Time runs out to pass Right to Carry on Campus bill this session --
Bill wins solid gains for gun owners as right-to-carry battle shifts to election cycle
South Dakota Gun Owners Email Alert Network
PO Box 3845 Rapid City, SD 57709
605.221.5766
February 26, 2008
As we reported last Monday, the Right to Carry on Campus bill (HB 1261) came within two votes of passing the Senate on Friday, Feb. 15. It had already passed the House 63 to 3.
This strong showing meant that an attempt to revive the bill in the House was likely. SDGO worked throughout the last week to collect the two Senate votes needed to pass the bill, directing calls and emails to Senators in important swing seats.
But by the end of the week, support back in the House had begun to wane. The Republican leadership in the House had originally supported HB 1261, but was now resisting efforts to revive it. Many of the Representatives who had voted for the bill were opposed to bringing it back.
With this fresh opposition, SDGO has decided to shift this important right-to-carry battle from the legislative session to the election cycle. The fight for HB 1261 has already yielded solid gains for gun owners, and further efforts to pass the bill this year are likely to prove a waste of valuable time and resources.
On the other hand, focusing our resources on holding the politicians accountable at election time has already proven extremely productive.
Notoriously anti-gun Senator Gene Abdallah supported the right to carry on campus this year in four separate votes. That’s right. Gene Abdallah voted PRO-GUN four times in a row. During the last election, SDGO held his feet to the fire and aggressively published his voting record to his constituents. As a result, Sen. Abdallah had to spend 4 times more money to win re-election. It appears that he has decided that the cost of opposing the right to arms is too high.
House Minority Leader Dale Hargens also has a long-standing anti-gun track record and has led his party in multiple anti-gun votes. During the last election, SDGO aggressively published his anti-gun record with thousands of mail pieces. This year, Rep. Hargens not only voted for the Right to Carry on Campus bill, he led nearly every other member of his party to do the same.
Rabidly anti-gun former state Senator JP Duniphan is arguably the best example. She won the dubious distinction of sponsoring or voting for virtually every piece of anti-gun legislation to come up during her tenure in the Legislature. During the last election, SDGO aggressively published her voting record, and Duniphan lost. She wasn’t there this year to vote against the right to carry. Her successful opponent, staunch pro-gun Senator Dennis Schmidt, sponsored the Right to Carry on Campus bill.
The fight for HB 1261 has demonstrated that these lessons are not lost on the rest of the Legislators. This is one of the primary reasons that HB 1261 received such strong support.
Thanks to the hard work of gun owners like you who made calls, sent emails, signed petitions and mailed postcards, we demonstrated that the right to bear arms in self-defense has strong support. We also got a recorded vote in both houses of the state Legislature, forcing nearly every state-level politician to go on record.
But now we have our work cut out for us. There was very strong opposition to the right to carry, especially among the Senate leadership of both parties. We have just three months to raise the funds and publish the voting records of the politicians who lead the charge against HB 1261.
SDGO plans to re-introduce similar right-to-carry legislation next year. Between now and then, we must demonstrate that voting against gun owners has a high political price tag.
Thanks again for you hard work. We look forward to working with each one of you as the 2008 election cycle begins.
You can read a synopsis of all the action and votes on HB 1261 here.