GOAL Post 2011-12

From: Joe Waldron [jwaldron@halcyon.com]
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 7:27 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: GOAL Post 2011-12

GOAL Post 2011-12

Legislative Update from Olympia 25 March 2011

SHB 1923 PASSES OUT OF SENATE JUDICIARY

CHAMBER CUT-OFF PASSES

TITLE-ONLY BILLS FILED

WSP BACK-PEDALS ON AR-15 RECORDS

100th BIRTHDAY OF THE .45 AUTOMATIC

On 22 March the Senate Judiciary Committee passed out SHB 1923 (Goodman D-45) on a 7-0 vote. The bill now goes to Senate Rules awaiting a pull to the floor. The bill prohibits anyone who fails to pass a NICS check from receiving a CPL, in effect harmonizing state and federal law (only with regard to CPL issue).

The second policy committee cut-off passed a few hours ago. Bills that have not passed out of the policy committee (Judiciary in the case of most gun bills) are dead for the session. At this time, all three gun-related bills listed below are still in play for the session.

Twenty-two "title only" bills were filed in the Senate by Senator Ed Murray (D-43), chairman of the Senate Ways & Means Committee. This is a typical maneuver to "reserve" bill numbers, usually for fiscal bills. But two of the bills, SBs 5891 and 5892, carry the title "relating to criminal justice." While these are probably intended to be fleshed out as budget bills relating to criminal justice spending (or spending cuts), a broad title like that opens the door to games being played and things slipped into the bill(s).

The Washington State Patrol is back-pedaling swiftly after firearms dealers, the gun owning public -- and nearly three dozen state legislators, led by Rep. Matt Shea (R-4) -- raised the alarm over the WSP letter to firearms dealers seeking broad information about the sale or acquisition of AR-15s (and clones) and AR-15 lower receivers a week ago. It seems there may be ONE RIFLE missing, possibly from the State Patrol inventory. Rather than work with the BATFE, who has jurisdiction over federal firearm licensees, they decided to keep it in-house -- except for their clumsy outreach to more than 1,000 licensed
Washington firearm dealers! The Patrol still seeks cooperation and information from dealers (legitimately so, in my opinion), but acknowledges it has no authority to ask for the records.

As I opined last week, it's more a case of overzealousness on the part of the WSP's investigative division and a lack of understanding of federal laws regulating firearm dealers and insensitivity to the privacy concerns of gun owners. No nefarious schemes to create an AR-15 registry in the Evergreen State -- for now.

Tuesday, 29 March 2011, marks the 100th birthday of the Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911. It was on that day in 1911 that the U.S. Army adopted the now-famous .45 automatic. Designed by inventive genius John Moses Browning under contract to Colt, the 1911 served as out standard service pistol until 1985, when it was replaced by the Beretta M9 in 9mm. Several specialized military units still use the 1911, as well as police departments and private citizens all across the country-- and all over the world. In addition to dozens of manufacturers in the U.S. (Model 1911s and clones), it was produced under license in Norway and Argentina, and was even pressed into service by Nazi Germany as the Pistole 657(n).

BILL STATUS:

The following bills are still under consideration for the 2011-12 biennium:

Bill # Subject Sponsor Status
HB 1016 Suppressor use Blake (D-19) S. Rules
HB 1455 Restoration of rights McCune (R-2) S. Rules
SHB 1923 CPL qualification Goodman (D-45) S. Rules

Key to abbreviations: S. = Senate, H. = House, Jud = Judiciary

GOAL POSITION ON BILLS

HB 1016 SUPPORT
HB 1455 SUPPORT
SHB 1923 SUPPORT

HEARING(S) SCHEDULED:

No public hearings remain for gun-related bills.

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.

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Upcoming WAC gun show(s):

Puyallup 26-27 March
Monroe 9-10 April

"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 2011 Gun Owners Action League of WA