I've skipped the last couple of GOAL Posts, they are linked in the right-hand sidebar.
But I felt that this week's was important to post, if only for Joe's comments on the recent events in Florida.
As usual, minor editing for formatting, a couple of typos or elisions from the original are called out with "{sic}
".
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TO: undisclosed recipients
SENT: Fri 2/23/2018 5:50 PM
SUBJECT: GOAL Post 2018-8
Legislative Update from Olympia23 February 2018
- BILLS MOVE
- NO PUBLIC HEARINGS NEXT WEEK
- CONFERENCE COMMITTEES
- TWO WEEKS LEFT IN SESSION
- FLORIDA SHOOTING
HB 2363 (drone delivery of contraband) passed out of
Senate Law & Justice to Senate Rules awaiting a floor vote. HB 2519 (return
of CPLs) also passed out of Senate Law & Justice to Rules, but not before
they amended the bill to it’s original form, removing the language that allowed
current and former military members aged 18-20 to apply for and receive a
concealed pistol license (several states with age 21 CPL requirements have
opened them up to military members over 18). ed {sic} on the House floor to reimburse those owners who surrender
them to police. SB 5553 (suicidal, waiver of firearm rights) passed out of the
House on a77-20 vote with one excused.SB 5992 (bump stock ban) passed out of
the House on a 56-41 vote also. The bill was amended to create a buyback
program for banned bump stocks. Seven other amendments to limit the impact of
the bill failed.SB 6298 (DV harassment firearms ban) passed out of the House
Judiciary committee with an important amendment. Back in 1994, when many
DV-related misdemeanors were made firearm disqualifiers, it was retroactive – a
listed DV-related conviction at any time in the past prohibited future
possession of firearms.SB 6298 was amended to allow only DV harassment
convictions after this law takes effect to act as a disqualifier.
Unfortunately, the amendment is still lipstick on a pig.
No misdemeanor conviction of any law should allow denial of a fundamental,
enumerated right listed in the Constitution. Period. Add to that the common he
said, she said nature of many of these DV offenses, in many cases with no
physical proof offered.(We’ve been over this before: domestic violence is a
serious issue and must not be tolerated, but if it’s that serious, make it a
felony.)
No public hearings involving firearms are scheduled for
next week. It’s all floor action now.
If a bill is amended in the second chamber and passes, it
must go back to the original chamber to approve the change. If approval
(another floor vote) is not granted, it goes to a conference committee composed
of members from both chambers to iron out the difference(s). Then it goes back
to both chambers for approval.
At this point, and we’re pretty far along in the session,
it appears there will be no immediate, direct impact of the Florida shooting in
Olympia. For now.
If you’ve been following the national news all this past
week, it appears the only thing in the world that has happened is the Parkland,
Florida school shooting. The overwhelming media focus is on gun control,
calling for bans on AR-15s and other “assault weapons,” raising the age to
purchase ”assault weapons,” or in some cases, all firearms, to 21.Suggestions
have also been made by some to arm SOME teachers (the establishment doesn’t
like that, nor do teachers’ unions), or to provide for more school resource officers.
The outcome remains to be seen.
A couple of things of note, though. The call for more gun
control seems to be exceptionally-well organized. And funded. One Parkland
survivor invited to attend a CNN episode on the shooting says he was denied the
opportunity to ask the questions he wanted to ask, and instead was given a
scripted question to ask. More and more information has come out about the
shooter and the incident. He was a long term “problem kid,” with many fellow
students reporting major issues with him including threats, he was expelled from
Parkland, the Broward County Sheriff’s deputies had made more than three dozen
calls to his home in the past few years. Clearly red flags were being waved –
and ignored. Then the FBI dropped the ball after the “kid” posted a You Tube
comment that he wanted to become a “professional school shooter” (a comment
alleged made at other times and places, too).
The worst failure here was the fact that they just
revealed that the on-scene School Resource Officer stayed outside under cover
when the shooting started, and remained outside for at least four minutes. The
major lesson learned in 1999 after the Columbine, CO, school shooting is that
you don’t wait outside to see how things develop, you immediately enter. It’s
called “running to the sound of gunfire” and has been “school shooter” Rule #1
since 1999.The news is reporting that the officer has resigned, but most fail
to add that he was actually allowed to retire.
Just before I closed this out, another local police
department whose officers responded to the Parkland H.S. shooting are reporting
that when they arrived on scene, four additional Broward County deputies were
also outside the school, guns drawn, but not going inside.
Former Milwaukee County Sheriff, NRA Director and staunch
pro-gun advocate made the comment that George Soros fingerprints are all over
this. I tend not to buy into conspiracy theories for a variety of reasons, but
the number of coincidences in this one certainly raise questions. (And the
media now says these conspiracy theories originated with the Russian{sic}.
Maybe the shooter was a Russian immigrant?)
BILL STATUS/GOAL POSITION:
{After the jump. DWD}
