Two powerful chairmen and a powerful chairwoman oppose permitless carry in Idaho. From left to right: Chairman Woods, Chairwoman Bell and Chairman Wills. These three representatives control three of the most powerful committees in the Idaho legislature. They can pass bills and stop bills. They can prevent bills from ever seeing the light of day. It seems that they have done so. The final vote in the House was 54 to 15. Only active suppression by the legislative leadership could keep that sort of support bottled up. And it did. Until now. From Idaho Reporter.com . . .
Three high-profile Republican House members opposed a bill Friday that would allow permitless concealed carry throughout Idaho.
Despite the opposition from most House Democrats and Reps. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, Rep. Rich Wills, R-Glenns Ferry, and Fred Wood, R-Burley, the bill cleared the chamber on 54 to 14 vote and now moves to Gov. Butch Otter’s desk for his consideration.
If these three Chairs are against you in the Idaho legislature, it does not matter very much who is for you. It takes the overwhelming force of a higher power to overcome the resistance of the massive legislative clout of these Chairs. And that’s exactly what happened.
The overwhelming force was the force of the voters in Idaho, organized by the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance. At a recent rally, a thousand pro-Constitutional Carry demonstrators showed up at the Idaho capitol. Also on the side of the bill: the vast majority of Idaho sheriffs in the Idaho Sheriffs Association, the Fraternal Order of Police and the NRA.
I’ve seen this pattern before, in numerous other legislative bodies, and in many executive offices. The longer a person stays in power, the more arrogant and distainful of the people they become; and they become more and more likely to wish the people disarmed.
The bill has not yet passed. It has been sent to Governor Butch Otter. Governor Otter has been pro-Second Amendment in the past; he’s expected to sign the bill. If he does not veto it, it will become law five days (not counting Sunday) after it is enrolled and the Governor receives it. The legislative web site is not yet showing it as enrolled.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Link to Gun Watch
Coming soon to a legislature near you! (And me I hope)
Term limits. And immediate dismissal from office for those wanting to charge to exercise a right.
Nationwide constitutional carry is the law of the land. And the sooner some of these pols go to prison for breaking the law, the better.
Not to mention, two out of three look well past any reasonable retirement age, and the third looks ready to retire.
Recall elections, anyone?
Recall is not the appropriate penalty for treason!
Is that a picture of the elusive elephant graveyard?
Butch Otter? Is that like a dyke beaver?
Made me chuckle.
I’m glad I’m not the only one! There was no way I was letting THAT name pass without comment!
Thanks, you made me spit out my breakfast.
You can almost always spot an fossilized establishment Republican by their drift to the left as they sink into senility, plus if they support gun rights the Democrats won’t invite them to the good parties!
They must speak regularly with Texas Sen. Joe Strauss. Same elitist-statist attitude.
Terms like Republican or Democrat (not Democratic) are meaningless. In virtually no other country can a politician be a conservative this, or a liberal that. Try explaining to any someone of any other nationality the illogical phrase, “liberal Republican, conservative Democrat. The only thing that matters is that a politician is pro-constitution, or pro-make the constitution whatever is convenient (I don’t have cute little labels for these opposits). I guess Liberal and Conservative are the terms we have to deal with. Now, how do we get like-minded people under the same banner?
Get involved in the process. (if you’re an idiot go to the demtards and you can shreek for Crazy Bernie). Nuke all the RINOs. Primary the fossils.
It is a surprise that Idaho has such trouble keeping track of which politician name is left or right.
These three need a good solid “F” rating by the NRA.
Stealth anti gun republican scum routinely rise to the top. This year a few stopped open carry and campus carry in Florida. The governor in Georgia is looking to stop campus carry.
^ This!
Hope he vetos it. Blood in the streets and all. Sarc/
See also: Mike Madigan (D) IL. He kept concealed carry from Illinoisans for a long time. But in the end he lost. People who deny citizens their constitutional rights should be in jail.
Amen. Illinois could be unrecognizable once this dictator is no longer in power. He is THE most powerful person in the government of Illinois.
Madigan should be in jail for a variety of things.
Yeah constitutional carry has been brought up and shot down twice in GA. Campus carry passed along party lines and our so-called Republican governor may not sign it because it allows guns too close to campus daycares….other than that I love the gun laws here I just don’t think I should have to put my name on a list to carry a firearm.
Vote against these sorts in the primaries, all the time every time. I certainly did. It may not “take” but it’s certainly worth trying. IF we don’t attempt to exile the RINOs who will. We should really try to be active during off cycle elections where the volume is lower. Easier to have an impact.
When asked for comment, all three said, “Get off my lawn! Damn kids!” What a crotchety looking trio.
I hope this will help the voters to see the light and vote these three out. It would be even better if they restructured the legislature so that no one can wield this much power.
So I probably wasted $37.50 on my Idaho CCP renewal.
Enough with the PC vocabulary.
It’s Chairman, not chairwoman. From the Latin “manus” meaning hand. The same root as the word manager.
Thus chairman = one who controls (hand) from the chair, and is gender neutral the same way the word manager is.
Miguel Diaz de la Portilla was the Republican in name only Who blocked Florida’s campus carry and open carry votes
He said “he didn’t think it was a good idea”
Since he did not think it was a good idea then the rest us do not even get to vote on it
Anyone who lives in his district in Miami should vote him out in favor of anyone else
I would but I live in Palm Beach County