In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Groups trade shots on gun bills
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Groups trade shots on gun bills
NRA, Brady Campaign clash on U.S. political climate for legislation
By John Sanko, News Capitol Bureau
May 14, 2002
Gun legislation throughout the nation got conflicting bills of health Monday from the National Rifle Association and a group that helped defeat a concealed-weapons bill in Colorado.
Joe Romallo, senior associate director for the State Legislation Department of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said that grass-roots efforts shot down the NRA in state after state, including Colorado.
"The NRA's attempts to weaken state concealed weapons laws around the country have been widely defeated, despite an unprecedented lobbying effort following 9/11," Romallo said from his offices in Los Angeles.
"With a grass-roots effort in all of these states, a majority of folks have shown they don't want these kinds of ridiculous weakening of gun laws," he said.
But an NRA spokesperson said such claims were nonsense and that many of the legislative battles that Romallo calls victories didn't even involve the NRA.
"Half of these bills weren't even NRA-supported bills or ones we had any interest in," said Kelly Whitley from NRA offices in Virginia. "The word has gun in it and they automatically think it's the NRA. This was not true."
The NRA supported the proposed Colorado law, which would have established a statewide system for issuing concealed-weapons permits. Opponents said it sounded the death knell for local control over issues such as whether guns could be carried into sports stadiums and on college campuses.
Other states where Romallo said efforts to ease conceal-carry laws died or where bills faced vetoes include Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Utah, Arizona, New Hampshire and Kentucky.
The Colorado bill would have required sheriffs to issue permits to applicants who passed a criminal background check, took a course in gun handling and could not be proven to be a danger to themselves or others.
Romallo said bills that would have forced police to issue conceal-carry permits died in Nebraska, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Bills to allow concealed weapons to be carried into churches and bars were defeated in Georgia, as was a bill to allow carrying guns in bars by permit holders in Tennessee.
He said similar bills allowing permit holders to carry guns in schools in South Carolina and in bars and recreation centers in Virginia went down to defeat.
But Whitley said efforts at gun control have been dying since the 2000 elections.
"They fail to mention all the bills we do pass," she said, citing a bill in Kansas to prevent cities and counties from suing gun makers over misuse of weapons and firing-range protection laws in New Mexico and Arizona.
As for the Colorado concealed-carry law, Whitley noted that it died only because of a 5-5 vote in one committee. It already had passed in the House and had sufficient support to be approved in the full Senate if it had gotten out of committee.
"As far as the right-to-carry bill, we've gotten further this year than in the past as far as getting it passed," she said. "It's always harder to get things passed in an election year. We got further this year than we ever thought we would."
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/legislature/article/0,1299,DRMN_37_1145308,00.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
NRA, Brady Campaign clash on U.S. political climate for legislation
By John Sanko, News Capitol Bureau
May 14, 2002
Gun legislation throughout the nation got conflicting bills of health Monday from the National Rifle Association and a group that helped defeat a concealed-weapons bill in Colorado.
Joe Romallo, senior associate director for the State Legislation Department of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said that grass-roots efforts shot down the NRA in state after state, including Colorado.
"The NRA's attempts to weaken state concealed weapons laws around the country have been widely defeated, despite an unprecedented lobbying effort following 9/11," Romallo said from his offices in Los Angeles.
"With a grass-roots effort in all of these states, a majority of folks have shown they don't want these kinds of ridiculous weakening of gun laws," he said.
But an NRA spokesperson said such claims were nonsense and that many of the legislative battles that Romallo calls victories didn't even involve the NRA.
"Half of these bills weren't even NRA-supported bills or ones we had any interest in," said Kelly Whitley from NRA offices in Virginia. "The word has gun in it and they automatically think it's the NRA. This was not true."
The NRA supported the proposed Colorado law, which would have established a statewide system for issuing concealed-weapons permits. Opponents said it sounded the death knell for local control over issues such as whether guns could be carried into sports stadiums and on college campuses.
Other states where Romallo said efforts to ease conceal-carry laws died or where bills faced vetoes include Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Utah, Arizona, New Hampshire and Kentucky.
The Colorado bill would have required sheriffs to issue permits to applicants who passed a criminal background check, took a course in gun handling and could not be proven to be a danger to themselves or others.
Romallo said bills that would have forced police to issue conceal-carry permits died in Nebraska, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Bills to allow concealed weapons to be carried into churches and bars were defeated in Georgia, as was a bill to allow carrying guns in bars by permit holders in Tennessee.
He said similar bills allowing permit holders to carry guns in schools in South Carolina and in bars and recreation centers in Virginia went down to defeat.
But Whitley said efforts at gun control have been dying since the 2000 elections.
"They fail to mention all the bills we do pass," she said, citing a bill in Kansas to prevent cities and counties from suing gun makers over misuse of weapons and firing-range protection laws in New Mexico and Arizona.
As for the Colorado concealed-carry law, Whitley noted that it died only because of a 5-5 vote in one committee. It already had passed in the House and had sufficient support to be approved in the full Senate if it had gotten out of committee.
"As far as the right-to-carry bill, we've gotten further this year than in the past as far as getting it passed," she said. "It's always harder to get things passed in an election year. We got further this year than we ever thought we would."
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/legislature/article/0,1299,DRMN_37_1145308,00.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878