You can leave keys in the snow machine. You can leave your keys in the truck. But with a proposed bill by two Fairbanks lawmakers, it would be a crime to leave a gun unlocked in your home if something terrible happened with that gun. House Bill 203 has been offered by Rep. Adam Wool and Rep. Steve Thompson, and once again, puts the personal safety of Alaskans in the crosshairs.
HB 203 is intended to prevent firearm accidents. Law enforcement officials would be able to issue a citation of up to $1,000 if there’s a death or even an injury with a firearm, if police can determine a firearm that was unlocked.
Many women, but also men who keep guns in their homes might be ill-served by government telling them they must keep those firearm in a locked case.
Referred to House State Affairs and Judiciary committee, the bill is sure to be controversial. It’s likely that the NRA will oppose the legislation, as it has done in other states. It would be surprising to see the legislation pass in Alaska, and even more surprising to see this governor sign it.
“This bill has bipartisan support as it should since all are affected when a child dies or is injured by an unsecured firearm,” said Wool, a Democrat from Massachusetts who represents Fairbanks. “If this bill prevents one accident or suicide then we’ve accomplished a great thing.”
“Representative Wool and I are both parents of young children, and we care deeply about their safety. House Bill 203 is all about promoting safety,” said Rep. Steve Thompson, the Republican co-sponsor of the bill. “This bill is not an infringement of Second Amendment rights, and it’s not about taking guns away from anyone. It’s about preventing tragic accidents and only gets acted upon if such a tragedy occurs.”
Since 2019, the Seattle has a “Responsible Storage ” that requires gun owners to keep their guns in a locked container when not being carried by them or under their control, and imposes fines for crimes committed with an unlocked stored gun.
HB 203 will be heard by the State Affairs Committee and Judiciary Committee. Rep. Andy Josephson of Anchorage has signed on as a cosponsor.
Sometimes good intentions end in dire consequences. This is a good example of that, we don’t need anymore government involvement in our lives. This is not Massachusetts, that maybe fine for liberal Fairbanks.
Which part of “Keep and bear” or “shall not be infringed” don’t these commie cretins comprehend?
a democrat from taxachusetts, how do these people get elected
. “If this bill prevents one accident or suicide then we’ve accomplished a great thing.” What about if this bill causes the death of someone at the hands of an armed intruder who knows we can’t get to our guns. Will it have been worth it then?
Who in his right mind would not keep his firearm secured? There’s a reason they are called lethal weapons.
Seems like responsible parenting would solve the issue. Don’t teach your kids to play with guns, and to treat every gun as loaded.
Too bad he has not immagined what it would be like trying to get to your gun during a home invasion. Think Collete . If violent criminals continue to be released & invaders continue to be allowed to cross our borders there is a lot more to worry about than an unsupervised child getting access to a gun. A responsible gun owner will know what is best in his home. We have enough laws already to deal with the scenario he imagines. As for the fact that any person assumes they can tell me what to do in my own home, well that can be remedied at the next ELECTION and I for one will not forget these names when the time comes to give them the BOOT before they try to put a boot on MY RIGHTS.
Andrew P. WOOL may be liberal , but Fairbanks is NOT. According to the voters map in the last election it was the BIG BLUE BLOB of Anchorage that came close to turning our state into the sh*t hole that city has become.
There will always be stupid people. You can’t legislate your way around them no matter how many laws you put on the books.
So… God forbid… a kid or someone mishandles a firearm, gets hurt or dies. That tragedy isn’t enough, the state is then going to step in and add to the disaster and say, you know what? In addition to the guilt and misery you’re experiencing, we’re going to fine you $1,000 and if you can’t pay, what with the hospital and or funeral bills, we’ll throw you in jail.
What a great idea.
Come and take it, Wool. After you sober up that is.
No and hell no! This is Alaska, not Seattle North.
What ever happened to guns and hunting Fairbanks? Why do they elect these losers?
I will not put myself and my family in jeopardy to make these lefties feel virtuous, and I hope sanity will prevail. Write your congressmen.
And you Fairbanksans… get your butts off your couches and vote these idiots out of office for good.
Stay out of the Gun Safe in my house, I don’t need the state to tell me how to protect my family. Screw these lawmakers.
“House Bill 203 is all about promoting safety,” said Rep. Steve Thompson, the Republican co-sponsor of the bill.”
LIAR.
“This bill is not an infringement of Second Amendment rights, …”
LIAR.
This bill, and it’s designers and supporters need to be voted out, and if possible, get them out via recall and a special election. The less time they’re in office, the better.
This is just another attempt to infringe on your 2nd Amendment rights. This would be called a trial run to see if they can crack open the door to more egregious violations of your 2ndA right. If a criminal comes into your home, he would just love you to have your guns all locked away so he has the upper hand. The is Big Government trying to tell you what you can and can’t do. Gun owners are not stupid and are responsible enough not to leave loaded weapons lying around for a child to pick up. We need no more gun laws period! What we need is politicians that actually represent the people and protect their rights under the Constitution.
Sounds great! I think that it should be expended: $1,000 fine for an unsecured prescription bottle; $10,000 fine for lack of anti slip tape in the tub; $100,000 for leaving the stove unattended; how about a million dollar fine if you let your steps get icy; maybe a billion dollars if your car is involved in an at fault accident; or a trillion dollars if a bike EVER lacks training wheels and a roll cage? Where do these morons come from and WHY do we tolerate them? The budget is upside down, we have many real crises in the state and Taxachusetts progressives show up and weasel into government to deprive us of further liberty. I propose a line in the budget for a one way ticket east for them.
Sounds kinda racist to me, considering how it will disproportionately and negatively effect all the Alaska Native folks in rural Alaska living a subsistence lifestyle.
Let me guess, they’re both from the University District?
Do we need these ‘officials’ legislating how adults behave with their automobiles, turkey knives, Christmas lites as well?
What’s with all this drama?
Greg R, clutching his pearls and having the vapors. Haha Where DO you live boy?
Wools wife is a big gun grabber. Writes in newsminer twice a year.
Can’t believe Thompson. Total 180 from him. What a liar! He’s a Dem, full fledged!
He needs to go.
The question of “what gun is best?” is moot when it is locked in a safe when “they” kick in your door.
Home invasions don’t pause while you find the keys to the gun safe.
I hope Fairbanks votes these two out. No one plans for a robbery. Neighbors aren’t supposed to be entering your home. This oversteps the boundry of government and personal space. What’s next oneday-we not allowed to have bibles in the home?
These two are punishing and shaming the victim for someone else bad choice to break into the victim’s home.
Yeah, I’m sure the bears and of course the criminals will be happy to wait while you unlock and load your firearm. This is where advocates against firearms fail to realize that guns are not just for hunting and recreation at the range. If one chooses to lock up their firearms to prevent accidents and suicides, they are certainly free to do so. VOTE NAY ON HB203.
I believe that local Anchorage law finds the owner of a vehicle left running in the home owner’s driveway legally liable if that vehicle is stolen and involved in an injury accident or, used in the commission of a crime. Who hasn’t started their vehicle on a cold winter morning before going to work? I really feel that some politicians must sit around conjuring up ways to tax and/or fine the people that they represent. Well, as long as they’re not playing beer pong or leg wrestling.
“………..Law enforcement officials would be able to issue a citation of up to $1,000 if there’s a death or even an injury with a firearm, if police can determine a firearm that was unlocked………..”
Are law enforcement officials cited if a criminal takes their holstered weapon and hurts somebody with it?
Tell these two morons if they are so afraid for their children they should lock up THEIR guns and leave the rest of us to properly teach our children. What an idiotic supposition that people that have guns for personal protection are going to lock them away, making them useless when you need them the most.
No.
These tyran …err … “representatives” no doubt voted to place significant weapons in the hands of Alaskan CPA’s to use against their own constituents should the need arise … err … I mean the public servants in the department of revenue. How droll and endearing. I wonder about their storage, because you all know that. You needn’t learn one thing from an old brown woman if it bothers you too much.
