Bill to ban self-defense in your city park dies in Senate
South Dakota Gun Owners Email Alert Network
PO Box 3845 Rapid City, SD 57709
605.415.4299
March 10, 2009
Congratulations! Thanks to strong opposition from gun owners across the state, the anti-gun version of HB 1278 was overwhelmingly defeated yesterday in the Senate.
As many will remember, city officials have been banning guns in South Dakota. Regardless of whether you possess a concealed pistol permit, these bureaucrats and politicians say you cannot carry a handgun to defend yourself on city property.
The City of Sioux Falls has banned the right to carry on all city property. That includes numerous parks, every city transit bus, twelve different Libraries, a 7000 seat Arena, a convention center and many other locations. In Rapid City, bureaucrats are imposing an outright gun ban in the 10,000 seat Civic Center Arena, and more than a dozen other towns may also be moving in this direction.
South Dakota Gun Owners introduced the original, pro-gun form of HB 1278 to end this outrageous denial of your right to self-defense. The House passed the bill, 46 to 20, and soundly defeated efforts to gut it with anti-gun amendments.
But HB 1278 began facing stiff opposition as it moved to the Senate. When it reached the State Affairs committee, notoriously anti-gun Sen. Gene Abdallah and five of the most left-leaning state Senators hi-jacked the bill.
They voted to gut HB 1278 with the very same anti-gun amendment that the House had rejected, changing it from a simple pro-gun bill to one of the most anti-gun bills to hit South Dakota in years. If it had passed, the mutilated HB 1278 would have given cities carte blanche to ban guns on city property.
But thanks to those of you who took action and lit up the Capitol with call and emails, the anti-gun HB 1278 went down 34 to 0. Even the six anti-gunners who gutted HB 1278 were forced to vote against the anti-gun version they had created.
Please feel free to contact these six Senators and respectfully express your displeasure. Their vote to gut the pro-gun HB 1278 was a vote to allow cities like Sioux Falls and Rapid City to go right on banning your right to self-defense.
Here are the six Senators who voted to gut the pro-gun HB 1278
Sen. Gene Abdallah - sen.abdallah@state.sd.us
Sen. Gary Hanson - sen.hanson@state.sd.us
Sen. Nancy Turbak Berry – sen.turbakberry@state.sd.us
Sen. Dave Knudson - sen.knudson@state.sd.us
Sen. Thomas Dempster - senatordempster@sio.midco.net
Sen. Scott Heidepriem - sen.heidepriem@state.sd.us
Click here for more on the city gun ban issue