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Committee hearings Wednesday
Committee hearings Thursday
Dealing with legislators
Comments on Sen. Hatch
Another GOOD bill!
WEDNESDAY COMMITTEE HEARINGS
Wednesday schedule
Wednesday, Feb. 16th, 8 AM Rm 403 - Senate Transportation and
Public Safety Committee.
1. SB 200 - Mental Health Commitment Amendments
(Montgomery) This bill is stealth gun control. It would make
it possible to commit virtually anyone for "mental illness". Once
committed, a person loses his right to purchase or possess a firearm FOR
LIFE under FEDERAL law. He can also lose a concealed carry permit
under UTAH law. Current commitment laws are adequate since they allow
the commitment and detention of anyone who poses an immediate threat to
himself or others. Because there is almost no due process for commitment,
this is a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to disarm and harass those with
"politically incorrect" ideas. (This bill was heard in committee
today, but was not voted upon. We expect a vote on Wednesday, although
nothing is certain.)
2. HB 199 - Limits on Gun Manufacturers
Liability (Throckmorton) This is our ONE good bill this session.
It would prohibit frivolous lawsuits against firearms manufacturers by
government entities. (This bill was scheduled today but there was
not enough time to discuss it.)
3. SB 32 - Concealed Permit Holders Requirements
(R. Allen) This terrible bill would require that anyone applying
for a concealed carry permit pass a marksmanship test. Sen. Allen
apparently believes that failure to pass a marksmanship test is grounds
for revoking the right to self-defense and the right to life. This
is rather like saying that only physicians should be allowed to perform
first aid. In most cases, a firearm used for self defense is never
even fired - just the sight of a gun scares off criminals! SB 32
would also discriminate against the disabled, the elderly, women (who carry
smaller, lighter, and therefore less accurate guns), and anyone else who
can't afford an expensive competition quality firearm.
NEW! Inside sources report that
Sen. Allen is planning to substitute this bill. The new version would
be WORSE and would require an ANNUAL marksmanship test. This would
effectively end out of state permits (see HB 372 below). You
would also have to pass the test with EACH firearm you plan to carry -
which is just another way to force you to register your guns and report
all transfers.
PLEASE CONTACT MEMBERS OF THIS COMMITTEE!
OPPOSE SB 200 and SB 32! SUPPORT HB 199! Members of
the committee are:
Sen. Michael Waddoups, Chair 801-967-0225, mwaddoup@le.state.ut.us
President Lane Beattie 801-292-7406, lbeattie@le.state.ut.us
Sen. R. Mont Evans 801-254-2655, mevans@le.state.ut.us
Sen. Karen Hale 801-485-6642, khale@le.state.ut.us
Sen. Paula F. Julander 801-363-0868 prjuland@msn.com
Sen. Peter C. Knudson 435-723-2035 pknudson@le.state.ut.us
Sen. Eddie "Ed" P. Mayne 801-968-7756 emayne@le.state.ut.us
Sen. David H. Steele 801-825-3033 dsteele@le.state.ut.us
Sen. Waddoups is on record as saying he opposes SB 200 and supports
HB 199.
Sen. Mayne is on record as saying he opposes SB 200, and is leaning
towards supporting HB 199.
Senators Beattie, Evans and Steele need to be reminded that their OWN
party platform OPPOSES gun control and supports individual rights!
We need at least two (preferable three) members of this committee willing
to commit to opposing gun control and supporting gun rights and human rights!
YOUR presence, calls, letters, faxes, email, etc. CAN make the difference!
Wednesday, Feb. 16, 8 AM, Room 225 House Health and Human Services
Committee
1. SB 37 - School Surveys (Montgomery)
SB 37 would allow schools to administer surveys asking personal questions
to your children WITHOUT your knowledge or permission. Questions
about firearms ownership, storage, etc. would be permitted. This
bill was held in committee and may be voted on at any time.
PLEASE contact members of the committee if you have not done so already
and ask them to OPPOSE SB 37.
