Don’t let the ‘perfect’ be the enemy of the good. The gun grabbers got us where we are today by winning step by step, and we’re winning by using the same process, because it does work.
SECOND AMENDMENT PROTECTION ACT
Bill passes House, but not all gun rights supporters approve
CHEYENNE — A bill reinforcing individuals’ Second Amendment rights passed on a 43-15 vote in third reading in the Wyoming House Wednesday.
Despite gaining approval of the majority of the House, the bill divided gun-rights-supporting representatives, with several saying it did not go far enough to protect individuals’ rights.
Senate File 102, or the Second Amendment Protection Act, prohibits the enforcement of federal regulations of firearms by local law enforcement. The bill says if the federal government ever restricts firearms, law enforcement would be violating state law if they confiscated weapons from local gun owners.
Those who violate this section would face a harsh penalty. Any officer guilty of the misdemeanor will face imprisonment for up to one year, a fine of $2,000 or both.
Several legislators expressed concerns the bill “didn’t have teeth” and argued law enforcement couldn’t be trusted to protect citizens’ second amendment rights.
“What it doesn’t do is prove a mechanism for citizens…to be protected against abuses of power,” Rep. Robert Wharff, R-Evanston, said. “…Senate File 102 basically says one branch of government is going to hold the other branch accountable, and I’ll tell you that fails every time…It does not protect people should law enforcement choose to impose an executive order that comes down from on high.”
Rep. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, said he felt local law enforcement wouldn’t face the penalties outlined in the bill, even if they should. Laursen and other critics of the legislation are unhappy it would be up to local prosecuting attorneys to enforce the bill in court, saying they have little confidence in one governmental office holding another governmental office accountable, especially at the local level where the two agencies often have an ongoing working relationship.
“In this bill, your local attorney is the only one who can press charges against the law enforcement, and they are not going to press charges or bring a suit against the people they work with every day,” Laursen said.
Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, argued this was a mischaracterization and wondered why county attorneys and sheriffs were elected by the citizenry if they couldn’t be trusted to uphold the law.
“I really do believe our law enforcement leaders who we elect have to be people we trust,” Bear said. “If we can’t trust them, we need to do something about that in the polls. To say they will never defend the public, why do we even have them if they’re not going to defend us?”
Rep. Mark Jennings, R-Sheridan, agreed.
“Those people that put their lives on the line to protect us raised their arms to the same Constitution you did,” Jennings said. “And I don’t take that lightly. Are there bad apples out there? Probably….But really what they (opponents of the bill) are saying is the constituency has elected 23 bad sheriffs…Surely the citizens of Wyoming have not elected an entire group of people to be bad apples. If they have…we are in very very serious trouble. I, for one, can’t go down the road that far.”
With approval from both the House and Senate, the bill now goes to the desk of Gov. Mark Gordon, who has up to three days to consider the bill. If the bill is not signed by him and not returned to the Legislature within three days, it will become law automatically.