GOAL Post 2009-9

GOAL Post 2009-9

Legislative Update from Olympia 13 March 2009

HB 1114 PASSES HOUSE

CHAMBER CUT-OFF PASSES

FIVE BILLS REMAIN ACTIVE

PUBLIC HEARINGS SCHEDULED

HB 1114, which reimposes the minimum age of 14 for unsupervised hunting,
passed the House on a 70-26 vote, with one excused. The minimum age,
allegedly accidentally left out of the 1994 rewrite of Washington's
firearms code, received the attention of the legislature after a 14
year-old accidentally shot and killed a woman while hunting in Snohomish
County last year. A Senate version, raising the age to 16, failed to
pass out of committee. An amendment to the bill by Rep. Ross Hunter
(D-48) was offered on the House floor to raise the age to 16, but
failed. The bill now moves to the Senate Natural Resources Committee
for consideration.

Thursday, 12 March, marked the halfway point for the legislative
session. Bills that had not passed out of their original chamber (House
or Senate) by 12 March are considered dead for the year. Previous
observations about trying to amend dead language into live bills still
applies, but that is difficult to do under legislative procedures. We
have six weeks until the legislature adjourns on 26 April.

Five bills remain in play after the chamber cut-off. They're listed
below in the Bill Status section. The legislature has until Monday, 30
March, to pass these bills out of their new policy committee (as listed
in the Bill Status) or they will die. Two of the bills are scheduled
for hearings next week (1498 and 5739).

Two bills are scheduled for public hearings next week. HB 1498
(firearms prohibition for involuntary commitment) will be heard in the
Senate Human Services and Corrections Committee at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday,
17 March. Senate HS&C meets in Senate Hearing Room 1 in the John A.
Cherberg Building. SB 5739 (deferred CPL renewal for deployed military
members) will be heard in the House Judiciary Committee at 8:00 a.m. on
Wednesday, 18 March. House Judiciary meets in House Hearing Room A in
the John L. O'Brien Building.

BILL STATUS:

The following bills have been filed for the 2009-10 biennium:

Bill # Subject
Sponsor Status

SHB 1052 Alien firearm licenses Moeller (D-49)
S. Jud

HB 1114 Youth hunting age requirement Blake (D-19)
S. NatRes

HB 1498 Involuntary commitment Hunter
(D-48) S. HS&C

SB 5193 Alien firearm licenses Delvin
(R-8) H. Jud

SB 5739 CPL renewal by military members King (R-14) H. Jud

Key to abbreviations: S. = Senate, H. = House, HB = House Bill, SB =
Senate Bill, SHB = Substitute House Bill, HJM = House Joint Memorial,
Jud = Judiciary, Ag/NatRes = Agriculture and Natural Resources, Educ =
Education, Gov Ops = Government Operations and Elections, HS&C = Human
Services & Corrections, NatRes = Natural Resources, Oceans and
Recreation, StGov = State Government and Tribal Affairs

GOAL POSITION ON BILLS

SHB 1052 SUPPORT

HB 1114 SUPPORT

HB 1498 SUPPORT

SB 5193 SUPPORT

SB 5739 SUPPORT

HEARINGS SCHEDULED:

17 Mar HB 1498 Senate Human Services &
Corrections

1:30 p.m. Senate Hearing
Room 1, JAC Bldg

18 Mar SB 5739 House Judiciary Committee

8:00 a.m. House Hearing
Room A, JLO Bldg

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". Bills are available in Acrobat (.pdf)
format. You may download a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader from
Adobe's web site (http://www.adobe.com/). 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 hear 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 "jwaldron@halcyon.com". 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 "jwaldron@halcyon.com"
or by telephone at (425) 985-4867. 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.

If you feel you have received this message in error, or if you no longer
desire to subscribe to the GOAL Post, e-mail "jwaldron@halcyon.com" and
place "unsubscribe GOAL Post" in the subject line.

Upcoming WAC gun show(s):

Monroe 14-15 March

Puyallup 21-22 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 2009 Gun Owners Action League of WA

.

__,_._,___