Rep. Carl R. Saunders, Chair csaunder@le.state.ut.us 801-476-1110
Rep. Bryan Holladay, Vice Chair bhollada@le.state.ut.us
801-280-6404
Rep. Loretta Baca, lbaca@le.state.ut.us 801-487-2738
Rep. Trisha Beck tbeck@le.state.ut.us 801-572-2325
Rep. Jackie Biskupski jbiskups@le.state.ut.us 801-484-8369
Rep. Mary Carlson, mcarlson@le.state.ut.us 801-485-8612
Rep. Margaret Dayton mdayton@le.state.ut.us 801-221-0623
Rep. Kory Holdaway kholdawa@le.state.ut.us 801-964-6360
Rep. Becky Lockhart blockhar@le.state.ut.us
Rep. Marlon O. Snow msnow@le.state.ut.us H 801-224-6163
W 801-486-7121
Rep. Nora B. Stephens nstephen@le.state.ut.us
Rep. A. Lamont Tyler atyler@le.state.ut.us H 801-272-1218
W 801-581-6920
Rep. Richard L. Walsh rwalsh@le.state.ut.us 801-561-5169
THURSDAY COMMITTEE HEARINGS
8 AM - Thursday Feb. 17 House Judiciary Committee
HB 372 - Residency Requirement for Concealed
Carry Permit - G. Cox (D)
This bill would require that a person be a legal resident of Utah in
order to apply for a concealed carry permit. It does not address
what would happen to current permittees who are non-residents or to residents
who move out of state.
It appears that Rep. Cox wants to kill Utah's tourist industry - and maybe even its tourists!
Why should visitors to our ski slopes, national parks, and the Olympics be denied the right to self-defense? What happens to people who live in Utah part, but not all, of the year, and don't qualify for "legal residence"? We know the answer to those questions from Florida's experience. Florida's tourists and "snowbirds" were singled out for attack by vicious criminals until the state expanded its permit law to include non-residents.
It's hard to imagine why anyone would support a bill designed to disarm innocent people and injure one of Utah's major industries.
PLEASE CONTACT members of the committee and ask them to OPPOSE HB 372!
House Judiciary
A. Lamont Tyler, Chair <atyler@le.state.ut.us> 801-272-1218
Glenn L. Way, Vice Chair <gway@le.state.ut.us> 801-798-2295
John Swallow <law@silversage.com> 801-572-8201
Katherine Bryson <kbryson@le.state.ut.us> 801-226-2061
Martin Stephens <mstephen@le.state.ut.us> 801-731-5346
Bill Hickman <bhickman@le.state.ut.us> 435-673-2671
Chad Bennion <cbennion@le.state.ut.us> 801-281-1607
Greg Curtis <gcurtis@le.state.ut.us> 801-943-3091
Patrice Arent <parent@le.state.ut.us> 801-272-1956
Neal Hendrickson <nhendric@le.state.ut.us> 801-969-8920
Gary Cox <gcox@le.state.ut.us> 801-967-6790
8 AM, Thursday, Feb. 17, Rm 225, House Law Enforcement and Criminal
Justice Committee
SB 72S2 - Public Safety Amendments - Spencer
(R)
Unconstitutional ex post facto law. Revokes firearms rights for
up to 10 years for a juvenile adjudicated delinquent for a felony level
offense without a jury trial. Revokes firearms rights for LIFE for
anyone found in unlawful possession of a controlled substance (even a single
pain pill!) and a firearm at the same time, and for anyone dishonorably
discharged from the military, even for “political” rather than “criminal”
offenses.
PLEASE CONTACT members of the committee and ask them to OPPOSE SB 72!
House Law Enforcement
Bud Bowman, Chair <dbowman@le.state.ut.us> 435-586-8174
Jack A. Seitz, Vice Chair <jseitz@le.state.ut.us> 435-789-0650
Loraine Pace <lpace@le.state.ut.us> 435-753-6154
Blake D. Chard, <bchard@le.state.ut.us> 801-773-7474
Carl Saunders, <csaunder@le.state.ut.us> 801-476-1110
Nora Stephens, <nstephen@le.state.ut.us> 801-825-3792
Susan Koehn, <skoehn@le.state.ut.us> 801-296-1761
David L. Hogue, <dhogue@le.state.ut.us> 801-254-1668
Perry L. Buckner, <pbuckner@le.state.ut.us> 801-964-8215
Duane Bourdeaux, <dbourdea@le.state.ut.us> 801-596-8784
Trisha Beck, <tbeck@le.state.ut.us> 801-572-2325
PLEASE NOTE! The complete schedule
for Thursday is not yet available. I may not be able to post a leg-alert
tomorrow due to the meeting with Sen. Hatch. Please remember to check
the schedules at http://www.le.state.ut.us
DEALING WITH LEGISLATORS
USSC offered the following advice to gun owners in their alert yesterday:
"Politicians do not respond to threats about voting them out of office.
However, go right ahead and work on things that are within your power that
will help get them out, such as: working to get people registered to vote,
becoming a delegate, or working on an opponent's campaign. However,
threatening them is likely to make a legislator defensive and not receptive
to your immediate or future attempts at persuasion."
