Posted on 06/02/2017 6:13:50 AM PDT by marktwain
On 19 May, 2017, Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin signed into law another reform of Oklahoma firearms law. SB 397 removed another egregious discrimination against poor people exercising their Second Amendment rights.
In Oklahoma, it is illegal to bear arms on buses used as public mass transportation. Most people who have sufficient means prefer to use private transportation. In most situations it is far more efficient, effective, and convenient to use individual transport. But in some situations, such as in crowded urban centers where parking is expensive, time consuming, and hard to find, a great many people have to resort to riding buses. Those people tend to be people of limited means.
If you ban people from bring arms onto buses, you have effectively chilled Second Amendment rights for people who use public transportation.
Oklahoma Republicans rolled back that discrimination in 2017. The Senate passed the bill on 23 March, 43 to 1. The vote in opposition was a Democrat, Senator Matthews.
The House passed the bill, after an amendment, on 25 April, 79-9. All votes in opposition were Democrats. They were F. Bennett, Blancett, Dunnington, Griffith, Munson, Nichols, Virgin, Walke, and Young.
The Senate then repassed the amended bill on 11 May, 39 to 1. The same Democrat opposed the bill.
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 1 November, 2017.
A direct violation of the the right to keep and bear arms.
Illinois...naturally...is one of them.
The Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association has been doing an outstanding job this year shepherding legislation though the House and Senate to the Governor’s desk.
Still a ways to go to Constitutional carry but hopefully it will happen in the next year or two.
Indeed they (we - I'm a member) have. See ok2a.org page for details.
It is sad, but important to note that in Oklahoma, with a Republican super-majority in the House, a Republican super-majority in the Senate, and a Republican Governor, it is Republicans that kill (and have killed) good pro-gun legislation. Some of the freshmen 'pubbies this year, including Dave Rader (former football coach), really need their constituents to sit down with them and help them understand what is expected of them.
It has been very disappointing that with Republican super-majorities in the Oklahoma legislature, the Republican leadership has blocked a referendum on the reform of the Oklahoma state Constitution’s protection of the right to keep and bear arms.
Oh yes it has! Too much listening to the Chamber of Commies and David Boren (President of OU) and the rest of higher ed., et. al. We'll get there, but we'll have to fight the whole way. This is one of the reasons I have personally met and talked to my state senator and rep, and other state legislators, been down to the Capitol and so on.
Good work. Keep it up.
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