Gun Owners of America E-Mail/FAX Alert
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Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.org


Arizona legislative alert -- February 9, 2000

To all GOA activists in Arizona:

You are doing great work! The pressure you have brought to bear over
the last week has convinced the Arizona House of Representatives
that law-abiding gun owners are a political force that must be
respected.

Yesterday, the bill to strengthen the Arizona preemption law
(originally HB 2582; now HB 2095) passed the House of
Representatives. The final recorded vote was an impressive 42-19.

Now it's on to the Senate! Please contact your senator to start
applying pressure in that chamber.

As you recall, last week anti-gunners managed to gut the preemption
bill with an amendment allowing local governments to ban gun
possession on any property they control-- such as streets and
sidewalks.

Outraged, gun owners in Arizona responded to GOA's call to punish
the legislators, who while on record as sponsors of the bill,
allowed the sell-out to occur.

Regardless of how an individual sponsor might have voted on that
voice vote amendment, there is no excuse for losing a voice vote
when *a majority of the body* had sponsored or cosponsored the
legislation.

You instructed those sponsors in no uncertain terms that when the
bill next appeared, you expected them to be present and fight off
anti-gun amendments.

That is exactly what happened yesterday. Anti-gunners, led by Rep.
Bill Brotherton (D-20), tried again. But, because of your
overwhelming pressure, all anti-gun amendments were soundly defeated
and HB 2095 passed with an impressive majority.

There were those who said GOA had chosen the wrong course of action
in laying down the law to the bill's sponsors. Some legislators told
activists that GOA and you were "hurting" the pro-gun side. Some
legislators were even angry.

So what if a politician gets angry at your insistence that he stand
up for your rights? You're not running for office -- he is.

There can be no doubt that such "confrontational politics" are
effective -- you proved that yesterday. The sponsors and cosponsors
of the bill, angry or not, showed up and passed a clean bill while
beating back a number of anti-gun amendments.

The Senate is expected to be an even tougher fight. The well-funded
anti-gun cities and organizations will do whatever they can to keep
this bill from going to the governor. There are reports that
anti-gun Senators might try to attach "poison pill" language to the
bill. One way to do that is to combine preemption with an anti-gun
bill such as the so-called "Shannon's Law" that you derailed in
December's special session.

Therefore, the rallying call must continue to be: PASS HB 2095
EXACTLY AS WRITTEN, WITH NO ANTI-GUN AMENDMENTS.

Again, thank you for a job well done to this point. Please contact
your senator as soon as possible, using the roster and pre-written
text provided below. Or better yet, write your own letter.


----- Pre-written text -----

Dear Senator:

I urge you to vote in favor of HB 2095, the bill to strengthen
Arizona's firearms preemption law. This bill has already passed the
House with an overwhelming majority.

Further, I ask that you actively work to defeat any anti-gun
amendments or delaying tactics. HB 2095 is good legislation and
should be passed with all due speed, exactly as written.

Again, please vote in favor of HB 2095 and do everything
legislatively possible to see that it passes exactly as written. Gun
Owners of America will keep me informed.


Sincerely,


------------- Arizona State Senate Roster ---------------

District maps at:
http://www.azleg.state.az.us/maps/state.htm

Senate fax 602-542-3429


Name              Dis E-Mail                      Phone

Linda Aguirre      23 laguirre@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-7830
Gus Arzberger      08 garzberg@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-4321
Keith A. Bee       09 kbee@azleg.state.az.us      602-542-5683
Ken Bennett        01 kbennett@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-5584
Russell Bowers     21 rbowers@azleg.state.az.us   602-542-5288
Jack Brown         04 jbrown@azleg.state.az.us    602-542-4129
Scott Bundgaard    19 sbundgaa@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-4136
Brenda Burns       17 bburns@azleg.state.az.us    602-542-3160
Edward Cirillo     15 ecirillo@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-4173
Chris Cummiskey    25 ccummisk@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-4916
George Cunningham  13 gcunning@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-5911
Ann Day            12 aday@azleg.state.az.us      602-542-4326
Tom Freestone      30 tfreesto@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-5325
Randall Gnant      28 rgnant@azleg.state.az.us    602-542-4138
Sue Grace          24 sgrace@azleg.state.az.us    602-542-5284
Herb Guenther      05 hguenthe@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-4139
Darden C. Hamilton 16 dhamilto@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-5261
Mary Hartley       20 mhartley@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-4485
John Huppenthal    06 jhuppent@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-4178
Jack C. Jackson    03 jjackson@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-4323
Joe Eddie Lopez    22 jlopez@azleg.state.az.us    602-542-4171
Harry E. Mitchell  27 hmitchel@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-4124
David Petersen     29 dpeterse@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-4481
Elaine Richardson  11 erichard@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-5262
Peter Rios         07 prios@azleg.state.az.us     602-542-5685
Tom Smith          26 tsmith@azleg.state.az.us    602-542-5955
Ruth Solomon       14 rsolomon@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-5993
Victor Soltero     10 vsoltero@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-5342
Marc Spitzer       18 mspitzer@azleg.state.az.us  602-542-4480
John Wettaw        02 jwettaw@azleg.state.az.us   602-542-4486



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