GOAL Post 2010-2

GOAL Post 2010-2

Legislative Update from Olympia 15 January 2010

CUT-OFF CALENDAR ADOPTED

PRO- AND ANTI-GUN BILLS FILED

NO PUBLIC HEARINGS SCHEDULED -- YET

The legislature adopted the cut-off calendar for the 2010 session. Certain "cut-off" dates are established, dates by which bills must clear certain hurdles or be considered "dead" for the session. Most bills die at the various cut-offs. Remember: "dead" doesn't necessarily mean "dead." Language from a bill can be amended into another bill, or the cut-off can be waived by a majority vote.

Feb 5 Bills must pass their original "policy committee"

Feb 16 Bills must pass their original chamber (House or Senate)

Feb 26 Bills must pass policy committee in the second chamber

Mar 5 Bills must pass second chamber (Senate or House)

Mar 11 Last day of session

HB 2703, by Rep. Dean Takko (D-19), is a shooting range protection bill that would immunize ranges against nuisance lawsuits filed for noise abatement. Similar bills have passed twice in previous years, only to be vetoed by the governor.

HB 2709, by Rep. Matt Shea (R-4) is similar to bills passed in Montana and Tennessee and filed in more than a dozen other states. It effectively says if a firearm is manufactured within Washington and sold within the state, the interstate Commerce Clause does not apply and thus federal firearms laws do not apply. The intent of this bill is NOT to encourage people to go out and build firearms, it's to open the door to a challenge of the federal commerce clause.

HB 2711, by Rep. Matt Shea (R-4), broadly defines the right of self defense, and declares any federal or state law to the contrary to be invalid. The bill also prohibits tracking of firearms and other self defense tools by means of RFID chips and other technical means.

SB 6396, by Sen. Adam Kline (D-37), called by the sponsors the "Aaron Sullivan Public Safety and Police Protection Act," would ban possession of so-called "assault weapons." The term would include a broadly-defined category of BOTH semi-automatic and pump action firearms (rifles, shotguns AND handguns) capable of accepting a detachable or fixed box magazine of more than 10-rounds capacity with certain "evil" features, some parts for these firearms (defined as "conversion kits"), and all magazines with greater than 10-round capacity. If the firearm was possessed prior to the effective date of the act, it could be kept ("grandfathered"), but subject the owner to warrantless "inspections" by the county sheriff and possession is limited to property owned by the possessor and "licensed ranges."

SB 6429, by Senator Dale Brandland (R-42) would lift the current prohibition on use of otherwise lawfully possessed (i.e. registered with the ATF) by law enforcement officers ONLY. Current law allows possession, if legally-possessed under federal law, but prohibits their use BY EVERYONE. SB 6429 would NOT legalize suppressor use by private citizens. HB 1604 is the preferred bill, as it makes use of ALL lawfully-possessed suppressors legal.

SB 6473, by Senator Val Stevens (R-39), is the Senate companion bill to HB 2711.

No public hearings have been scheduled for gun bills in the coming week. However, past experience indicated close attention to this. Legislative hearing schedules are published on the Wednesday of the week prior to the hearings, to provide the legal advance notice and allow for time to plan to attend. Last minute changes are allowed, but are supposed to be only when unavoidable. Several years ago, a "gun show loophole" bill was NOT on the weekly schedule, but added later without the statutory advance notice. An oversight, maybe. Except that Washington Ceasefire published a message to its members, informing them of the hearing BEFORE the weekly schedule came out. I guess they must be clairvoyant.

BILL STATUS / GOAL POSITION ON BILLS:

Bill # Subject Sponsor Status

HB 1604 Firearm suppressors Condotta (R-12) H. Jud.

HB 2226 Retired peace officer qualification Orcutt (R-18) H. Jud

HB 2264 Gun show regulation Williams (D-22) H. Jud.

HB 2477 Gun sale liability Williams (D-22) H. Jud.

HB 2499 Black powder storage/transport Bailey (R-10) H. C&L

HB 2703 Sport shooting ranges Takko (D-19) H. Jud.

HB 2709 Firearms freedom act Shea (R-4) H. Jud.

HB 2711 Right to protection Shea (R-4) H. Jud.

SB 6396 So-called "assault weapon" ban Kline (D-37) S. Jud.

SB 6429 Suppressor use by police Brandland (R-42) S. Jud

SB 6473 Right to protection Stevens (R-39) S. Jud.

Key to abbreviations: HB = House Bill, SB = Senate Bill, H. Jud = House Judiciary, H. C&L = House Commerce & Labor

GOAL POSITION ON BILLS:

HB 1604 SUPPORT

HB 2226 SUPPORT

HB 2264 OPPOSE

HB 2477 OPPOSE

HB 2499 SUPPORT

HB 2703 SUPPORT

HB 2709 SUPPORT

HB 2711 EVALUATING

SB 6396 OPPOSE

SB 6429 EVALUATING

SB6473 EVALUATING

PUBLIC HEARINGS SCHEDULED:

NONE (at this time)

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 "http://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 mailto: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 mailto:jwaldron@halcyon.com. 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.

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Upcoming WAC gun show(s):

Monroe 16-17 January

Monroe 13-14 February

Puyallup 20-21 February

"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 2010 Gun Owners Action League of WA