Idaho: Establishment Gun Bill Dies!

Revolver Woman Self Defense Home Invasion
Revolver Woman Self Defense Home Invasion
Idaho Second Amendment Alliance
Idaho Second Amendment Alliance

U.S.A.-(Ammoland.com)- The establishment “gun bill” is done! Yesterday the Idaho Senate State Affairs Committee held a full hearing on Senate Bill 1161, the establishment version of Castle Doctrine.

The bill was opposed by the ISAA and gun owners across Idaho as it did not expand protections and may have been worse than current law.

We are happy to report that the bill was unanimously held in committee and will go nowhere this session! We will tell you how to help wrap this session up in a few minutes.

Senator Brackett (R-23) who was sponsoring the bill took a beating from committee members.

He was unable to articulate how the bill would help gun owners in any way. Senator Brent Hill even mentioned that he came to the hearing ready to vote for the bill, but given the evidence presented, changed his mind.

We know that committee members received a lot of emails regarding this bill and you guys delivered a loud and clear message that you want better.

Rep. Zito (R-23), who is the ISAA sponsor for Castle Doctrine, also testified in an emotional plea for something better.

Recalling her own terrifying experience with using Stand Your Ground law, she pleaded with the committee to side with gun owners and give them the best protections possible.

Because the session is supposed to end next week, and this bill dying in committee, the chances to get Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground passed this session have effectively been killed.

Rep. Zito fought tirelessly from Day 1 of the session to get a hearing for real Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground reform. She fought against the system and tried to do what you asked her to do.

As you know, Chairman Tom Loertscher refused to let her bill have a hearing.

Despite the fact that thousands of you have signed a petition to get her bill a hearing, he refused to act. Is that the representative government we can expect here in Idaho?

Is Chairman Loertscher the type of “pro-gun” legislator that you want representing you?

We know that the establishment leadership and Secret Gun Committee did everything they could to prevent a solid pro-gun bill from having a hearing.

As usual, they came up with a laundry list of excuses on why it couldn’t be heard. “Language Issues” was at the top of their list.

Of course, none of their excuses held any water. It was a simple fact that they didn’t like a freshman legislator running a pro-gun bill.

The establishment would prefer that freshmen sit down and do nothing their first time in office. They would prefer that they learn “the system” which really is code for, “Do what we tell you to do and you will get along just fine.”

That isn’t Rep. Zito. She doesn’t take orders from anyone but her constituents. She proved that this session.

Despite all their handwringing and whining about her tenacity, Rep. Zito kept going.

Gun owners should be proud of her efforts!

Now that the session is nearly complete, what do we need from you?

  • Despite the fact that the session is almost over, we still need everyone to sign the petition. The petition will carry over into next year so make sure to sign it and share it all over Idaho!
  • Please send a quick email to Rep. Zito and tell her “Thank you for all your hard work for gun rights this year!” Her email is [email protected]
  • Your generous donations all session helped us spread the word about our efforts to upgrade self-defense laws in Idaho. We also killed some bad gun legislation which wouldn’t be possible without your help. We need it once again.

With the establishment killing Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground this year, we need to mobilize many more gun owners over the next 9 months to keep the pressure on for the 2018 session.

 

This session has shown us that the establishment did not learn their lessons that gun owners delivered on election day in 2016.

It was just a few months ago that gun owners tossed anti-gun Republicans and Democrats out of office. Clearly, gun owners have more work to do.

We can’t do any of this without you. You made all the difference last year and you did again this session.

P.S. The establishment version of a “Castle Doctrine Upgrade” was introduced yesterday morning. We are happy to report that it was defeated unanimously as even the committee found major holes in it!

The ISAA opposed the bill because it literally changed nothing of the current status of our self-defense laws. What’s the point of changing the law if we aren’t going to make it stronger?

That’s why this bill had to die in committee.

If we are going to make changes to the law then we need to do it right the first time so we don’t have to come back and do it again the year after.

Now that the session is nearly complete, we are asking that we prepare now for the next session. That means we need you to sign the petition right away for Castle Doctrine!

We are also asking you to tell Rep. Zito thank you for all her hard work this session in fighting for gun owners. Her email is [email protected]

With your generous donations, we were able to put a lot of pressure on the establishment to listen to the will of the people and to also kill some bad gun legislation.

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Don

I would welcome her in WA state