It’s a given that no one wants to see anyone die needlessly or tragically. But life does happen and death happens as part of every day living. There is no risk free living. To use the statement “If this bill prevents one accident or suicide then we’ve accomplished a great thing.” to put more rules and regulations on everyone in their home is ridiculous. That statement could literally be used for just about any action as many actions that people do or involve themselves in can and do cause accidentally deaths. Walking with a knife in your hand, walking with scissors in your hand, climbing a ladder, working on your roof, etc. etc., and the one that causes the most accidental deaths (more than 38,000), but one that we have accepted in our daily lives with some restrictions, driving a car. I agree with Rhonda “A responsible gun owner will know what is best in his home.” and “We have enough laws already to deal with the scenario he imagines.”
We taught our preschool girls how to shoot every gun in the house … from the hip for the one’s they couldn’t shoulder. They could chase tin cans at the gravel pit, just as good as anyone else. Only limit was magnum shells.
They learned enough about guns to not even want to “play” with them. Their view of guns was “Too noisy, too dangerous.” They knew “high-port”, and not to swing the barrel around.
You’re “horrified”? Ask me if I care! They could pick up a 12 gauge and drop a bear, or a house-breaker, if their mother or I were too injured.
By my fifth birthday, I knew how to shoot every gun in our house. I was hunting for deer by my sixth birthday. I hunted alone by my eighth birthday.
That America is gone forever. Biden even saying that those two guys who stopped a mass shooting in their church shouldn’t have had guns in their church.
Biden is a coward, saying cowardly things, wanting to make cowardly laws, supported by cowardly voters. A pack of cowards.
Cowards can save your selves some time and not respond to this … as I will ignore your cowardly comments in reply. I just don’t care what any coward thinks about anything.
“None fearful (no cowards) will enter the kingdom of heaven.”
That is 38,000 accidental car deaths a year.
Tell your kids and criminals to stay out of my home then. My guns are locked up, behind my locked doors of my home. Think of it as one big log safe. If they’ll break into the log safe, they’ll more than likely break into the smaller safe.
Greg R, remember that comment when the bad guys are inside your home.
Craig Campbell, a Republican from Massachusetts, adamantly opposes this government intrusion into our right to bear arms. I am very disappointed that my friend Steve Thompson, a Republican from Fairbanks, would co-sponsor such as ill-advised attack on law abiding citizens right to easy access to a firearm when needed for self-protection. Maybe the sponsors could share with us a comparison of the number of people killed in Alaska by accidental shooting’s from guns that were not locked up, as compared other accidental causes of deaths to Alaskans. I would like to know because I would expect they will eventually also introduce legislation to protect us from these other accidental causes of death. After all, isn’t that what the nanny state government is suppose to do to protect us from ourselves?.
How do you think they could enforce this idiotic bill? Are they going to go around door to door communist style and break in to check for compliance? Give me a break. It just goes to show the CCP mentality is rearing it’s ugly head everywhere we turn. There is a reason why we have the right to carry firearms on our person, yes AT HOME too, It is to protect ourselves from those idiots that think they can control everything you do. How many people will be waiting for these people to come to their doors?
Another law to put government in your castle. In your house is your domain away from big brother.
Pretty soon these liberals will try and dictate the color of paint I paint my bathroom with.
“Representative Wool and I are both parents of young children, and we care deeply about their safety”.
So limit the bill to just you two. Unless you are making an assumption (and signaling) that you care about your children’s safety more than most gun owners.
We need to pass a law that requires Adam Wool to keep his weed locked up. Permanently.
Follow the money………….. Traitors!! Unelection time.
““This bill has bipartisan support as it should since all are affected when a child dies or is injured by an unsecured firearm,” said Wool, a Democrat from Massachusetts who represents Fairbanks. “If this bill prevents one accident or suicide then we’ve accomplished a great thing.””
My neighbors were attacked by 3 guys who knocked on their door and started beating them when they answered it. They were using a baseball bat. They didn’t have their gun locked, but they couldn’t get to it. Luckily, we heard the commotion and didn’t have to waste time fumbling with unlocking anything before we were running next door to their rescue. Luckily, the lady hadn’t yet been choked to death and the guy hadn’t yet sustained a fatal injury from being beaten in the head. That incident taught me to have my gun within easy reach.
My parents taught all of us kids that guns were lethal and they showed us where theirs was kept in case the worst-case scenario ever occurred and we needed to use it.
Perhaps these legislators should find a more reasonable solution for saving lives, like my family has.
