HELCbgh

A strong right to keep and bear arms amendment to the Oklahoma state constitution was killed by the Republican leadership at the last minute. They did this by running out the clock in the conference committee, by not voting on HJR 1009. The clock ran out on May 19th. The tactics were similar to what was done in 2014. This year the measure was passed with overwhelming votes in both the House and the Senate. It passed the House 66-7. It passed the Senate 39 to 7…by 90% and 85% respectively. Obviously, the measure was wildly popular.  Then special interest lobbyists got involved. Backroom deals may have been struck. Several members of the conference committee subsequently decided to oppose the measure, after voting for it twice.

  From ok2a-action.org:

Several Republican members of the House Rules Committee (which is the House side of the Conference Committee for HJR1009) that previously voted for HJR1009 – most of them twice – and have even signed on as co-authors of the measure, have suddenly flip-flopped on the issue.  One of them even seemed to get a kick out of the possibility of killing it.  Are you angry yet?  Republicans laughing about trampling on your right to keep and bear arms while following marching orders from a liberal, New York, gun-grabber lobbying against your natural right to protect yourself – that should make every pro-gun Oklahoman livid!

Oklahoma’s current right to keep and bear arms amendment was weak to begin with and has been rendered toothless by Oklahoma Supreme Court decisions.

Here is the current version:

The right of a citizen to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person, or property, or in aid of the civil power, when thereunto legally summoned, shall never be prohibited; but nothing herein contained shall prevent the Legislature from regulating the carrying of weapons.

You can see the problem “but nothing herein contained shall prevent the Legislature from regulating the carrying of weapons.” With that clause, the court has ruled that the “bear arms” part of Section 26 is a legal nullity.

Here is the reform; underlined words are new, lined through words are removed:

From the Oklahoma Legislature (pdf):

Section 26.
A.
The fundamental right of a each individual
4 citizen to keep and to bear arms in defense of his home, person, or
5 property, or, including handguns, rifles, shotguns, knives,
6 nonlethal defensive weapons and other arms in common use, as well as
7 ammunition and the components of arms and ammunition, for security,
8 self-defense, lawful hunting and recreation, in aid of the civil
9 power, when thereunto legally lawfully summoned, or for any other
10 legitimate purpose shall never not be prohibited; but nothing herein
11 contained shall prevent the Legislature from regulating the carrying
12 of weapons infringed. Any regulation of this right shall be subject
13 to strict scrutiny.
14
B.
This section shall not prevent the Legislature from
15 prohibiting the possession of arms by convicted felons, those
16 adjudicated as mentally incompetent or those who have been
17 involuntarily committed in any mental institution.
18
C.
No law shall impose registration or special taxation upon
19 the keeping of arms, including the acquisition, ownership,
20 possession or the transfer of arms, ammunition or the components of
21 arms or ammunition

Reformed Constitutional amendments protecting the right to keep and bear arms have been wildly popular with voters. The difficulty is getting them on the ballot. In 2014, the Oklahoma amendment passed both houses in slightly different versions. It was then scuttled in the conference committee between the House and the Senate.

Alabama passed a similar amendment in 2014 with 72% of the vote; Missouri had strengthened its Constitution just months before with 61%; Louisiana in 2012 with 74% of the vote; and  Kansas in 2010 with 88%. Wisconsin voters protected their rights with a strong amendment in 1998 with 74% of the vote.

Wisconsin had one of the most difficult paths. Constitutional amendments there must pass the legislature twice, with an election in between. Then they are put before the people in a referendum.

The legislature has not yet learned that playing these games is no longer a safe way to kill measures politicians publicly support, but secretly conspire to kill. Perhaps ok2A-action.org will determine just who the responsible parties are, and find a way to hold them accountable. This amendment will probably eventually make it to Sooner State voters, but it will depend on grass roots support to make it happen.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Gun Watch

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

56 COMMENTS

    • They had their chance in 2014 and will have another in 2016, which by my calendar, is now. Elections have consequences. You can’t go demanding a Do-Over with every vote that doesn’t go your way.

      • Except it wasn’t a failed vote. It was elected officials failing to do their job and vote on laws as they come up. Recall would be proper.

        • WRONG Scott! They were elected by the people and however they choose to dispense with their duties is THEIR CHOICE. Not ours. They do a disservice to the people they represent when they bend to the whims of the people rather than taking a measured approach to slow continuous reform.

          Pay attention, you’ll learn something: The people didn’t just pick these representative for some jobbie job that requires they fill out some paperwork and click some buttons. They DELEGATED some of their individual sovereignty to those representatives for those reps to use as they see fit. Once you delegate authority you cannot selectively take it back. This is a 2000 year old legal principle: delegata potestas non potest delegare.

