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legislature in session

hrdware

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
Messages
740
Location
Moore, OK
Senate Public Safety Committee meets every Thursday at 9:30 in room 419 A & B.

Unless the Public Safety Chair has changed his mind from last year, the bill will never be brought up in committee.
 

hrdware

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
Messages
740
Location
Moore, OK
That's what happened after it got to the house...and it wasn't specifically Tibbs, but she didn't help it at all.

The bill started in the Senate last year and was referred to the Senate Public Safety Committee (PSC). After it was in the PSC, it came out that the chair was not going to allow any open carry legislation to be heard. Now apparently Senator Russell has been around the block in these matters before. Senator Russell also had a bill that was sent to another committee (Rules, Fish and Wildlife...wherever it went). This other bill was heard and passed out of committee and back the the floor of the Senate. Before the bill came up for vote, Senator Russell added some amendments to the bill:

Amendment 1 - Strike the title. You can't vote on a bill that doesn't have a title and you can't modify a bill with a title.
Amendment 2 - Replace the entire text of the bill with text that was identical to the text of his Open Carry Bill that was killed in the PSC
Amendment 3 - Add a title to the bill

So in doing this he circumvented the anti PSC chair.

Now the entire Senate voted on the bill and it passed and went to the house.

Rep Tibbs held the bill until 2 weeks before deadline. There was discussion on the bill and it was tabled for more fact finding before the last House PSC meeting. At the last House PSC meeting, the committee was 1 vote shy of passing the bill. They decided that instead of trying to fix the bill in the remaining 3 days they had, they would do nothing to it and have an interim study of the summer so they could get more information to make a better decision this year.

Most of the people who were part of the interim study favored fixing the CC laws we have here instead of allowing OC. I think that is why we don't have a house OC bill at all, but a bunch of House CC bills this session.
 

JamesC

New member
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
7
Location
Cold Springs, Oklahoma
So, its basically due to the House and the PSC that it wasnt passed last year not just Tibbs? is there any chance that we will see a different result this year due to maybe finding out more facts in support of OC, and how soon would we (the general public) know anything? I support CC but at the same time I believe that if a person wants to OC than thanks to the U.S. Constitution, we should be able to, however, i digress, what are your thoughts on this years legislation regarding open carry

thanks for all the info btw.
 

hrdware

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
Messages
740
Location
Moore, OK
IMO there are only 3 bills that deal with open carry this session.

SB1092 - I think this is the best open carry bill we have this session. It would allow Open Carry after you get a safety card from an NRA instructor or a CWL instructor. The card states that you know how to safely handle a firearm and understand the OK laws. No class requirement or anything, just obtain a safety card.

HB2522 - this is the second choice on the list. It turns the CWL into a firearm license and would allow open or concealed carry. Still have to go through the class and everything.

HB2332 - The most useless thing around if you live in an urban area. This would allow you to open carry anywhere on your own private property. If this passes I can feel safe mowing my lawn as long as I don't step into the street while turning around.

I think Senator Russell will have to jump through some hoops again this year to get SB1092 out of the senate, but if he can get it to the floor, it should pass. If this makes it to the House, I think it will die in the House PSC. The House PSC seems determined it should be linked to the CWL. Last year they wanted officers to be able to stop you and check your permit without RAS of a crime.

HB2522 will probably pass the House PSC, but it will be up to house leadership if they want to bring it up this year. I think they caught a bunch of crap about not letting it on the floor last session. From what I recall, the speaker of the house (Kris Steele) was putting a lot of pressure on other house members to not sign the discharge petition to get it to the floor. Once it gets to the Senate, it would have to come out of the Senate PSC to get a vote and unless the Senate PSC chair has changed his mind, it will probably die. If it makes it to the floor, I think it will pass.

If HB2332 passes, there will still be to much confusion in the law for me to feel comfortable open carrying. This bill adds an item under the When you can carry section of the law that says, For any legitimate purpose on the private property of the person. This language doesn't differ to much from the next item that reads, For any other legitimate purpose not in violation of the Firearms Act of 1971. The problem is legitimate is not defined. If Self-Defense is legitimate on my private property, why would it not be legitimate under the Firearms Act of 1971, and if that's the case, it would already be legal, but we know it isn't due to (bad) case law.

The house did it's interim study over the summer and of the 4 speakers, 2 were concerned about fixing the CC laws, 1 was in favor of OC, and the last, and one that took up the most time, talked about both but personally was more in favor of fixing CC laws so spent more time talking about that.

Rep Tibbs is term limited in the house after this session so if nothing happens this session, hopefully she will be replaced by someone who is friendlier to the 2A than she is. She really got irritated last year when someone accused her of being an anti.
 
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