Two idiots from the river city. Thompson and Wool are worried about their young kids getting into their guns? Then THEY can lock-up their own guns. Thompson and Wool should be more concerned about their kids being subjected to the alcohol they drink and the marijuana they smoke. Thompson brings his young child into the Elks Club. And Wool used to send people out onto the Parks Highway after a night of drinking and smoking at Wool’s bar. What a couple of hypocrats. Are there any smart people in Fairbanks?
Second amendment violators. The second amendment is not just about the right to possess firearms, it’s about the right to have those firearms for defense of your life. The constitutional and human right of defending life. Often missed in the understanding of the second.
If Thompson and Wool are so concerned with the lives and futures of their children, they should teach their children well. Don’t tell others what to do.
Regarding the future of their children, they should focus on the state insisting on certain educational benchmarks being met prior to doling out a nickle for our failed schools.
The legislators need to read Justice Scalia’s majority opinion in Heller v DC.
The court specifically found that a gun that is disabled or unavailable, due to being locked up………prevents the citizen from exercising his Constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and is thus a violation of the second amendment.
That we should even be discussing this illustrates how dire it is that we clean house in the next election……………if we are able to, considering proposition 2
Two employees need to be deported from the state. If they want california laws, they can move to california. While you’re at it, take berky and his teflon coated wife with them.
Censored907, in their utopia it will be gray. And every other aspect of your life will be controlled as well, from the gruel you are allowed to eat to the afternoon that you are allowed to leave your tiny residence to stand in line for the life essentials you need.
Joel Adams, if they truly cared for their children they would not have them enrolled in indoctrination centers at all. All they care about is their progressive fanaticism.
The Alaska House of Representatives is dysfunctional so what do they do? They look for more areas to intrude in our personal lives. The House Majority has women leg wrestling and drinking alcohol on state property – with lobbyists – and now they tell us they want to look around inside our houses, our personal residences. I am ashamed of these people. I hope this Wool/Thompson effort doesn’t make the national news. By the way, that anti-gun effort, funded by Bloomberg, that originated with that Connecticut school shooting has a lobbyist in Juneau to the tune of $30,000 a year.
They’ll be coming for you pocket knives next; “Ban Knives Save Lives” yep, that’s a thing in the UK. A Leatherman, on your belt, is now illegal in the UK. #firsttheycameforthegunsandwesaidnothing #beentheredonethat #sameoldsameold
I swore an Oath to defend the Constitution from All enemies. Both foriegn AND domestic. You two have now become my enemy. Congrats.
“Held:
“3) …the requirement that any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock makes it impossible for citizens to use arms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and is hence unconstitutional.” – D.C. v. Heller (2008)
Dicta:
“[A] statute which, under the pretense of regulating, amounts to a destruction of the right, or which requires arms to be so borne as to render them wholly useless for the purpose of defense [is] clearly unconstitutional.”
Seattle’s responsible storage law is getting repealed. The same law on the east side of the state has already been repealed because it overstepped existing state law. One would think that legislators would have researched that.
Those who give up liberty for safety, find they soon have neither!
Adam Wool and Steve Thompson, you no longer represent the good people of our state. You do not get to control(and this is what this bill is all about) my life! You are supposed to make life better not harder for the citizens of Alaska. When it is time for re-election, you are gone.
New England with Massachusetts in particular is a totally other culture than Alaska – or just about anywhere else in the free world. If they want to come here to live we can’t stop them but why are we actually putting them in positions where they can destroy our culture and make it like the one they left! Fifty years ago my wife and I knew something was messed up about New England and left for Montana. Then Montana started going the way of New England and California so we came to Alaska. If these liberals succeed in turning Alaska into the likeness of CA, WA, MA etc – well, there’s no place left for freedom loving people to escape to!!!
It’s a thousand bucks people. This is a tax that applies to poor people; nothing more. If some little kid just got blasted in your house you have much more to concern yourself w/ than the grand these muddy thinkers intend to penalize you. The oddest thing about it? This doesn’t help anyone.
.
Laws are intended to benefit the populace and in this case it doesn’t do anything but create a bigger bother in a context wherein we already have plenty of laws to be sorted through. I have no idea who these two goofs are but if this is the quality of their work they too need to be replaced.
An old friend of mine used to leave a copy of the phone book in the outhouse. This bill would’ve had a place right beside it.
