Notes from the Legislative Division

Gun owners won a battle in the Arizona State Senate today. The victory over America’s newest gun control group can be attributed to an overwhelming grassroots campaign. Congratulations to all of you who went to the trouble of contacting your legislators. You made the difference.

The bill was HB 2329, Crime Gun Interdiction. It was sponsored by Americans for Gun Safety (AGS) and it’s billionaire leader Andrew McKelvey. It mandated that law enforcement officers trace every firearm used in a crime. Of course, law enforcement already has the authority to trace firearms when the trace is appropriate and useful. A mandate would require law enforcement to trace firearms used in minor, unintentional criminal offenses. For instance, if a hunter accidentally exceeds the quail limit by one bird (class 2 misdemeanor), the hunter’s shotgun must be traced. This trace will count as a “crime gun trace” against the store that sold the hunter his shotgun and would not be differentiated from a “crime gun trace” associated with a violent crime committed by a gang member. This would soil the reputations of all gun retailers in Arizona and bring unwarranted scrutiny from ATF. Was this AGS’ intent? You be the judge.

Also, the tracing mandate would have opened the door for future calls for gun control. Specifically, AGS and other gun control groups would be back next year telling legislators that there are “loopholes” that prevent 100% success with the newly mandated traces. They would argue that certain “loopholes” must be closed. It doesn’t take a crystal ball to know that AGS would be back to eliminate all private transfers of firearms (the crux of the gun show loophole myth it shamelessly pushes) in order to establish a “paper trail” that could be traced successfully. The crowning jewel would be a full licensing and registration scheme to “ensure all firearms are directly associated with individual owners.”

The proposal has been killed two times this year in the House of Representatives. Two weeks ago, it was revived for a third time in the Senate Judiciary Committee in a last-minute procedural motion known as a “strike-everything amendment.” The motion passed 4-3. After floundering on a number of Senate floor calendars for over a week, the bill finally came up for full Senate consideration this morning in Committee of the Whole, where bills are rarely killed.

There was over 45 minutes of floor debate regarding the AGS provisions. The two AGS advocates were Senators Elaine Richardson (D-11) and Chris Cummiskey (D-25). Without any credible arguments in favor of the bill, they resorted to the tired old arguments of the gun control zealots — “Only criminals are affected by this legislation so if you oppose it you are siding with the bad guys.” Senators Dean Martin (R-24) and Darden Hamilton (R-16) led the opposition for gun owners. They told the truth about AGS and why its name does not adequately describe its cause. Martin and Hamilton went on to effectively relate all of the dangers of HB 2329 to their fellow senators.

In the first full floor vote, the AGS provisions failed by a vote of 12-10. In a rarely used procedural motion, Senator Richardson asked for full reconsideration of the initial vote after trying to ensure all of her gun control cohorts were on the floor for the vote. The second motion came down to the very last vote. Gun owners won 13-12.

Darren LaSorte

NRA State Liaison