09 February 2016

Eliminating Gun-Free Zones


Hello, Rev. Paul 

SB174-Eliminate Gun Free Zones at UA

We members of the 2nd Amendment Task Force have expended a lot of energy over the the last few years trying to back down the Board of Regents at the University of Alaska (UA) to reverse the "no guns on campus" policy. YAL (Young Americans for Liberty) has managed to lobby and get a bill introduced that will accomplish much of what we have been after.

Senate Bill 174 was introduced by Senator Kelly and co-sponsored by Dunleavy, McGuire, Giessel and Stoltze. You can read the bill HERE. In a nutshell the bill stops UA from preventing concealed carry on campus. It still allows the Board of Regents to regulate open carry. It's unclear how the bill affects on campus storage of long arms, for instance is a cased shotgun considered concealed or open carry.

This is major step toward eliminating “Gun Free Zones” and deserves our support. We will keep you informed as the bill moves forward.

Please take a few minutes and call the Senators that are backing the bill to thank them personally. With all the budget issues facing the state it's hard to say where this will go but we need to be behind it. You will find Senate contact information HERE. Please step up and take a few minutes to help out with this issue.

Here is a copy of the email from Senator Kelly's office to YAL:

Greetings Kelsi,

Our bill got introduced as SB 174. We picked up four unsolicited co-sponsors from Senators Dunleavy, Stoltze, McGuire, and Giessel. It got an Education and a Judiciary referral, but since the chairs of those committees are both co-sponsors, I don’t anticipate too much difficulty from the committees. Although, the number of referrals is somewhat concerning, particularly since I expect the University of Alaska to trigger a finance referral by adding a fiscal note, I’ll have a better idea of our way forward once I find out if we can get a hearing next week.

Regards,
Joe Byrnes
Staff for Senator Pete Kelly

4 comments:

Ed Bonderenka said...

If I read this right, it sounds like it has a good chance.
Is that possible?

Rev. Paul said...

It's entirely possible, Ed, unless the anti-gunners (we have a few of them in the Legislature) manage to tie it to the budget, somehow. Then it could get hung up in committee for another year. Or two.

Cathy said...

As an aside:
I love your banner photo :)

Rev. Paul said...

Thank you, Cathy. That's the view from our kitchen window. :)