On 19 May, 2017, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed into law another firearm reform law. SB 397 removes another bit of egregious discrimination against poor people exercising their Second Amendment rights.

In Oklahoma, it’s illegal to bear arms on mass transit buses. Banning people from carrying arms on buses effectively chills Second Amendment rights for people in urban centers who use public transportation.

The bill righting that wrong passed the Senate 43 to 1 and the House 79-9.  The ten votes in opposition were all cast by Democrats.

The legislature took care to make it a separate crime to discharge a firearm in a bus, terminal, or other transportation facility, unless it was done in a deadly force defense. From Legiscan.com:

It shall be unlawful for any person to discharge any firearm into or within any bus, terminal or other transportation facility, unless such action is determined to have been in defensive force resulting from reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another.

The law goes into effect on November 1. While the new law refers to “deadly or dangerous weapons” separately from firearms, it seems that penalties only result if the weapons are used in an attempt to take over the bus. Oklahoma passed a knife preemption bill in 2015, and removed knives from the illegal weapons list in 2016.

©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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10 COMMENTS

  3. Oklahoma is OK!

    Good for Oklahoma, the Oklahoma legislature, and Governor Fallin.

    Common sense gun law.

  5. Yet another step in the right direction.
    I wonder why some democrats are so set against our rights.

    • The Democratic Party is not now, nor ever has been, the party of civil rights. They simply succeeded at convincing WAY too many people that they are…. but once in a while, the mask slips…

  6. This segues nicely with the last Question of the Day: will guns be normalized again?
    Apparently, we are making progress.

  7. Public transit, roadside rest areas, college campuses, hospital property, public park trails, etc. all seem to me to be high risk areas where a legal carrier would be most inclined to carry a weapon. And of course because most of these are state or city property, the anti’s have fought hard to keep them as GFZ’s. Glad to see this law passed – the more are passed, the more like it will be passed. Not in NYC or SF, but maybe other places.

  8. A lot of states have this class war deluxe

    http://www.bilderload.com/bild/398620/mbtaccwN337D.jpg

    Orange (maxium misdaemor charges for ignoring)

    1.) Montana Trains illegal / Bus legal
    2.) New Mexico Bus illegal / Trains legal
    3.) South Carolina any public transport at 10 + passenger
    4.) Illinois Bus and Trains

    The worst states (felony charged can apply)

    1.) Coloarado unlicensed carry on public transport and inside non steril airport looks an felony
    2.) Missouri Public Bus Felony / Public Train misdaemor and private bus transport misdaemor and hb 630 is dead for this year

    Special Case Ohio same as car need ccw

    An big problem in a lot of states

  9. Oklahoma’s current (thru oct) law was not limited to muni or public busses. It also included private and chartered coaches. When questioned by the state 2A groups, some DAs acknowledged that they would file charges against a lawful and licensed CCW carrier even if he was the bus driver.

    The law was written to prevent hostile bus hijackings, basically. With Oklahoma’s shift in carry laws, more people are carrying, and this law was not included in the carry law portion of the statutes. Instead, it Is part of the Bus Safety portion of the statutes, easily overlooked by people looking for gun laws.

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