At least five measures easing rules on gun use and ownership in Arizona have been given preliminary approval in committees, including a proposal to reduce the penalties for bringing a gun into a polling place.
Senators voted mostly along partisan lines, reflecting a clear divide between Republicans who favor fewer gun restrictions and Democrats who generally don’t.
If these bills become law in their current forms, a gun owner:
• Won’t have to resubmit his fingerprints when renewing a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
• Would only be facing a charge of petty offense for carrying a concealed deadly weapon without a permit.
• Would also be facing a class 2 misdemeanor — down from class 1 — for bringing a gun into a public establishment or a voting area.
Sen. Karen Johnson, R-18, explained the reason behind her gun measure, S1629, this way: “As close as we can get to allowing anybody that is not a felon to be able to carry a weapon anytime, anywhere, I am for that.” It passed, 4-2, in the Judiciary Committee on Feb. 12.
Republicans and Democrats did find themselves backing two gun bills, one of which allows community corrections officers and special investigators of the Arizona Department of Corrections to carry a concealed weapon without a permit.
S1202, sponsored by Sen. Pamela Gorman, R-6, puts parole officers on equal footing with police officers and soldiers when it comes to carrying firearms.
The other bill, authored by Sen. Chuck Gray, R-19, removes the fingerprint requirement in renewing a concealed weapons permit. The measure, S1250, is expected to reduce the fee for permit renewal, Gray said.
Both Gray’s and Gorman’s measures sailed through, 6-0, in the Judiciary Committee early this month. Gray’s bill was approved during floor session Feb. 15.
Under state laws, a concealed weapons permit is valid for five years. The renewal process also includes a criminal history check. Some 84,600 permits have been issued in Arizona, according to state records.
In at least three other gun measures, Democrats in committees voted no.
They included a bill by Sen. Jay Tibshraeny, R-21, that prohibits the governor from placing additional restrictions on gun and ammunition use during a state of emergency.
This is a similar measure that sought to prevent the state from confiscating citizens’ firearms during a declared emergency vetoed by Gov. Janet Napolitano last year.
The seizure of firearms by police in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was the catalyst for the vetoed bill. The same reason now fuels the current proposal, S1258, approved by a 4-3 vote in the Government Committee on Feb. 12.
To the governor or the ballot?
Tibshraeny said he had had people from the National Rifle Association, which supports the bill, talk to the governor to see if a language suitable among stakeholders could be worked out.
“Otherwise this thing could end up going to the ballot,” he said.
“I had a preliminary discussion with her staff,” he said when asked the chances of Napolitano changing her mind on a measure she had previously rejected. “I had the NRA meet with her to see if there was possibly some wording that she might feel a little comfortable with but accomplishes the same thing.”
In opposing the bill, Sen. Jorge Luis Garcia, D-27, said the real issue in the Katrina debacle was not that guns were being confiscated, leaving people defenseless.
“My perspective which we saw in Katrina was that poor people are forgotten in this world of wealth,” he said.
It had nothing to do with the ability to carry guns, he said.
“In any pile of trash you find whatever you want to find. And they found something that said people shouldn’t be taking away their guns. And I think it was the wrong issue. The fact (is) that society doesn’t care about poor people,” Garcia said.
Weapons storage
Another bill, S1251, allows an operator of a public establishment or sponsor of a public event to request that a person without a concealed weapons permit remove the gun only if the operator or sponsor provides for a temporary and secure storage for weapons.
The bill, which received the nod of the Judiciary Committee with a 4-2 vote on Feb. 12, also states that an operator cannot require nor record the identity of the gun owner or the serial number of the weapon.
“The intent of the bill is to make sure that government agencies are complying with last year’s law which requires them to store firearms if they are going to put a sign up that says you can’t come in with a firearm,” Gray said.
“The other intent of this bill is to stop them from (holding) a de facto gun registration,” he said.
But Sen. Richard Miranda, D-13, said he does not see any sense in bringing a gun to a public event.
He and fellow Democrat Ken Cheuvront, the District 15 senator, voted against the bill.
The two Democrats also voted against Johnson’s proposal to reduce the penalties for several acts of weapons misconduct.
Concealed weapons permit
The bill, S1629, reduces to a petty offense the act of carrying a concealed gun without a permit. It also reduces from a class 1 misdemeanor to a class 2 misdemeanor the penalty for entering a public establishment or event with a deadly weapon, after a request is made to remove and place it in storage.
The same holds true for a person who carries a gun into a voting area, according to the bill.
But Miranda said the issue is serious enough to warrant at least a misdemeanor charge against a violator.
“I think we are minimizing the acts of misconduct involving weapons,” he said, noting that a representative from the Department of Public Safety testified in committee that the bill moves toward “doing away with any penalty for carrying a concealed a weapon” without a permit.
“As long as you are a law abiding citizen and not a felon, I believe everybody should have a right (to carry a gun). That’s what our Constitution says. That’s even what the Arizona Constitution says,” countered Johnson.
In sponsoring the measures, the Republicans’ interest appeared in line with that of the NRA.
“We’re definitely in favor of that, as you’ve seen what happened in New Orleans a couple of years ago,” said Landis Aden, lobbyist for the Arizona State Rifle & Pistol Association, an affiliate of the National Rifle Association.
Aden was referring to Tibshraeny’s emergency bill.
On Gray’s gun storage bill, Aden said the concept is sound, since if an establishment “requires people to be basically defenseless, the least you can do is provide them a place where they can keep their firearms.”
“Now the easy way for the operators of business establishments is just to let people carry their firearms,” he said.
Aden dismissed fears that moves relaxing gun laws will lead to more shooting in the streets.
The same debate cropped up when concealed weapons permits were being introduced. Now more than 84,000 people have permits and “there is no problem,” he said.
“The average citizen does not go around shooting people. But a criminal carries it regardless of the law, so making laws easier for honest citizens is always better,” he said.