Alphecca

Let the Voters Decide?

After Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano vetoed a bill a while back that would have prevented police or state government from ever confiscating legally owned firearms during an emergency, law makers started to scheme. From the Arizona Daily Star:

On a 4-2 party-line vote, the Republican-controlled Senate Government Committee approved a measure Tuesday that would legally bar any governor from using a state of emergency to place new restrictions on the possession, transfer, sales, carrying, storage, display or use of firearms or ammunition. The bill also would remove any ability to commandeer and use weapons or ammunition during any state of war.

It now goes to the full Senate. If it passes there, and also gains House approval, it goes on the November ballot, bypassing Napolitano.

The proposal is a carbon copy of legislation approved earlier this year but vetoed, with the governor calling it both unnecessary and overly restrictive.
On one hand, Napolitano said she has no intent of ever taking away someone's firearms, even during an emergency. But the governor said she fears new restrictions might be overly broad, potentially preventing her from ordering live ammunition removed from the path of a fire.

But Sen. Dean Martin, R-Phoenix, said that excuse does not wash.

He said the measure does not restrict any existing laws or regulations, regulations he said include the power to protect public safety by moving ammunition. What it does do, he said, is block a governor from unilaterally imposing new restrictions that have not been approved by the Legislature.

A better way would have been to go for a veto-proof majority in the state legislature. It would only have taken another couple votes from what I understand. Go to work on those few Democrats who betrayed the original bill during the final vote.