Remember please knock first.
So the bullets don’t go off, accidentally.
No warning shots or rubber bullets, just lethal shells
It’s My Home it’s my rules, Not the government.
The day that I allow government to tell me how I handle my own property inside my own home has not arrived and never will arrive.
Judging from the numerous, overwrought comments here, there are a lot of people running round with hair triggers.
I’m wondering if operator error could be the real problem.
Greg R. “if you find mush, you push. If you find steel, you withdraw”
― Vladimir Ilich Lenin
We are tired of being mush.
Uh, operator error because someone comes into your house with the thought of killing you, your family? Operator error? Bohunk! You are living in a fairytale world.
Wool, Thompson need to mind their own damn business.
Greg R is afraid of guns.
One amendment might make this prime piece of madness acceptable:
In any instance where a person was raped or injured while trying to unlock a firearm for self defense these two clowns would automatically become co-conspirators to the crime whether or not the actual perp were apprehended.
Greg R, as usual you miss the point entirely. I’ts none of the state’s business how you store firearms or anything else on your property.
Someone said Representative Wool perhaps should keep his weed locked up too. One problem is that a “weed” user is a federal prohibited person who may not posses a firearm. That pesky question on the ATF’s 4473 makes NO exception for our state laws. If that’s the case he is a criminal and should not be in the legislature.
Representatives are not kings. They are our servants. They do not get to dictate to the people Their only purpose of government is to secure our fundamental rights and prepare a budget. How are they doing.
Rep. “Andy Josephson of Anchorage has signed on as a cosponsor” of HB 203, surprise, surprise. This vile piece of legislation would cost far more lives than it would save. Say, are these three “gentlemen” big proponents of reducing the population through government regulations?!
What I see here is republicans being idiots again. in the Rasmussen and Merrick party, they were in trouble with the base and the Democrat got away scot free. In this case, the Democrat will be praised by his base and the Republican will be hated his base. The dems are much more clever than the Republicans.
“A Democrap from Assachussetts”
I thought there was something wrong with him.
Wool can go back to Assachussetts.
Re:” …afraid of guns.” You damn betcha. They are lethal weapons. What part of lethal should you feel warm and runny about?
“We’re tired of being mush.” Try steeling your brain.
“…as usual, you miss the point entirely.” If it’s none of the states business about how you store firearms, who is the gatekeeper? Anybody who wants to play with lethal weapons?
As usual, the point is missed here. The idea is not to restrict all firearms possession, it is to restrict firearms possession by those who are a danger to themselves and everyone around them. As Justice Robert H. Jackson said, “The Constitution is not a suicide pact.” You still can’t yell fire in a theater or go out and pop off any where and at anyone you want. With great power comes great responsibility.
Let’s hear it from you “personal responsibility” people. You can have it your way or the other way, but you can’t have it both ways.
Thompson with his alcohol and Wool with his pot. Would either fellow have let Byron Mallott near their daughters? Rather than lock-up the honest citizen’s guns, how about we lock Thompson and Wool out of the Capitol Building? I trust neither one of those two imbeciles.
Get a life Greg.
The Second Amendment says shall not be infringed, you drooling communist.
Anyone up here with a functioning brain that would want to emulate an idiotocrasy like Seattle and their woke agenda needs to be assigned a guardian ad litem. The second amendment means what it says, we don’t need permission. Wool and Thompson clearly don’t understand the 2nd amendment, nor do they have the brains to understand why they are wrong. They should both move back to Seattle or where ever they came from they aren’t welcome here.
Forcing American citizens to lock up their guns at home is de facto disarmament. Don’t stand for these Marxists pulling their garbage. Fight back!
Wool is the second dumbest person in the legislature. The dumbest? We all know who that is!
This best die in the Senate. Locking up firearms at home is a choice, not a mandate. If one has to go to the firearm in the event of a home invasion, one has just lost that war.
Presently, there are no such laws. So, where are the deaths that would justify this?
Sorry, but education about firearms are up to mommy and daddy, not the state, and how I keep my firearms is my business, not the state’s.
Steve Thompson just showed his true colors.
Next election, he should be replaced.
Wool is just a MA Marxist who is going to bring socialism to Alaska.
