Wednesday, March 19, 2008

AZ SB 1214 update

Arizona Senate Bill 1214 which would allow 21 & older adults with CCW permits to walk across our current "gun free zone" boundaries around our Arizona Universities & Colleges with their concealed weapons the same way they walk most everywhere else such as Shopping Malls, Grocery Stores, and crowded movie theaters is being considered in the Arizona Senate.

I've been notified that the following Republican Senators are not currently in support of this legislation (none of the Arizona Democrat Senators are in support of the legislation that I'm aware of, so if your Senator is a Democrat contact them too). If you live in their district please contact them & politely explain why you request their support of this legislation. It will be a close vote & we will need their support to pass this bill. If you don't know who your Senator is, you can look it up here. Although my own Senator is already in full support of this legislation, I have contacted all of the below Senators via Letter, e-mail, and phone call into their office voicing my concerns as well as my request for their support of AZ SB 1214.

The text of my letter is below (no response from any of them as yet):
Honorable Senator:

I'm writing to request your support of AZ SB 1214 which would allow law abiding adults 21 & older who have gone through the required process of a full FBI & AZ State DPS background check, fingerprinting, training, have passed both written & skill tests, who already carry their concealed weapon everywhere else allowed such as crowded movie theaters, shopping malls, parks, in their cars in busy rush hour traffic, etc, (without incident), to continue to be able to carry their concealed weapon even when crossing the current imaginary so-called "gun free zone" boundary that surrounds our Arizona Universities & Colleges.

In a time when the Supreme Court is poised to rule that the 2nd Amendment DOES protect our preexisting and granted by God right to bear arms in our own protection of life & liberty, it is important that we move Arizona back towards the freedoms that we built our wonderful country around, freedoms that became infringed less than 20 years ago when schools started to embrace the idea of "gun free zones" - an idea that has since been well proven to be ineffective at best, and a tragic cause of the death or rape of many innocent adult students & teachers at worst, who once disarmed by this tragic policy have become easy victims of criminals or the insane who will disregard any "gun free zone" boundary.

Please join with me as well as with the majority of the conservative Arizona Republican Senators in support of restoring a lost freedom to our State.

Thank you.
Update 1: I just received the following response from Senator John Huppenthal - I've sent him a response requesting clarification on whether or not this means he is in support of SB 1214 - I will update this post when I find out:
Dustin,

No one, absolutely no one, has a better record of supporting the second amendment than I have in the legislature. I was the 16th and deciding vote to bring concealed carry rights to Arizona.

I always vote to strengthen second amendment rights.

John Huppenthal

State Senator

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