          If you want better politics, choose politicians whose views reflect yours and then let them do their damned job without your interference. That’s historically how delegated political authority works.

        • “That’s historically how delegated political authority works.”

          Doesn’t work.

        • @ Some Bloke:

          “Once you delegate authority you cannot selectively take it back.”

          The hell you can’t.

  2. Fu**ing Dicks….well, at least we can make some noise about it for a while…hate email and phone calls outgoing from my position.

  3. Wow , they can’t get their shit together at the state level. No wonder at the Federal level Obama is abusing the constitution with no one stopping him

  4. “Bill to Strengthen RKBA Killed by Republicans”

    Republicans are not conservatives, they should be, but they are not.

    And what they accomplish when they are in power usually is things that the Democrats want – or as you see here, they work to protect things that the Democrats/Progressives want.

    It’s almost as if there is a conspiracy between the two parties to accomplish a thing, and the Democrats and Republicans agree to play good cop/bad cop in their concerted effort to get done whatever it is they want done.

    Obamacare is a perfect example. They all speak of repealing this and blocking that, but when it comes down to it, they do nothing at all. There are loads of things Republicans could have done to work against Obamacare, defunding it being the strongest. They could have passed repeal bills every week and sent them to the white house forcing Obama to veto them – which would have been very popular with the Republicans and unpopular for the Democrats, yes we know Obama would never sign such a law, but these symbolic measures to have an effect on police eventually. Oh, and a bill requiring house menbers, senators, congressional staffers and other government employees to use the exchanges for their health insurance would have been a great way to put pressure on them to get rid of Obamacare… crickets.

    They did diddly and squat.

    Like I said, ignore completely what they say, and look at what they do. They are Democrats,

    • I agree. I have long sinced stopped calling myself a republican. I am a conservative and damn proud of it! And im sick and tired of seeing “conservative” politicians having no backbone what so ever. they are slugs and need to be salted.

    • I agree. I have long sinced stopped calling myself a republican. I am a conservative and damn proud of it! And im sick and tired of seeing “conservative” politicians having no backbone what so ever. they are slugs and need to be salted.

      • It’s called the Uniparty, Bitchez. No difference between the two. Republican politicians would rather see Hillary elected than Trump. Proceed accordingly.

  5. Wow… What a bunch of elitist good ole boy scumbags. Sounds like mass recalls may be in order here.

  6. “One of them even seemed to get a kick out of the possibility of killing it.”

    With ‘friends’ like that, who needs enemies?

    “Are you angry yet? ”

    The American people are plenty angry. Read the news lately?

    They will be expressing it in the ballot box on Nov. 8, 2016…

  7. The vast majority of politicians these days are just money sucking scumbags. In a less civilized time they would have been hung by the people; our society is just too oblivious to vote these people out.

    • “The vast majority of politicians these days are just money sucking scumbags.”

      ALL POLITICIANS (wherever you find them) are just your a-hole neighbors needing jobs. No where in the Universe are men governed by animals, aliens, or robots. When you find them screwing you for personal gain, or for a third party, you need to expend more energy to make them pack their sh_t and go home (empty handed).

      More energy needs to be devoted to blocking Bloomturd & his sex minions.
      This is yet another case of lib (D) selling themselves as republicans to get into power so that they can ‘hail hydra’ which, funny enough, is just futher proof that DC can f-up anything, even a super hero.
      You wouldn’t settle for letting someone in Saudi Arabia voting your gun rights. Bloomberg – Soros are only different in geography, and not enough to call them US citizens. They need to have their rights (especially speech of any kind) taken away. If they can protect them with “arms”, then that is indeed tyranny without authority, and that is invasion of a foreign force.

  8. Oklahoma Republican servants of the people, ye are known by your actions and your days be numbered. In the mean time, may your loins be infested with the fleas of 1,000 camels, and may your arms be too short to scratch.

    • . . . said the Blue, as it was growing close to election time.

      This has zero to do with red/blue which is the voting populace (and the colors were assigned by the astoudingly POS that are the (D)).

      The voters have not yet spoken on OK’s recent RTKABA, but they will.

  10. I wonder if it is possible in any other political system for there to be liberal conservatives and conservative liberals like here in the US?

  11. Welcome my friends, welcome to the machine, the UniParty. Rerubpublicans so busy dry humping their constituents they don’t offer a reach around. Locate, close with and vote them to the unemployment line. Better yet video the bastards gun-splianing and use it against them the next election. Or old school it and introduce Kentucky wood to them bones and how deep the river is.

