GOAL Post 2009-9

This Just In from Our Man In Olympia:

From: Joe Waldron [jwaldron@halcyon.com]
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 1:49 PM
Subject: 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