Anti-gun bill to ban self-defense on college campuses bogs down –
Your grassroots action is working!
South Dakota Gun Owners Email Alert Network
PO Box 3845 Rapid City, SD 57709
605.221.5766
January 14, 2008
You have done an outstanding job over the last week. Thanks to your calls and emails, the campus gun ban bill (HB 1086) has stalled in its first committee.
(As you may remember, HB 1086 would turn every college campus in South Dakota into a so-called “gun free” zone, where the law-abiding can’t defend themselves from armed criminals. See below for more background).
Some of the more anti-gun committee members have been complaining about the flood of constituent pressure they received against the bill. Many are trying to get the bill re-assigned to another committee.
This means that your grassroots action is working. Moving an unpopular bill to another committee is often used to side-step constituent pressure. Now is the time to double down and defeat this deadly “gun free” zones bill.
Action:
HB 1086 will go to the House State Affairs committee if the efforts to re-assign are successful. Please contact the members of the State Affairs committee listed below. You can also contact the members of the Education committee below, if you haven’t already done so.
As mention before, it’s OK if these Representatives are not from your district. As a committee, they represent the entire state. Also as before mentioned, courtesy is the best tactic.
Representatives Tom Brunner and Mike Buckingham have been working to kill HB 1086. If you contact them, please thank them for supporting gun rights and encourage them to continue.
Email: You can simply copy and paste the sample message below or feel free to compose your own message. Please email each legislator separately. You can send the same message to each one.
Phone: Call the House Lobby at (605) 773-3851 and leave a message. A legislative page will be there between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. to take your call. Your message need be no more than “Please ask Representatives (insert their last names) to vote NO on HB 1086.” You can leave messages for any two legislators at a time.
House State Affairs Committee
Rep. Joni Cutler - rep.cutler@state.sd.us
Rep. Thomas Deadrick - rep.deadrick@state.sd.us
Rep. Joel Dykstra - j.dykstra@mac.com
Rep. Bob Faehn - rep.faehn@state.sd.us
Rep. Margaret Gillespie - rep.gillespie@state.sd.us
Rep. Dale Hargens - dehargens@hur.midco.net
Rep. Shantel Krebs - info@theredshoe.com
Rep. Kathy Miles - kmiles610@yahoo.com
Rep. Garry Moore - sen.moore@state.sd.us
Rep. Tim Rave - trave@alliancecom.net
Rep. Larry Rhoden - lrhoden@gwtc.net
Rep. Charles Turbiville - chuck@deadwood.org
Rep. Thomas Brunner - tqbrun@sdplains.com
(Please feel free to contact the following committee members if you have not already done so.)
House Education Committee
Rep. Al Novstrup - alandkathy@thunderroad.info
Rep. Ryan Olson - ole@sbtc.net
Rep. Bill Thompson - rep.thompson@state.sd.us
Rep. Thomas Van Norman - rep.vannorman@state.sd.us
Rep. Thomas Hills - thills@spe.midco.net
Rep. Ed McLaughlin - rep.mclaughlin@state.sd.us
Rep. Keri Weems - kweems@sio.midco.net
Rep. Hal Wick - rep.wick@state.sd.us
Rep. Jim Bradford - rep.bradford@state.sd.us
Rep. Mark DeVries - rep.devries@state.sd.us
Rep. Burt Elliott - rep.elliott@state.sd.us
Rep. Charlotte Gilson - cgremax@iw.net
Rep. Tom Hackl - rep.hackl@state.sd.us
Rep. Mike Buckingham - rep.buckingham@state.sd.us
Rep. Phyllis Heineman - rep.heineman@state.sd.us
---Sample message---
Dear Representative,
I strongly oppose HB 1086, which would outlaw bearing arms in self-defense on college campuses. By turning every campus in the state into a so-called “gun free” zone, this bill endangers the lives of thousands of students and faculty.
“Gun free” zones are hardly free from weapons. Shootings such as the Virginia Tech Massacre (where a “gun free” zone policy was already in place) prove that banning guns only puts innocent people at risk. In fact, virtually every multiple victim shooting of any significant size in the United States has been committed in a “gun free” zone.
HB 1086 will only keep the law-abiding from defending themselves while giving armed criminals a monopoly on force. Banning guns on college campuses is a surefire way to invite a tragedy like the Virginia Tech Massacre to South Dakota. It sends a clear message to those bent on mass carnage: “Here is a place where you can commit your atrocity unopposed!”
Please vote NO on HB 1086.
Respectfully,
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Background on so-called “gun free” zones:
“Gun free” zones help cause mass shootings. In fact, virtually every multiple victim shooting of any significant size in the United States has been committed in a “gun free” zone.
You’d think that “gun free” zone proponents would have learned their lesson after last year’s Virginia Tech Massacre. The entire campus is supposed to be a “gun free” zone, but that didn’t stop an armed killer from shooting 49 people there on April 16th, 2007.
Police arrived just 8 minutes after the shooting started. But thanks to the university gun ban that kept the victims from defending themselves, the police could do little more than carry out the dead and wounded. HB 1086 endangers the lives of students, faculty and other law-abiding citizens in every corner of the state.
A brief review of the tragic mass shootings committed in the last year clearly demonstrates the danger of so-called “gun free” zones.
In February of 2007 an armed killer walked past “gun free” zone signs on the door of the Trolley Square Mall in Utah and shot 9 innocent people.
In April, a student at Virginia Tech named Seung-Hui Cho shot 49 people in two separate incidents. Thanks to the university’s “gun free” policy, the Virginia Tech Massacre became the deadliest shooting in American history.
In December, yet another armed killer walked into the “gun free” Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska and shot 13 people. One witness says he would have been carrying a handgun that day if it had been legal, and could have ended the shooting after the first shot.
Just four days later, another heavily armed killer attacked the New Life Church in Colorado, intent on killing as many people as possible. But he picked the wrong place.
Because New Life Church is not a “gun free” zone, armed citizen Jeanne Assam was able to use her own handgun to stop the shooting. Authorities state that it could have been far worse than Virginia Tech if Assam had not been armed.
This is not the first time an armed citizen has stopped a mass shooting. In 2002, several students at the Appalachian School of Law in Virginia used their own handguns to subdue an armed killer as he shot faculty and students. In 1997, Joel Myrick used his handgun to stop a school shooting in Pearl, Mississippi, saving the lives of perhaps dozens of children.
In contrast, every mass shooting of any significant size in recent history has been committed in a “gun free” zone, where the law-abiding citizens were disarmed. In every case, the killer was the only one with a gun, and he had ample time to commit his atrocity before the police could arrive.
“Gun free” zones are just plain dangerous. Statistically, they actually contribute to the terrible mass shooting phenomenon. (For more information, click here.)
Passing a bill to ban guns on college campuses is a surefire way to invite a tragedy like the Virginia Tech Massacre to South Dakota. It sends a clear message to those bent on mass carnage: “Here is a place where you can commit your atrocity unopposed!”