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.
UT - HB 183 - Firearm Criminal Background Check Amendment
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
UT - HB 183 - Firearm Criminal Background Check Amendment UpdateSarah Thompson, UTGOA: 02.26.02
HB 183, as written, will eliminate the fee for the background check required to purchase a gun. This fee is nothing other than the government charging people to exercise a Constitutionally guaranteed right.Rep. Throckmorton is onsidering offering a new substitute that would completely sunset the state BCI checks, and use the federally funded National Instant Check System. As UTGOA has mentioned previously, HB 183 passed its House Committee hearing and has been awaiting its vote by the entire House. Rep. Philpot planned to uncircle his bill early this afternoon. When a bill is circled, it means its sponsor is waiting until the right time to hold the vote, and a motion to uncircle means that he's ready for the body to debate and vote on the bill.Shortly after 3 PM today, Rep.Philpot courageously moved to uncircle his bill, despite some apparent opposition. It was important to get the bill voted on today because at the end of the day today, the list of bills will be wiped, and anything not passed has to be given a high priority in order to get back on the list and have a vote before the end of the session. Sadly, there were not enough votes to uncircle, in part because many people were out in the halls and not voting. Once again, Rep. Philpot showed his true commitment to his bill, and to gun rights, by requesting a Call of the House. This means the Sergeant At Arms was directed to gather all of the Representatives into the House for the vote.However, even with the Call of the House, Rep. Philpot's motion to uncircle failed by ONE VOTE, with the final vote tied at 36 - 36 with three people absent. Speaker Stephens, who could have broken the tie, was meeting with Gov. Leavitt.The following people voted AGAINST even considering Rep. Philpot's bill:Adair, S. Allen, Anderson, Beck, Becker, Beshear, Biskupski, Bourdeaux, Bradshaw, Buffmire, D .Cox, Daniels, Dilree, Duckworth, Fife, Goodfellow, Gowans, Hansen, Hendrickson, Hogue, Holdaway, B. Johnson, Jones, King, Litvack, McCartney, Morgan, Pace, Parker, Saunders, Shurtliff, Siddoway, G. Snow, Styler, Tyler, Young.M. Stephens, Arent and Moss were absent.Please let these Representatives know how disappointed you are at their refusal even to consider a bill recognizing that owning a gun is a right, not a government-granted privilege for which you must pay. Contact information is available at http://www.utgoa.org. Remember also that the Republican platform clearly endorses gun RIGHTS, so the Republicans on the committee are even more guilty than the Democrats. Republicans are listed in BOLD. Rep. Young previously pledged to support gun rights, and Rep. Gowans claims to be "pro-gun".Rep. Throckmorton's new substitute complicates things a bit. His previous substitute was not drafted properly, and would have kept BCI as an intermediary between the dealer and NICS, which wouldn't have solved anything, and might have made things worse. That is one reason that UTGOA has been recommending passage of HB 183 without amendments.The new substitute (which we haven't yet seen in final form), will eliminate BCI's involvement in the performance of the background check and have dealers call NICS directly. This has the advantage of streamlining things for the dealer and purchaser, and also saves the people of Utah the $500,000 that is currently being spent on the current system.Obviously we don't, and wouldn't, oppose such a strongly pro-gun proposal. Our only concern is the possibility that some legislators might get confused by the sudden change, or that they might think Reps. Philpot and Throckmorton were being deceitful. However, after talking to many legislators today, we've found that some like the bill as originally written because it doesn't change the permit system. Others like the amendment because it saves money.Our position is this: It is far more important to pass HB 183 in SOME form than to kill it over disputes about amendments. If a legislator likes the Throckmorton amendment, great. We support it. If he's not comfortable with it, that's okay too - as long as he votes YES on the original bill. What is NOT acceptable is killing this bill for ANY reason.Rep. Philpot plans to try again this evening to uncircle his bill and get a vote. We'll try to send another alert late tonight to update you on that attempt, and on the progress of other gun bills. Your involvement will be very much needed during the final 7 days of the session, since we have many good, pro-gun bills that we'd like to get passed.c 2002 Utah Gun Owners Alliance, Inc. and Sarah Thompson http://www.sierratimes.com/02/02/26/arut022602.htm
