How did gun legislation fare this session?

By
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
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6

At midnight on Wednesday, the Alaska Legislature adjourned from its 2022 Legislative Session. Second Amendment legislation — both pro-gun ownership and anti-gun ownership — died that night.

Mandatory firearm storage legislation, House Bill 203, failed to gain enough votes to pass in committee. 

Second Amendment emergency powers protection legislation, Senate Bill 136, fell short by just two votes in the House for final passage.

House Bill 203 – (“Safe Storage”) sought to give law enforcement the ability to issue a fine to gun owners of up to $1,000 if an unauthorized individual gains access to a firearm and proceeds to injure themselves or another. The bill essentially required firearms to be locked and rendered inaccessible for self-defense in the home. HB 203 was an attempt to punish law-abiding gun owners for the crimes of criminals, while current state law already provides an avenue for cases where true negligence with a firearm is present.

Senate Bill 136, (“Emergency Powers Protections”) sponsored by Sen. Rob Myers and co-sponsored by 23 other legislators, sought to provide protections for gun stores, ranges, or any other entity that engages in the lawful selling or servicing of firearms, components, or accessories.  This measure would have prevented the prohibition, regulation, or seizure of citizens’ Second Amendment rights during a declared State of Emergency. SB 136 was a direct response to infringements on the Second Amendment that occurred across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill fell short of passage by two votes in the House on the final day of the legislative session.

SB 136 had unanimously passed the Senate on March 16, and spent nearly two-months in the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee before receiving its passing vote of 5-2, on May 17. The House companion bill, House Bill 179, sponsored by House Minority Leader Rep. Cathy Tilton, has sat in the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee since its introduction on April 16, 2021. That bill never received a hearing. 

SB 136 was advanced to the House Floor where it needed a 3/4 vote to advance from second to third reading. The bill received hours of debate and amendments were offered, including an attempt by Rep. Adam Wool, the sponsor of HB 203, to add his government-issued firearms storage programs into the emergency powers bill – this amendment failed to pass by a vote of 16-24.

One amendment, offered by Rep. Sara Rasmussen was adopted; it would have required K-12 grade school districts to offer hunter safety education courses.

SB 136 ultimately needed 30 votes to pass from second to third reading, but the final vote was 28-12. Blocking the bill from making it to a final vote were Rep. Harriet Drummond, Rep. Zack Fields, Rep. Sara Hannan, Rep. Andy Josephson, Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, Rep. Daniel Ortiz, Rep. Ivy Spohnholz, Rep. Andi Story, Rep. Geran Tarr, Rep. Chris Tuck, and Rep. Adam Wool.

The NRA thanked Sen. Rob Myers (R-Fairbanks) and Minority Leader Rep. Cathy Tilton (R-Wasilla), both 2A champions who sponsored the emergency powers bills and worked with leadership on both sides of the aisle.

(This story is adapted from NRA Institute for Legislative Action, NRAILA.org).

6 COMMENTS

  1. The gun control bill was by idiot Adam Wool. Yep, the same guy who turned thousands of drunks loose on the Parks Highway from his sleazy bar. Takes a killer-enabler to know one. Thank God Wool is going to be gone.

  2. If “gun crime” is so much worse than other types of crime it should follow that anyone using a gun to commit a violent offense be locked up for life. I mean if it saves only one life, it would be well worth it. Surely you Dems can get on board with that, right? Of course our dark skinned countrymen will naturally will like it least. After all they by far commit the most “gun crime”. Fairness, equity, and all that rubbish.

  3. SB136 sounds like a great bill. Thanks commies for once again trying to shred our 2A rights and killing a great bill.

  4. Thank MustRead for this story. My hope would be that what has happened in Ukraine over the past few months, and in Israel for that matter, would stop the gun grabbers here in America. However, I know that those anti-Second Amendment ideologues can never stop. I think Tarr may have also have a gun confiscation bill; she usually does. Wool should go back to Massachusetts (aka Taxachusetts) now that he made some money selling booze to enlisted men from Wainwright and Eielson. Wool likes taxes and gun control, and that is exactly what characterizes Massachusetts. Here in Alaska, The Last Frontier, we believe in the Bill of Rights. For those who don’t know, Ukrainian citizens have been issued full-auto AK 74s (and maybe some AK 97s – they’re really all AK 47s) accompanied by official government contrition that they were not issued sooner. In Israel the Prime Minister has asked that citizens bring their guns to work and on shopping trips. Peace and peace of mind can only come with law-abiding Americans carrying guns all the time; law-breakers will have guns no matter what ideo-paths like Obama, Clinton, Biden, Sanders, Gara, Walker and Wool want to do to us. All on that list but the final three have full-time, armed body-guards. Alaskans, including Ukrainian Alaskans, say COME AND TAKE THEM.

  5. Ah.. yes. Restrictive gun control laws. The belief that a law abiding and responsible individual should not be allowed to possess an item because someone they never met might commit a crime with a similar item.
    .
    In the more than 500 year history of restrictive gun control laws, not a single one has ever been demonstrated to reduce crime overall. Not a single one.

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