    I hate republican scum.

  12. All well and good to say what happened but rather useless if you don’t out those responsible. If the people of Oklahoma know who is to blame it allows them to take it up directly with the jerks responsible. After all how do you know who to support short of saying that every one in the legislature is responsible because they failed to take the right jerk to the woodshed themselves.

    • Yep, exactly. I am voting Democrat this election because the Republication option is no better (Mark Kirk, who won a lifetime achievement award from the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.) That way maybe the Republicans will get their act together and give me someone worth voting for in 6 years.

  13. People are too stuck on being politically correct .If society can allow a man to use women’s facilities and Obama says schools have to allow it across the nation . Every parent across America should have pulled their kids out immediately .Target stores should not have had any shoppers except their trans .That would put a stop to this mess, but people won’t do those things cause it’s too inconvenient .

  14. “It passed the Senate 39 to 7…by 90% and 85% respectively. Obviously, the measure was wildly popular.”

    Not unnecessarily. The key votes in favor could have been just for show, knowing it would be killed in committee. It could have been only wildly popular with gun rights proponents who watch these things closely, but who don’t comprise a majority of voters.

    If it really were wildly popular, it would have passed. It wasn’t and they knew they could get away with smothering it in its crib. It’s the same on the other side, by the way. If mislabeled “universal background checks were really supported by 90% of the public, then the GOP wouldn’t have been able to stop it in 2013.

    • “Not unnecessarily. The key votes in favor could have been just for show, knowing it would be killed in committee.”

      Obviously I cannot prove it, but I have no doubt this is exactly what happened.

      This lawmaking process has degenerated into nothing but a sideshow. Our betters know what laws are to be forced upon us, we really don’t have any say, and you cannot trust a single word out of their lying mouths.

      In the worst case, all they need to do is say ‘it’s a tax’, and the deed is done.

      Pay up, serfs.

  15. The unlicensed open carry bill get the same way there ……….
    Bad too see that this year is limited to public suppressor hunting and all knife carry “only”

  16. The NBA, the news media and several others got to them. I will not vote to re-elect any of them. Anyone serving right now will not get my vote.

      • They protested these bills hard. They don’t even live here but got their noses in our business deep. That’s what we get for hero worship of people that play kids games. No worries though most Okies just went back to drinking their beer and whining. Maybe we deserve it just like Kali

        • The reason the NBA is against it is some of their best players, and a lot of up and coming players from college, have a habit of supplementing their income with less than legal after hours entrepreneurial activities. Said activities frequently tend to get them downrange of an armed intended victim, so the less armed the average citizen is, the better the NBA likes it!

        • Agreed. There was a time maybe when the young could look up to ball players as role models. That was in the black n white TV days. Now… Well, you know as well as I they’re just paid entertainers with limited original thought of their own.

  17. Republican scum. Being from Florida, I know them well. Perks for permitees are all massa gives us. And only if we keep it concealed.

    • De la Portilla needs his walking papers. And all leo lobbying groups need to be banned. They work for us and have no say in the law making process. Except to refuse to enforce anti Constitutional law, as is their duty.

  19. This is pretty minor stuff compared to Clinton’s Gun Control Plans.

    If she gets elected with a democrat Congress, Americans will be turning in a lot of firearms. We will only get to have registered singles, doubles, bolt and pellet long guns. Only registered handguns, capacity of 7 rounds or less, and you must be a competing member of an approved target shooting club. Ammunition will be rationed and registered.

  21. The struggle over guns and the 2nd amendment is not about guns or the 2nd. It is about power and money. And every politician in America will bail on guns and the 2nd if his or her power and or money is threatened. We are, in fact, on our own. “Trust in god but brand your calves.”

  22. In a small way, it might be a good thing Oklahoma legislature scuttled the current measure because I see a problem with the exact wording. Notice the following, especially the words in bold:

    The fundamental right of each individual citizen to keep and to bear arms including handguns, rifles, shotguns, knives, nonlethal defensive weapons and other arms in common use, as well as ammunition and the components of arms and ammunition, for security, self-defense, lawful hunting and recreation, in aid of the civil power, when thereunto lawfully summoned, or for any other legitimate purpose shall not be infringed.

    This is a legal text. What exactly is the legal definition of the word “citizen” above? Does this exclude resident aliens? Does this exclude someone who is 17 years old? Does this exclude someone who lives in another state and visits Oklahoma? Can the State of Oklahoma create a law and say that anyone who registers to vote as a Republican is not a citizen and therefore loses their right to keep and bear arms?

