After vetoing a similar measure last year, Gov. Janet Napolitano signed into a law a bill that prohibits the state from seizing citizens’ weapons during a state of emergency, confirming earlier reports that her office and the National Rifle Association had reached a compromise.
The compromise was to explicitly allow the state to remove storages of ammunition from what is considered a dangerous situation, according to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jay Tibshraeny, R-21.
The bill was voted out of the House, 55-0. But eight senators, all Democrats, said “no” to the measure on April 12.
Napolitano signed it on April 18.
“If there is ever a time that our Second Amendment rights are most vital, it is during an emergency,” Tibshraeny said in a statement shortly after the bill’s enactment. “The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina raised concerns for many of us and I wanted to work with the National Rifle Association to create a bill to make Arizonans feel more empowered during an emergency.”
Echoing Tibshraeny, Landis Aden, lobbyist for the NRA-affiliated Arizona State Rifle & Pistol Association, said he hopes an emergency situation never arises in the state.
“But if it does, (this is) good,” he said, adding that the measure serves as a safeguard for citizens. He surmised that the governor took a closer look at the bill’s language and “realized that there is nothing evil” in it.
Tibshraeny said this session the NRA had worked closely with Napolitano’s office to come up with language that is suitable to them as well as to other stakeholders.
“It is important that if we are ever in a tragic and dangerous situation, we are not left defenseless, and I am pleased to have reached a compromise that maintained the purpose and intent of the bill, and resulted in legislation the governor signed into law,” Tibshraeny said.
S1258 states that the emergency powers of the governor, adjutant general or other officials do not include the ability to commandeer firearms or ammunition or to restrict the lawful possession, use, sale, transfer or display of firearms or ammunition.
But officials may still order that stores of ammunition be moved away from “dangerous conditions.”
But Sen. Jorge Luis Garcia, D-27, insisted that the bill was bad policy. The senator said he lived in Phoenix when there were riots. The bill, he said, is going to restrict governors in case similar riots break again.
“I wouldn’t have voted for the bill even if she told me to,” Garcia said. “If indeed the riots of the late ’60s and ’70s were to somehow come back, I don’t want to put future governors in restraint, where they can’t do anything to confiscate guns and ammunition.”