I always get a kick out of a Dem telling us that a bill is for the safety of the children when they support the slaughter of the unborn through BIRTH!
Greg r, it’s very difficult to follow along with your dialogue. Here’s the thing in a nutshell, do whatever you are comfortable with in your own home. If that means dig a hole in your basement floor put your gun in there and then fill it full of concrete, so that you have to jack hammer the gun out clean it all up, load it, before you can fire it and then that gives you time enough to decide if you really want to fire it or not. Or you can do like I do, have a loaded firearm with honey badger rounds in the chamber ready to go regardless if I’m in my house or in my truck. My weapon is ready anytime I feel the need to defend myself. The only time you pull your weapon is when you think you or someone else’s life is in immediate risk. And don’t stop pulling the trigger until you’ve used up all the ammunition in that magazine. When a jury asked why did you unload on him, simply reply under stress I didn’t know how good a shot I was going to be but I knew at least one of the 17 rounds might find its way to the intended target. Anything else is just smok and mirrors and should be ignored as background noise.
Lock up criminals, not guns!
You cannot legislate safe behavior. You can educate and encourage safe behavior. Our schools and parents could be educating youth on firearm safety, but many are not. Apparently it is more important to teach race theory. Thus, safety is not that important to the state. Disarmament is.
My home is my castle government has no business nor the right to tell me what I can and can not do in my own home.
Wool if you plan is to make Alaska like Massachusetts pack you belonging and go back. Thompson you need to retire move on you are bot representing the republican party.
Does that mean I need a car seat in my vehicle even though I don’t have kids? What logic.
Rep. Adam Wool and Rep. Steve Thompson are two of the biggest liberal —- in the state just under Lisa M.
Why is Thompson (the oldest man in the Legislature) hanging out with Adam Wool (one of the biggest potheads in Alaska)? Wool has no common sense and his bar should have been shut down decades ago (the Blue Loon). Wool the professional barkeep, and Thompson the patron. These two morons should worry about their own kids getting hooked on liquor and pot, not about locking up Alaskan’s guns. Look no further than the parents as being “Exhibit A” for
substance retardation.
Steve & Adam are liberal clowns. Why does fairbanks tolerate fools like this. ???
IMO – There may be a better result if we regulated psychotropic drugs which are being given to our children, for just being an annoyance. Our professional witch doctors treat everything with drugs.
There appears to be somewhat more than a casual relationship with some forms of violence, and anti-depressants and other such.
–
“Aripiprazole (Abilify) and quetiapine (Seroquel) aren’t FDA approved for use in anyone under age 18 due to the of risk suicidal thoughts and behavior.
Antipsychotic medication use in older adults with dementia-related psychosis can increase the risk of death.
Antidepressants can worsen suicidal thoughts and behavior in children and adolescents.
Stimulant drugs may cause dependence and addiction.
–
What the medical field won’t include in their disclaimers is that suicidal thoughts and behavior includes homicidal mass murder thoughts and behavior. This was very controversial, until the subject got shoved under the rug.
The Constitution is supreme, declared, fundamental law of the land. Code does not break the US Constitution.
If everyone would obey the 4 rules of firearm safety, this would not be required. I don’t lock up my guns as I may need them in a moments notice. If someone steals my car and kills someone, am I going to get fined? If a knife from my kitchen gets stolen and is used in a murder, do I get fined?
Adam Wool has got to be the most pot-induced, idiot legislator in Alaska. Thompson is alcohol induced, and everyone up in Fairbanks talks about it. What good are locked-up guns when you need your gun on a spur-of the-moment to defend your life and property? You’re fumbling around to find the key in the dark, wasting precious moments while your family’s life is on the line against home invasion.
.
Wool and Thompson: the pot and alcohol have finally caught up with you.
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On another note: we have it on pretty good reporting from up in Fairbanks circles that Wool actually lost his House seat to Kevin McKinley last November 3rd, only to have it saved by fraudulent mail-in voting and ballot harvesting in District 5. Wool is another counterfeit representative who earned a living by turning drunk drivers and potheads out on the public hiway. And this a**hole wants to deprive us of our right to defend our homes? Wake-up…….Fairbanks!
Telling me what I can or can’t do in my own home? Get these bums out of office now.
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