Got this, for those who are interested.
GOUtah!
(Gun Owners of Utah)
http://www.goutahorg.org
...
U OF U GUN BAN MOVES FORWARD IN SENATE
Despite your efforts thus far, SB 251 (the U of U gun ban bill) was
speedily released by the Senate Rules Committee and sent to the
Senate Judiciary Committee. This committee, as currently
constituted, is not particularly friendly to the Second Amendment and
is chaired by Sen. Greg Bell (R-22), the bill'9s sponsor. Sen. Bell
is also on the Rules Committee. For more information about SB 251,
please refer to Alert #262 on our website at http://www.goutahorg.org.
To track the status of the bill in the
Leigslature, visit the official Utah Legislature website at http://le.utah.gov/~2007/htmdoc/sbillhtm/SB0251.htm.
There are three senators on the Judiciary Committee who, we believe,
may be fence sitters: Sen. Lyle Hillyard (R-25), Sen. John Valentine
(R-14), and Sen. John Greiner (R-18). Please skip to the Action Item
below for info on how to contact these senators and encourage them to
oppose SB 251. The more pressure we can build against this bill at
an early stage, the better our chances of killing it.
This is turning out to be the biggest anti-gun bill of the 2007
General Session. Please don' get discouraged. A bad bill like this
can be defeated through perseverance on your part. Thousands of
young American men and women in uniform are living under adverse
conditions and fighting vicious adversaries in remote parts of the
world at this moment, while most of us enjoy the luxury of sitting on
the couch and watching TV and having dinner with our families. The
challenge of writing a few letters to state legislators pales in
comparison with the challenges that our soldiers, sailors, airmen,
and Marines face every day. They are fighting jihadists who are
actively trying to kill them, while we're merely engaged in a bout of
dueling pens (or word processors, as the case may be) with a few
aging ex-hippies at the University of Utah who seem terrified of
their own shadows. To be defeated by such an adversary would be
pitiful.
A NOTE TO GUN OWNERS IN SEN. DISTRICT 8
Sen. Curt Oda (R-14) sponsored HB 39, which would prohibit the state
from spending CCW permit fees on anything other than the processing
of CCW permit applications and renewals. GOUtah! supports this bill,
in part because it would prevent politicians from viewing CCW fees as
just another source of generic revenue (like taxes, for example) and
it would prevent the revenue generated by those fees from being used
for other purposes (such as paying the salaries of university
administrators).
HB 39 passed the House and has been making good progress in the
Senate. However, according to a source who'9s been closely monitoring
the proceedings, Sen. Carlene Walker (R-8) has been pushing for a
Senate floor amendment that would increase CCW fees. We spoke with
Sen. Walker yesterday and she told us that she only wants to raise
fees for out-of-state people who apply for Utah CCW permits.
However, those of you living in Senate District 8 might want to
contact Sen. Walker and encourage her to abandon any efforts to raise
CCW fees. If you contact Sen. Walker, you can tell her that you're a
voter living in her district and that you're keeping an eye on how
she votes in the Senate.
Sen. Carlene Walker [email protected]
Home phone: 801-733-4599
GOUtah!, of course, believes it's wrong for the state to require a
permit or charge a fee for exercising a basic constitutional right.
This is equivalent to the state charging a fee and requiring a permit
to worship, for example. If hoplophobic members of the citizenry
insist that you be licensed by the state before you carry a firearm
because this makes them feel better, they should at least be willing
to subsidize your permit with their tax dollars. Our having to pay a
fee is bad enough. Raising the fee (even if only for out-of-staters)
would be even worse and would set a bad precedent. Note:
Hoplophobia is an irrational fear of weapons.
ACTION ITEM FOR SB 251
If you haven't already contacted your own Utah State Senator about SB
251, please do so now. If you've already contacted your own senator,
you might want to contact one or more of the senators below to
express your opposition. These three are on the Judiciary Committee,
which will soon vote on SB 251, and we regard them as possible fence-
sitters. The more gun owners they hear from, the better.
Sen. John Valentine* (R-14) [email protected] (801) 224-1693
Sen. Lyle Hillyard (R-25) [email protected] (435) 753-0043
Sen. John Greiner (R-18) [email protected] (801) 621-0423
*Note that Sen. Valentine is also the Senate President, so he has a
lot of clout.
Feel free to use the new pre-written letter at the end of this alert
(modifying it if you wish), or a letter from a previous alert, or you
own letter, or any combination thereof. We are publishing slightly
different versions of this letter in each alert just to provide some
variety and to bring up different points. Also, a number of you out
there have been composing some great letters of your own. We applaud
your efforts. Keep up the good work!
You can find any state senator's e-mail address, cell phone number,
home phone, home address, etc. by visiting GOUtah!\'s excellent
website at http://www.goutahorg.org and clicking on "Legislative
Contacts" in the left-hand column. Or you can send a fax or letter
to a senator at the Capitol or leave a voice message at the Senate
switchboard.
Utah State Senate
W115 State Capitol Complex
Salt Lake City, UT 84114
Phone: (801)538-1035
Toll-free Phone: (800)613-0677
Fax for Republican senators: (801)326-1475
Fax for Democratic senators: (801)326-1476
____________________________________________
That concludes GOUtah! Alert #263 \u2013 11 February 2007.
Copyright 2007 by GOUtah!. All rights reserved.
PRE-WRITTEN LETTER BELOW
------ Cut here -----
Date:
From:
To:
Dear Senator _____________:
As a politically active gun owner, I encourage you to help kill SB
251, the proposed change in state firearms law requested by the
University of Utah.
This one-sided bill is not a compromise, because it does not give us
anything we want that we don't currently have. A compromise, by
definition, requires each side to give to the other side something
that the other side wants but doesn't have. I'm therefore appalled
that the administrators at the U have been advertising this bill as a
compromise. I hope you don't fall for their bogus semantics.
Contrary to popular belief, the University of Utah remains in
violation of the state's firearms preemption statute. Although the U
has suspended the enforcement of its campus gun ban, that ban
continues to be promulgated in the University's Policy and Procedures
Manual (Sections 1-10 and 8-10) and Residence Halls Handbook (pages
13 & 18). According to the Utah Supreme Court, the mere existence and
promulgation of such a policy at the U is illegal, regardless of
whether that policy is being enforced (paragraph 58 of the Court's
ruling in "U of U v. Shurtleff"). Yet the U's administrators have
the gall to ask you to make the state's gun laws more to their
liking, even as they continue to break the existing law. Please do
not indulge them.
Please do whatever you can to kill SB 251, and please tell the U's
administration to refrain from asking for any changes to the state's
gun laws until the U has expunged all illegal firearms regulations
from its official rulebooks.
Sincerely,
