OK2A Response to Governor’s Veto

Governor Vetoes SB41

Oklahoma State Capitol Building
Oklahoma State Capitol Building
Oklahoma Second Amendment Association
Oklahoma Second Amendment Association

Earlsboro, OK -(Ammoland.com)- Governor Fallin said yesterday that she vetoed SB41 because of OK2A‘s lawsuit against the city of Norman over the banning of guns at the Norman Music Fest.

She said that the Oklahoma Constitution prohibits the Legislature from passing a law that would “destroy an existing defense” in a pending lawsuit (Article 5, Section 52 of the Oklahoma Constitution). This is a smokescreen the Governor has thrown up to hide the real reason she vetoed the bill.

The Norman Music Fest has come and gone. Nowhere in this bill is the city of Norman or the 2015 Norman Music Fest mentioned. This bill was aimed at the underlying issue: should cities, any city, be able to hide behind a lease while allowing the lawful and peaceful carrying of firearms to be banned on a city street? The answer is no. Signing this bill would not affect the 2015 Norman Music Fest – and the Governor knows that.

The real reason for the veto is that her cronies at the OKC Chamber asked her to veto it. The mayor of Tulsa and the OKC Chamber claim that national and regional events such as the NCAA basketball tournament, Women’s College World Series softball tournament and other events held at the State Fair Park requiring a no-gun policy in their contracts would no longer come to Oklahoma if she signed the bill. There is one simple problem with this claim, however. All of the events the Chamber cites are held in buildings, arenas, and stadiums which will not be affected by SB41. It deals solely with events held outside on public property.

The truth of the matter is there is a pattern of indifference by the Governor for the Second Amendment going all the way back to her first campaign for Governor in 2010. I met with her then and asked for her position on Open Carry. Her response was if I got it to her desk, she would sign it. That’s political speak for “I don’t care enough to openly support it but I’m also not stupid enough not to sign it if it gets to me.”

At least in 2010 the Governor realized Oklahoma is a pro-gun state but by last year she had apparently forgotten. It was just last year that the Governor vetoed three Second Amendment bills as part of a temper tantrum because the Legislature wasn’t doing what she wanted them to do. She called it sending a message. Whatever you call it she used our Constitutional right to self-preservation to play political games.

This year, after being presented with a compromise option for SB41 that would have reworded the bill making clear it did not apply to events held in buildings and structures (arenas and stadiums, etc.), the Governor still chose to stand with gun-grabbers and veto her fourth Second Amendment bill in two years. We were willing to work with her, but her office would not even return OK2A’s (or NRA’s) phone calls. I’m sure Bloomberg and Obama are applauding our Governor’s anti-gun efforts today.

The Governor claimed in her veto statement that she supports the Second Amendment. Yet she refuses to openly advocate for the Legislature to strengthen Oklahoma’s gun laws, she has vetoed four gun bills in two years, and refuses to speak to gun-rights advocates while vetoing gun bills at the whim of the Chamber. Yes, she has signed more Second Amendment bills into law than she has vetoed but that is apparently only because the Chamber didn’t tell her to veto the others.

We urge the Legislature to once again override the Governor’s anti-gun veto.

Please call or email Senator Brian Bingman (405-521-5565 or [email protected]) and your own senator and urge them to override her veto of SB41.

If you are unsure who your senator is, go to oklegislature.gov and complete the form on the lower left corner of the page.

About Oklahoma Second Amendment Association

OK2A seeks to defend our Second Amendment rights and remove the infringements placed on it by our government.

For more information, visit: www.ok2a.org.

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oldshooter

OK, I don’t live in OK, and I admit I don’t know much about OK political issues or your Governor. But I do know something about logic. The article stated that the Governor said she refused to sign the bill because it’s illegal to pass laws affecting a pending lawsuit. Nowhere in the article did it state whether or not there IS such a lawsuit currently pending. If there IS, then all the statements about why the Governor is REALLY vetoing the bill are at best irrelevant, and at worst a sort of unsubstantiated conspiracy theory. If there is a… Read more »