for Speaker Vescovo in the House, will make it a lot easier to strengthen the bill. And your letters to Sen. Schatz will greatly help make SAPA a senate priority.

Please write your very short letter today.


WHAT'S NEXT?

Since the House version of SAPA, HB 85, has already passed, look for it to advance while the Senate version, SB 39, is held in reserve.

HB 85 will next be assigned to the General Laws committee for a hearing and vote. That committee already easily passed the Senate version – it should have no trouble there, although that might be the place we add some additional strength to the enforcement provisions.

After that comes the hardest part of the whole process. HB 85 will then go to the Senate floor where leadership will have to want it bad enough to allow considerable time for debate and to overcome resistance that is expected from the Democrats and perhaps some Republicans that just don't “get it.”

If the Senate makes any changes to HB 85, it will have to go back to the House for another vote.


THE RIGHT TIMING

It's very possible that those next steps won't take place until we gain overwhelming momentum, like we had in the House. That means your help is needed!

Did I mention that letter to Sen. Dave Schatz? (A real letter, not a phone call or email. We don't want to pester the man or his staff, just let him know this issue is important to Missouri.)


IF YOU WANT TO DO MORE

Besides writing a paper letter to Sen. Schatz, you can:

   Call or email your own senator and tell them SAPA should be their #1 priority, in light of the Biden administration's gun control plans.

   Call or email or visit your sheriff. Get some documentation of his position on SAPA with the enforcement provisions intact. Provide me something in writing from him one way or the other. If he refuses to commit, let me know that, too. I'll add his position on SAPA to the state map of sheriffs: http://www.libertytools.org/issues/sapa/Missouri-Sheriffs.php#Top

In liberty,

- Ron

And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works. --  Frédéric Bastiat - "The Law"

Ron Calzone, director
Missouri First, Inc.

IMHO, I think we're going to see some kind of anti gun action out of the socialists sooner rather than later. Especially with what Biden and Pelosi said today. I'd like to see this bill passed ASAP. before they can get what ever they plan on doing enacted. So I guess I'll start writing letters tomm.. Keep hammering the Sheriffs assoc.
 Mike

Thanks for posting the update. I just got home and was about to do it but you beat me to the punch. My wife and I will certainly write letters tonight and mail them tomorrow.

Did you create a Fire Mission post in GD?

Will put pen to paper after work this morning.  

Thank you to y'all for keeping us informed of what's going on with this.

Forgot about that,Thanks. I'll try to post it there.

In the mail:

Senator Dave Schatz,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. I know that your time is valuable and I appreciate a spare moment of it to take into consideration this simple, yet incredibly sincere, request.

I feel compelled to urge you to place a high priority on the consideration and the PASSING of the Second Amendment Preservation Act WITH the enforcement provisions intact.

I have been a citizen of the Great State of Missouri my entire life. I grew up in the woods learning about personal responsibility, family values and the American spirit. I learned a fair amount of this from my Grandfather who immigrated to America, fleeing from Germany at a young age, as his birth nation was taken over by National Socialism. He would become the American I will admire for the entirety of my life.

By Missouri passing this legislation into law, Missourians will have made their voices known that our freedoms are birth rights. Our founding documents make it known that these rights are bestowed by God and are not to be taken lightly.

Thank you for your time and service to our great State,

/signed/

Public hearing tomorrow