No Looking Backwards: HB1354 Update

POST UPDATED 2/5/08: SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE

Room change for HB1354 hearing Tuesday, February 5

The House Legislative Administration Committee changed the hearing location for HB1354 from State House room 100 to LOB (Legislative Office Building) room 104. The change was posted on the docket, but not on the "Quick Bill Search" summary. The date and time remain the same: 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, February 5, 2008.

Previous post here. Hope to see you there!

UPDATE 2/5/08: I'm an idiot. I left the battery for my camera in the charger when I left the house this morning. It is with great sadness that I must inform you I'm unable to post a video of Representative Kjellman's testimony in favor of HB1354.

It was textbook PSH from the latest edition of Gun Ignorance for Dummies.

Of course, she made sure to reference the Virginia Tech shootings - without realizing that her bill would do nothing but replicate the setting in which those killings occurred.

When asked by State Representative Karen Hutchinson how many attacks there had been inside the State House committed by individuals licensed to carry handguns (hint: the answer starts with "z" and rhymes with "zero"), she replied, "I don't have that data."

When asked how this bill would be enforced and funded, she punted once again, saying that it wasn't her responsibility to address those issues. That was some other legislative body's problem.

After all, it's not "her" money, right?

And, what anti-gun rights endeavor such as hers would be complete without conjuring up images of the Wild West and shootouts at the O.K. Corral? Yes, she went there too.

The hearing began in a meeting room in the Legislative Office Building that was far too small to accommodate all those who showed up. An all too familiar scenario to anyone who attended the SB44 hearing in March of last year. There were all of nine chairs available for members of the public. Not long after the hearing began, however, it was adjourned for 20 minutes so that it could be relocated to Representative's Hall in the State House.

Much better.

The testimony offered by various state legislators, gun rights advocates, and concerned citizens ran overwhelmingly in favor of killing the bill. In fact, Rep. Kjellman was the sole speaker in its defense.

Before the meeting began, Rep. Kjellman notified the committee members that there was an amendment to the bill which she also wanted to submit for inclusion in this hearing, and an unofficial copy was made available to the Committee.

At first, I thought she had somewhat come to her senses, and had tried to "water it down" some, given how much opposition e-mail she must have received concerning this bill, but those thoughts were short-lived.

Her amendment dealt with the penalty for violating her "gun-free zone" statute, and called for violators to be charged with a Class B Felony for knowingly carrying a concealed firearm or deadly weapon past the signs designating where the "gun-free zones" began.

Because, as you're all aware, an individual whose ready to commit capital murder will be dissuaded from doing so from the threat of such a lesser charge being tacked on his or her rap sheet.

Anyway, I'll post an update as soon as I learn of this bill's fate. I'm fully expecting it to be voted "Inexpedient to Legislate".

Stay tuned.

Here are the pictures I did take with my cell phone camera. Click images to biggify.