Did you know that the Girl Scouts of America is a pro-abortion organization?
It’s amazing what you can learn after attending a state legislative hearing on a proposed gun law.
Of course, the best thing about any new proposed gun law is the entertainment factor. For all the gun laws we have – and we have many – the gun laws keep coming.
If you’re a politician like Oregon state Sen. Floyd Prozanski (D-Eugene), a new gun law can be a chance for a turn in the spotlight. Proposing a new gun law is a sure winner in the publicity department, even if the law has no chance of passing.
Prozanski’s recent Senate Bill 1551 looked a lot like his failed gun bill from last year’s regular legislative session. Nevertheless. he tried to ram it through this year’s brief 35-day session, backed with an appearance from retired astronaut Capt. Mark Kelly, husband of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in 2012 by a mentally ill man.
Prozanski (or one of his Senate colleagues) will likely recycle a similar bill in a future legislative session. He and his supporters learned nothing new from their recent efforts, thanks in part to his opponents who also offered nothing new.
There is a certain type of gun rights activist that the media gravitate to – the colorful, outrageous Duck Dynasty-type.
These guys ruin any chance for serious discussion when they stride in and out of legislative hearing rooms at the state Capitol with guns strapped on their hips as they did earlier this month (and as they did last year and will likely do next year if they get the chance).
“I’m going out for a smoke. This is driving me crazy,” one gunslinger said on his way out of this month’s hearing.
The testimony that annoyed him was coming from a Lane County man who had inherited 10 guns and favored the proposed gun law. He thought the law would give him immunity from being sued if he accidentally sold one of the guns to “the wrong person.”
That was not a valid reason for supporting the legislation, which actually wouldn’t prevent “the wrong person” from obtaining a gun.
The only point I can see in bringing a gun to a legislative hearing on gun control is that it serves to remind people that a firearm on its own does nothing. It requires human effort or human error to make a gun do something. Aside from that, armed civilians at a legislative hearing are a distraction.
So Prozanski got off easy in his latest gun control efforts. Nobody at the hearing seriously called him out on what he has done – and hopes to do – to help arm the wrong people:
- In the 2013 session he tried to push a version of HB 3194 that would have weakened prison sentences for robbery, assault and sexual abuse. In some cases, felons convicted of these crimes would have done no time. Here he is a year later with his gun bill, which could lead to a prison sentence if a gun seller fails to do a proper background check. Yet he wants to cut sentences for a person who robs, assaults or sexually abuses another.
- In the 2013 session, Prozanski was disappointed that HB 3194 didn’t include expungement – a way for felons to wipe clean their criminal records so they can have an easier time finding housing and employment. He has promised to revisit this issue, and he has other legislative colleagues who are eager to help felons rewrite their criminal histories. What good does it do to demand better background checks, if you’re helping convicted felons whitewash their criminal records?
One of the few speakers at the gun hearing who came close to hitting these issues was Rep. Kim Thatcher (R-Salem) who asked simply, “Since when do criminals get a lobbying group?”
They have a lobbyist in Prozanski, who should not be underestimated in the damage he can do. He trades on the title of his day job – “municipal prosecutor” in Florence, Ore. – but he prosecutes mostly traffic cases. He holds contempt (or is it jealousy?) for prosecutors who try felonies.
One of Prozanski’s accomplishments in the last legislative session was to ruin a program that enabled District Attorneys to collect restitution from people who deliberately write bad checks. Thanks to a law authored by Prozanski, bad check writers are now accorded the same protections as any consumer under the federal Fair Debt Collection Act. District Attorneys who sought restitution from bad check writers are now regarded as no better than bill collectors.
None of this was brought out by the gun advocates who filed into hearing rooms at the state Capitol.
Instead, they were the usual troupe. One of my favorites was a grandfatherly fellow who wore a T-shirt that said on the front: “The American people have no idea how BAD it is going to get.” On the back: “AMERICA IS SINKING.”
This is a popular refrain from certain right-wing groups. Many in the America-Is-Sinking crowd date the country’s descent to the day Barack Obama moved into the White House. Others cite Biblical warnings.
I can see how it might look like America is sinking when the criminal justice system is turned upside down. When felons are offered sympathy and college educations (“It costs more to send a young man to prison than college”), while merely owning a gun arouses suspicion.
No, America is not sinking. America does have a short attention span.
Next year, maybe Prozanski can recycle a different gun law. How about California’s famous “use-a-gun, go-to-jail” law?
Passed in 1979 to much acclaim, it was quickly challenged in court. Then-California Chief Justice Rose Bird eventually ruled it unconstitutional. (Bird, who overturned every single death penalty case that came before her, paid the price when California voters removed her from the bench.)
Let’s see how serious Prozanski really is about controlling criminals who use guns.
– Pamela Fitzsimmons
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