    Again, this is a legal text. This phrase has a classic legal problem,

    “… including handguns, rifles, shotguns, knives, nonlethal defensive weapons and other arms in common use, as well as ammunition and the components of arms and ammunition …”.

    That keyword “including” means this protection would ONLY apply to the items in that specific list and nothing else. While the list includes a fairly broad swath of what we consider to be arms today, it could very well exclude protection for new classes of arms in the future.

    If I were in charge, I would change the keyword “including” to “including, but not limited to”.

    While both of these points are somewhat minor, there is no reason why the legislature should NOT have addressed them. But the legislature did not. For those reasons, it might be a good thing that the legislature scuttled the current measure.

  24. Again lots of lib-prog-com (D)emtard 2A wanna me-toos here today. F all y’all the teason there was even an amendment to shoot down in OK, is to attempt to protect us all against POS lib-prog-comm (D)emtard infringement.

  25. The open carry obsessed are slow learners. As I’ve noted in multiple previous discussions about possible future enactment of constitutional carry in Texas, simple legislative bills won’t get it done, it requires an amendment of the State constitution. Section 26 of the Oklahoma constitution which unequivocally grants the Legislature authority to regulate the carrying of weapons is very similar to authority for the Legislature to regulate the wearing of arms under Section 23 of the Texas constitution.

    Dean rants “OK Bill to Strengthen RKBA Killed by Republicans”; now I don’t care who you are, that’s funny. So what’s your solution Dean? Should we vote Democrat? Absolutely hilarious!

    I suspect that the chances of the open carry obsessed achieving success on constitutional carry through constitutional amendments in Oklahoma or Texas to eliminate Legislative authority to regulate the carrying or wearing of weapons or arms are SLIM and NONE, especially since past effort and time expended to deliver open carry laws in both States must now seem to Legislators like much ado about nothing given the fact that constituents actually partaking of open carry in either State are a statistical rarity and the overwhelming majority of voters who do lawfully carry handguns prefer concealed carry, so it’s highly unlikely either REPUBLICAN controlled State Legislature will waste much time on a constitutional amendment sought by such an inconsequential and tiny percentage of the electorate that is the open carry obsessed.

    • doan be aconfusin’ the texas state constitution with “normal” ideas about constitutions. texas requires just about every state law (like even creating a hospital district in some town) must be an amendment or addition to the state constitution. in fact, the texas constitution has been amended 491 times since 1876. and along with that, onaccount of sam houston, the lieutenant governor, not the actual governor is the real executive. which acourse is in line with how the railroad commission controls just about every piece of business in the state.

      • You’re confused George, and embarrassingly ignorant of the fact that the bill of rights sections of the Texas Constitution have been amended seldom in 171 years of Statehood, and you’re delusional if you believe Section 23 will be amended to placate the open carry obsessed fringe.

        • ya’ missed mah point. wuznt ’bout the “bill of rights” bein’ amended. i wuz jes saying the texas constitution is differnt from other states, way differnt. that’s all. plenty of things that other states do in simple legislation can end up requirin’ a constitutional amendment in texas.

        • The point is obviously sailing right over your head George. Open carry was passed into law through a Legislative vote of the Texas House and Senate, then was signed into law by the Governor, so like most new or changed laws it required no constitutional amendment.

          The type of common constitutional amendment you reference is like when a city municipal court becomes a court of record, or a county creates a county court at law judge position.

          Drastic changes of the bill of rights to the Texas Constitution such as one that would be required to change Section 23 to make it a constitutional right to carry arms without restriction or regulation are unprecedented, even in a pro-gun conservative Republican dominated State like Texas.

          Open carry obsessed folks on the fringe like Dean Weingarten become unhinged when tradtionally conservative states like Oklahoma and Texas take the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” approach to amending their bill of rights, and Dean vilifying the Sooner State GOP for exercising reasonable thoughtful restraint is a comical example of that.

          • ya’ll keep gittin’ it wrong. i ain’t saying nuthin’ about open carry, closed carry, or cash ‘n carry. ahm jes sayin’ the texas constitution ain’t like the US constitution. the US constitution cain’t in no way be used as the mechanism fer approvin’ a hospital district. that’s it. that’s all. jes about anythin’ to do with guns in texas is done through reglar legislation, not by some sorta high hill to climb likin an amenment to the US constitution.

  26. They swear an oath, and that is where we hold their feet to the fire.
    They are taking public money Taxes, to support and defend the Constitution which
    includes the Bill Of Rights, so by breaking thier oath they become a fraud, and that is a felony.
    They need to be arrested and charged under 5 U.S.C. Section 7311 Oath of office violations !
    Thats the only way to get the rats out !

Comments are closed.