HB 183, as written, will eliminate the fee for the background check required to purchase a gun. This fee is nothing other than the government charging people to exercise a Constitutionally guaranteed right.Rep. Throckmorton is onsidering offering a new substitute that would completely sunset the state BCI checks, and use the federally funded National Instant Check System. As UTGOA has mentioned previously, HB 183 passed its House Committee hearing and has been awaiting its vote by the entire House. Rep. Philpot planned to uncircle his bill early this afternoon. When a bill is circled, it means its sponsor is waiting until the right time to hold the vote, and a motion to uncircle means that he's ready for the body to debate and vote on the bill.Shortly after 3 PM today, Rep.Philpot courageously moved to uncircle his bill, despite some apparent opposition. It was important to get the bill voted on today because at the end of the day today, the list of bills will be wiped, and anything not passed has to be given a high priority in order to get back on the list and have a vote before the end of the session. Sadly, there were not enough votes to uncircle, in part because many people were out in the halls and not voting. Once again, Rep. Philpot showed his true commitment to his bill, and to gun rights, by requesting a Call of the House. This means the Sergeant At Arms was directed to gather all of the Representatives into the House for the vote.However, even with the Call of the House, Rep. Philpot's motion to uncircle failed by ONE VOTE, with the final vote tied at 36 - 36 with three people absent. Speaker Stephens, who could have broken the tie, was meeting with Gov. Leavitt.The following people voted AGAINST even considering Rep. Philpot's bill:Adair, S. Allen, Anderson, Beck, Becker, Beshear, Biskupski, Bourdeaux, Bradshaw, Buffmire, D .Cox, Daniels, Dilree, Duckworth, Fife, Goodfellow, Gowans, Hansen, Hendrickson, Hogue, Holdaway, B. Johnson, Jones, King, Litvack, McCartney, Morgan, Pace, Parker, Saunders, Shurtliff, Siddoway, G. Snow, Styler, Tyler, Young.M. Stephens, Arent and Moss were absent.Please let these Representatives know how disappointed you are at their refusal even to consider a bill recognizing that owning a gun is a right, not a government-granted privilege for which you must pay. Contact information is available at http://www.utgoa.org. Remember also that the Republican platform clearly endorses gun RIGHTS, so the Republicans on the committee are even more guilty than the Democrats. Republicans are listed in BOLD. Rep. Young previously pledged to support gun rights, and Rep. Gowans claims to be "pro-gun".Rep. Throckmorton's new substitute complicates things a bit. His previous substitute was not drafted properly, and would have kept BCI as an intermediary between the dealer and NICS, which wouldn't have solved anything, and might have made things worse. That is one reason that UTGOA has been recommending passage of HB 183 without amendments.The new substitute (which we haven't yet seen in final form), will eliminate BCI's involvement in the performance of the background check and have dealers call NICS directly. This has the advantage of streamlining things for the dealer and purchaser, and also saves the people of Utah the $500,000 that is currently being spent on the current system.Obviously we don't, and wouldn't, oppose such a strongly pro-gun proposal. Our only concern is the possibility that some legislators might get confused by the sudden change, or that they might think Reps. Philpot and Throckmorton were being deceitful. However, after talking to many legislators today, we've found that some like the bill as originally written because it doesn't change the permit system. Others like the amendment because it saves money.Our position is this: It is far more important to pass HB 183 in SOME form than to kill it over disputes about amendments. If a legislator likes the Throckmorton amendment, great. We support it. If he's not comfortable with it, that's okay too - as long as he votes YES on the original bill. What is NOT acceptable is killing this bill for ANY reason.Rep. Philpot plans to try again this evening to uncircle his bill and get a vote. We'll try to send another alert late tonight to update you on that attempt, and on the progress of other gun bills. Your involvement will be very much needed during the final 7 days of the session, since we have many good, pro-gun bills that we'd like to get passed.c 2002 Utah Gun Owners Alliance, Inc. and Sarah Thompson http://www.sierratimes.com/02/02/26/arut022602.htm