AZ: House Passes Second Amendment Protection

Gun Watch ^ | 3 March, 2016 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

 Armed Second Amendment Supporters at the Arizona State Capitol

A bill to shore up protections for Second Amendment rights, HB 2524,  has passed the Arizona House by substantial margins, 35 to 24.  The bill would have Arizona join with other states in an interstate compact, to prevent imposition of restrictions on the transfer of firearms that are stricter than federal law.  
From AP at kyma.com:

The House has passed a pro-gun bill that would let Arizona join with other states to make themselves exempt from any new rules that would curtail the public’s Second Amendment rights.

Republican Rep. Bob Thorpe sponsored the proposal that would establish Arizona as the first in an interstate compact that other states could join. The compact would nullify and repeal any current or future law that impedes Second Amendment rights such as mandatory background checks.

The Arizona Citizen Defense League (AZCDL) is promoting the measure to protect Second Amendment rights from deceptive initiatives funded by billionaire elitists in cooperation with the media.  From azcdl.org:

HB 2524 provides our best opportunity to derail the coming Bloomberg financed ballot measure to establish gun owner registration in Arizona before it happens.

The passage of HB 2524 would establish an interstate compact that restricts member states from enacting firearms transfer requirements greater than existing federal law. In essence, this would create a ceiling that state law could not exceed. Current federal law has few limitations on intrastate private party firearm transfers between non-prohibited possessors.

Compacts between states supersede individual state law. An example of an interstate compact is the uniform recognition of our drivers’ licenses. Once HB 2524 is enacted in Arizona and at least one other state becomes a party to the compact, a subsequent state law, or even a ballot measure, cannot override it.

The Arizona Constitution was ratified in 1912, when Arizona became a state.  At the time, it was the beginning of the "progressive" era.  No one foresaw a day when big money interests from other states would use the initiative process to place burdensome requirements on Arizona citizens through massive fraud backed by the power of the media.  The larger peril of the time was seen to be corrupt state governments.

The reform movement in the early 1900's was aimed at taking power from the state government and placing it in the hands of the people, directly, or alternatively, in the hands of the federal government.  As the United States developed, the power of the media grew enormously, as did its homogenization as part of "progressivism".  The ability to define the agenda and to determine what was considered "news" and what was not, became the dominant power in American politics for the next hundred years.  Initiatives became a tool to be used by the media and moneyed interests to advance their agenda.  They only needed to concentrate their propaganda once, for a short period, just before the vote.

Without a significant contrary source of information, the media cartel has been successful more often than not.  That is what happened in Washington State, where initiative I-594 was passed through a combination of overwhelming billionaire funding and media complicity.

The weakness in the initiative process is being exploited across the country.  Bloomberg funded initiative efforts are underway in Maine and Nevada.  Arizona is known to be in the cross hairs.  The strategy is to pick off the states with an initiative process, one by one, to claim momentum toward a national registration system.

Arizona is using a different tool to undercut the effort.  Compacts between states have precedence over state law;  passing HB 2524, it is expected, would remove the threat of an outside funded initiative to impose stealth gun registration on Arizona.

Finding ways to use the power if the State to limit the power of the State is a daunting task.  Only federal systems with multiple, independent governments, have proven capable for any period of time.  We will see if this latest example will be another way to use the federal system to secure Constitutional rights.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

[marktwain]

The idea is that once a compact between the states is agreed to, it takes precedence against a referendum.

I suppose a referendum could repeal it; but under Arizona law that would require another referendum, not just one to ban private sales.

[Blue Collar Christian]

Bloomie and friends would at least have to blow their money twice to make their bid. It might be a deterrent to them like The Club on your steering wheel.

[Oatka]

For those in Arizona, join the AZCDL for they are an effective group.

And, sign up for the Request to Speak" list. You need to create an account with a username and password. It is not valid until the creation is done again down at the Capitol at one of the kiosks, positioned outside the hearing rooms. AZCDL will do this for you if you give them the name and password you used to create an account.

You don't actually have to speak - just register your support by clicking on a Thumbs Up icon. Since signing up is is a bit involved, these Thumbs Up carry more weight than the usual boilerplate email.

Here's what my "Dashboard" looked like:

[Oatka]

Crap! First link hiccuped. Try azcdl.org

[Oatka]

UPDATE

Don’t create an account, have the AZCDL do the whole thing for you.

As per their email: “RTS accounts can only be created at ‘official’ terminals at the Capitol. Please do not attempt to create them online. If you are an AzCDL member and your membership is current, our volunteers will set up an RTS account for you. All you need to do is reply to this message (treasurer@azcdl.org) and request that we create your RTS account.

It’s worth the effort folks.