'Monday gun day' at the Arizona Senate as 3 firearms-related bills advance
The Senate advanced three firearms bills Monday, supporting efforts to allow firearms near schools, legalize some deadly weapons and overturn city ordinances restricting firearms.
"It's Monday gun day," said Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, who opposed all three bills.
The bills still need a final Senate vote before going to Gov. Doug Ducey for his consideration.
Guns near schools
House Bill 2338 would forbid any school governing board — K-12 through university — from banning someone from legally possessing a deadly weapon on a public right of way adjacent to a school's campus.
Farley said he understood the bill is in response to concerns about limiting gun rights to drivers on Central Avenue in Phoenix, adjacent to the Arizona State University downtown campus. But he said the bill would affect K-12 schools across the state as well.
"We are assigning more rights to guns than we are to kids," Farley said. "We need to protect our kids, not further endanger them. It will allow guns adjacent to kids' playgrounds all over the state."
Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, supported the bill.
"We're not talking about letting people take guns onto elementary schools or high schools," he said. "If there is a public sidewalk or public street running adjacent, a person has a right to carry their weapon with them ... to keep their gun in their car to drive through the university."
Farley said the adjacency wording doesn't protect students. "I have not yet met a chain-link fence between a street and a playground that would stop a bullet," he said.
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Prohibited weapons
HB 2446 would exclude from the state definition of prohibited weapons any firearms or devices that are possessed, manufactured or transferred in compliance with federal law.
"We are simply saying if the federal government says this is legal, we don't make it illegal here," Kavanagh said.
Farley said the revised wording could legalize the possession of gun silencers, bombs, grenades and poison gas.
"So we're now in favor of rights for poison gas," he said. "I have some trouble with that. I don't know why we want to expand the right to kill and injure ourselves in new and exciting ways."
Weapons compact
HB 2524 would allow Arizona to join a compact with other states to develop uniform firearm transfer laws. All the member states would have to comply with the compact's regulations.
Member states may not impose any fee, tax or regulation on the transfer of firearms by any person above what federal law requires.
"We are creating our own little federal government here that gives away our state sovereignty to a bunch of other states," said Farley. "That's giving away our constituents' power. That's a terrible idea."
Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, supported the bill.
"Since the founding of our country, states have gone into numerous, numerous compacts and have joined together about many issues," she said. "This is just a way for states to join together to protect their common interest to do things together and to work on different issues together."
Other bills
Other controversial firearms bills are at various stages of the legislative process.
- Senate Bill 1257, which would allow individuals to legally carry firearms in most public buildings, still needs a vote of the House Committee of the Whole and a final House vote.
- HB 2072, to allow guns on university and community college campuses, is dead. Republican leadership never granted it a public hearing.
- HB 2300 would prohibit the state, counties or cities from enforcing any federal law that violates the Second Amendment. The bill is awaiting a hearing in the Senate Committee of the Whole.
- Senate Bill 1266 would declare invalid any county or city regulation that conflicts with state laws regulating firearms. It needs a final House vote.