UTGuns respectfully disagrees in the strongest possible terms!
This is nonsense! Legislators are OUR employees! We absolutely
have the right and the obligation to fire an employee who lies, steals,
works for the competition, or works against our interests! EVERY
legislator knows that in order to accomplish his agenda, he must first
be elected! The MOST EFFECTIVE threats to legislators are:
1. I will work to remove you from office
2. I will force you to spend money on a primary or election
3. I will support your opponent(s)
4. I will tell your constituents that you are a bad legislator
This does NOT mean you should be rude! But you can, and SHOULD,
say things like:
I will never vote for anyone who supports gun control.
I am a delegate, (plan to become a delegate, am organizing delegates)
and I will work to remove anti-gun legislators and replace them with pro-gun
legislators.
I live in your district and I will tell my friends and neighbors about
your voting record.
I am tracking your record and will vote accordingly.
I will work to make sure that all Republicans act to support the party
platform which opposes gun control.
Of course, you should never lie! If you don't intend to follow through, don't make idle threats!
If a legislator gets angry or threatens to vote for gun control - this
is a very GOOD sign! It means you've got his attention, he knows
you are serious, and he is SCARED! He is threatening you to make
you go away because he knows you can and will HURT him. (Politically!)
NEVER, EVER back down! The appropriate response is: "You are free
to vote however you choose, but if you vote wrong, I will work even harder
to make sure you are replaced."
MORE ON SENATOR HATCH
I attended the meeting with Senator Hatch in Sandy yesterday. The meeting was carefully staged and controlled, with many Hatch supporters offering "spontaneous" declarations of affection and support for Hatch. Hatch is very slick and is a master of changing the subject and "spin". He is also arrogant and condescending. Not once did he ASK what his constituents want him to do, what we believe, or what's important to us. Instead, he maintained that we should "trust" him and that anyone who disagrees with him is stupid and "doesn't understand how the system works". He would like us to believe that we should thank him for passing gun control legislation because it's better to have our rights taken away by a "friend" (Hatch) than by an "enemy" (Democrats). It seems never to have occurred to him that the proper response to gun control is to "Just say NO" or that as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he can STOP gun control bills.
Don't be fooled by Hatch's smooth talking ways!
While it is true that 20 years ago, Sen. Hatch was a conservative and
defender of firearms rights, this is no longer the case. His recent
record is abysmal. (Actually, I've heard that he betrayed us as far
back as the early 80's but I don't have documentation, so I won't make
an issue of it - yet!)
He voted FOR the Feinstein ban on semi-autos
He voted FOR Lautenberg misdemeanor revocations of firearms rights
FOR LIFE.
He has repeatedly worked to revoke our 4th Amendment right to be free
from unreasonable searches and seizures, warrantless searches, wiretapping,
and asset forfeiture.
He proposed persecuting and prosecuting FFL's for clerical errors under
Federal RICO statutes designed for organized crime kingpins - with sentences
of up to 20 years in Federal prison.
He refused to filibuster or otherwise impede Brady - although as Chair
of the Senate Judiciary Committee he could have easily done so.
And then there's Hatch's own S. 254 which would:
Ban high-capacity magazines
Mandate trigger locks
Mandate background checks on all gun show transactions (This is the
part that inspired Dave Jones to run similar bills in Utah!)
Ban possession of a semi-auto firearms for young adults - even if they're
accompanied by a parent.
Allow virtually unlimited regulation and harassment of gun shows -
if any gun shows survive.
Provide $50 million in Federal funds to harass gun owners - mostly
for non-violent "technical" crimes. ($40 mil for the BATF)
Enact Juvenile Brady - revocation of rights WITHOUT a jury trial, and
in an unconstitutionally ex post facto manner.
It's important to remember that Hatch sponsored and introduced this bill. HE added the amendments to include background checks at gun shows, mandate trigger locks, fund Federal harassment of gun owners, fund the murderous BATF, and include juvenile Brady. It was HATCH doing this, not "those evil Democrats".
Even after the Dems made the bill even worse, he refused to pull it. He even refused to support the Smith filibuster.
Now he SAYS he's going to strip the "gun control" provisions out. Of course he considers trigger locks and mandatory background checks "PRO-GUN" language because "they'll protect us from liability". He considers most of the rest of it "PRO-GUN" because it "gets tough on crime" - as if criminalizing gun owners and disarming innocent people will "do something about crime". As if revoking the Bill of Rights will "make us safer". As if making it illegal to teach young people to shoot will "preserve the Second Amendment". Yeah, maybe he'll take one or two offensive provisions out. I'm not holding my breath. And so far, he seems intent on forcing S. 254 through conference committee instead of allowing the much less offensive House version (H. 1501) to emerge as the final bill.
