A bill to shore up protections for Copper State citizens’ Second Amendment rights, HB 2524, has passed the Arizona House by a vote of 35 to 24. “Republican Rep. Bob Thorpe sponsored the proposal that would establish Arizona as the first in an interstate compact that other states could join,” the AP reports. “The compact would nullify and repeal any current or future law that impedes Second Amendment rights such as mandatory background checks.” The bill is a preemptive strike against a gun control initiative aimed at Arizonans . . .
“HB 2524 provides our best opportunity to derail the coming Bloomberg financed ballot measure to establish gun owner registration in Arizona before it happens,” the Arizona Citizen Defense League (AZCDL) warns.
In essence, this would create a ceiling that state law could not exceed. Current federal law has few limitations on intrastate private party firearm transfers between non-prohibited possessors . . .
Once HB 2524 is enacted in Arizona and at least one other state becomes a party to the compact, a subsequent state law, or even a ballot measure, cannot override it.
In recent years, anti-gun rights ballot initiatives have become a powerful tool for moneyed interests to advance their agenda. Rather than working through the legislative process, gun control advocates only need to concentrate their efforts once, for a short period, just before the vote.
Facing multi-million dollar advertising campaigns funded by Michael Bloomberg and deep-pocketed supporters, working against a largely supportive mainstream media, gun rights advocates have been wrong-footed. The ballot initiative for “universal background checks” in Washington State (initiative I-594) passed despite the best efforts of pro-gun rights groups.
Bloomberg-funded initiative efforts are underway in Maine and Nevada. Arizona is known to be in the cross hairs. The strategy: pick off the states with an initiative process, one by one, to claim momentum toward a national registration system.
Finding ways to use the power of the State to limit the power of the State is a daunting task. If HB 2524 becomes law, we will see if an intra-state compact can use the federal system to protect Constitutional rights.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch