Paymar Bill Dead

[45xdacp]

E-mail from "GOCRA" Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance

House gun control bill dead (mostly); Senate gun control hearing Wednesday
Rep. Paymar's gun control bill HF237 defeated
Last night, Rep. Michael Paymar publicly admitted that his Punish Gun Owners Act, HF237, didn't even have the votes to get out of his own committee, and was dead for the session.

Rep. Paymar, though he delayed last night's public meeting for well over an hour to do so, was unable to bully Rep. Debra Hilstrom, a crucial DFL vote, into to supporting his rights-grabbing bill. Rather than allow his pet gun control bill to go down in flames in his own committee, Rep. Paymar "laid over" the bill -- tabling it for the session.

Rep. Hilstrom, a DFLer from Brooklyn Center and a prosecuting attorney, is the chief author of HF1325, the Criminal Control bill, which has 78 co-authors in the House. Paymar's Constitution-trampling bill had only 8.

The next battle
In a face-saving measure, Rep. Paymar told reporters that he had reached a "compromise" with Rep. Hilstrom, giving up 95% of his anti-gun agenda in exchange for some sort of "gun show loophole" legislation. Rep. Hilstrom assured GOCRA last night that the language, yet to be seen, will not include any government registration of firearms. A likely draft would include what responsible gun owners do anyway: require a stranger at a gun show to show a permit to purchase or permit to carry before allowing him to purchase a handguns or sporting rifle. No third party, government paperwork or registration would be involved.

Gun controllers have vowed to strengthen such a bill on the House floor; GOCRA and other gun rights advocates have vowed to kill any gun control this session.

Keep up the pressure
Keep up the pressure: it's making a difference! After admitting that the Public Safety Committee wasted members' and citizens' time last night (and, to his credit, apologizing for it), Vice Chair Paul Rosenthal said he found the onslaught of phone calls and emails "annoying."

[The Verminator]

This legislation failed for a good reason. Every plan they come up with for universal background checks turns out to be an absolutely ORWELLIAN nightmare of paperwork plus heavy fees and taxes on gun purchases with complex approval and waiting periods while police do checks on the people involved.....AND giving authority to police to arbitrarily decide that there's a problem, refuse to approve the sale and even confiscate the gun.

The way I read it, all a police chief would need to take away the right to buy a gun would be one recorded police contact where the person seemed hostile or uncooperative or......(and this is important)..........ODD. That would also open the way to an investigative process that might include confiscation of guns already owned.

When you consider the fact that some police chiefs are quite openly intent on confiscating all guns, this just opens wide a pathway for them to abuse power......and finally, the average citizen would have to pay all attorney fees to appeal at any point in this process--and most of us don't have the financial means to fight a government agency.

Placing heavy financial burdens on the ownership of a gun ends up being a BAN on guns for POOR people--while the rich still have their guns and their security guards.

See where this takes us?

Of course, those who simply hate guns don't WANT us to get into these details. They just say universal background checks are "common sense." But it only takes a little common sense to see that they're wrong.

[AR]

Keep up the pressure
Keep up the pressure: it's making a difference! After admitting that the Public Safety Committee wasted members' and citizens' time last night (and, to his credit, apologizing for it), Vice Chair Paul Rosenthal said he found the onslaught of phone calls and emails "annoying."

...as intended

[The Verminator]

If that annoyance only strengthened his will.....how did it help us?

We have to use wisdom in all our efforts.

Concentrate on those who HAVE NOT already made up their minds and speak in a measured and reasonable fashion.

[AR]

If you click on the GOCRA email it will open into a pre-filled email with the title: 'Is Citizen Input Annoying' and more text in the body reminding him of the workings of democracy.

I edited the Title to add NOVEMBER 4, 2014....Citizen Input day