I am TIRED of being told I'm "too stupid to understand" what "really goes on in Washington" and I just need to "trust" Sen. Hatch. Would we accept such reasoning in any OTHER area of our lives? (Trust me - I understand why buying beachfront property in Nevada is a great investment? Trust me - this potion's expensive but I guarantee it will cure everything from arthritis to AIDS? Trust me - your kid really does need to take Ritalin?) Give me a break!
We don't "trust" Dave Jones. Why should we "trust" Orrin Hatch - when they're sponsoring identical bill language? Does an "R" after the name change what the bill says or does? Why should we "trust" ANY politician? Protecting our rights, and holding our elected officials accountable is OUR JOB! We can only hold Hatch accountable for what he's actually said and done - not for what he promises us he'll do "if we elect him".
Maybe I'm as stupid as Hatch says I am, but I expect a pro-gun politician to actively oppose all gun control bills, to speak out against them, to filibuster them, to "poison pill" them, and (for powerful committee chairs) to simply make sure they never get out of committee. Ron Paul, Bob Smith, and Sen. Enzi do this, so it's not impossible.
Hatch just doesn't seem to get that by giving our gun rights away a bit at a time, he's STILL GIVING THEM AWAY! His followers are like the frogs slowly being boiled in a pot - they're still going to end up cooked! The NRA-Hatch approach of incremental enslavement is lulling gun owners and pro-liberty folks to sleep. While I don't want to encourage gun control, maybe we'd be better off if Lautenberg got his way. That might actually mobilize conservatives to clean house! If King George had Orrin Hatch as an advisor, Lexington and Concord might never have happened, and we might be sitting around drinking tea and eating crumpets.
If Hatch is sincere about "changing his ways", he needs to do the following
- BEFORE he asks for our votes:
1. Remove every single infringement on our Constitutionally guaranteed
rights from S. 254. This would probably mean killing the bill.
2. Apologize for his past support of gun control
3. Sign on as a co-sponsor for Brady repeal, and gun suit protection
legislation.
4. Publicly state that no gun control bill will emerge from Sen. Judiciary
so long as he is chairman, and that he will not vote for ANY gun control.
5. Introduce a pro-gun bill, such as federally guaranteed right to
carry without a permit.
6. Explain how he intends to REPEAL existing gun control laws.
Sen. Hatch is a very dangerous, very slick, and very powerful ENEMY. Things could hardly be worse. He's a disgrace to conservative, pro-gun Utahns.
I've met with two of the people currently considering challenging Hatch, and I believe that either of them would be a much better choice than Sen. Hatch. And even if a new Senator turns out to be bad, he'd have very little power and influence and would be easier to remove from office if he fails to represent us properly.
We should also not forget Hatch's "forgiveness" of Bill Clinton, his invaluable assistance in covering up the Waco murders, and his many other liberal votes.
I know I keep saying this but I'd really rather have an enemy who is openly an enemy than an enemy who keeps claiming to be my "friend".
Please attend the meeting with Sen. Hatch Wednesday at 7 PM at the Hilton
hotel, 150 W. 500 South in SLC. Let's ask Sen. Hatch what he'll do
to RESTORE our gun rights and our Constitution - as opposed to how he's
going to "slow down" our disarmament and enslavement.
ANOTHER GOOD BILL!
HB 296 - Prevention of Retaliatory Lawsuits
- Lockhart (R)
POSITION: SUPPORT
HB 296 provides protection for citizen activists who are sued as a
result of their "participation in government processes". It provides
for dismissal of lawsuits intended primarily to silence citizen input,
and allows citizens so affected to file countersuits. This is a very
important and necessary bill that deserves the enthusiastic support of
ALL activists in Utah! (I hope to have a more detailed analysis soon!)
Thank you Rep. Lockhart! This bill has been assigned to the House
Judiciary Commitee, but is not currently scheduled for a hearing.
Please let committee members (above) know you want them to SUPPORT HB 296!
Apologies for such a LONG alert! Thanks, as always, for your support!
Sarah
PS: Thanks to GOUtah! for their clarification of various Utah gun rights organizations. UTGuns is also an independent group. We are allied with Gun Owners of America (GOA), but we retain editorial and tactical independence. There is no formal affiliation and we are not "part of" GOA.
Leg-alerts is written and distributed by Sarah Thompson, M.D. All information contained in these alerts is the responsibility of the author, unless otherwise attributed.
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