The Legislature has nine bills revising concealed pistol laws. Nine. Most seek to make it easier to sneak around with heat:
- House Bill 1072: repeal permit requirement, allow children to carry concealed pistols if mom or dad is around; pending in House.
- HB 1091: open permit renewal 90 days before expiration; passed House and Senate Local Government, pending in Senate.
- HB 1127: revise process for deployed soldier to renew permit; passed both chambers, House concurred in Senate amendments.
- HB 1147: add the fingerprint background check that past drafters apparently forgot; passed House, awaiting Senate State Affairs.
- HB 1154: allow some felons to carry concealed pistols (what could possibly go wrong?!); withdrawn by sponsor.
- HB 1156: allow concealed pistols in the Capitol; passed House, awaiting Senate State Affairs.
- HB 1194: require sheriff to give copies of any documents used to deny a permit; withdrawn by sponsor.
- HB 1211: Give permit holders sixty days after expiration to walk around with their guns without a permit; passed House, awaiting Senate committee.
- Senate Bill 94: repeal permit requirement; passed Senate Judiciary, awaiting Senate.
Only two bills have been withdrawn. None have been voted down. Most have sailed easily through their votes. The only exceptions have been Capitol-shooter HB 1156, which passed the House 46–20, on the edge of veto-overridability, and permit-repealer HB 1072, which struggled out of House State Affairs last week 7–6 and has been deferred twice in the House to end up on the calendar today, Crossover Day, the last day on which each chamber can pass bills to send to the other chamber.
Gun groups have gotten five of the six bills they want from the House. That’s a better success rate than I’ve ever enjoyed on any particular agenda. Yet National Association for Gun Rights lobbyist Jordan Mason says that the delay of HB 1072 is Speaker G. Mark Mickelson’s effort to “kill our Second Amendment rights!” Mason also says Speaker Mickelson is treating him poorly:
Apparently – some think I’m being overly “aggressive” on Constitutional Carry with Speaker Mickelson.
I have been polite and courteous to all of our Representatives, including the Speaker. In fact, in early February when I first approached Speaker Mickelson on this bill to schedule an appointment to speak to him – it was Speaker Mickelson, that after asking if I was the “gun guy,” began ranting about how he would do “everything he could to kill our bill,” and then kicked me out of his office before even giving me the courtesy of allowing me to personally introduce myself. To be fair, I did ask him if I could at least introduce myself after he asked me to leave – which he allowed me, and then showed me the door. Even further, after Speaker Mickelson was absent in House State Affairs all morning on Feb. 15, walked in on our bill – without hearing testimony – only to vote “No.” And then, today, in his introduction of HB 1200 – a bill designed to intimidate members of organizations by compelling the disclosure of their affiliation – Speaker Mickelson named the organization I represent by name, clearly directing his intimidation efforts at our organization and attempting to shift the discussion to an ad hominem attack on our organization – not the issue or policy he presented.
In all of this – I have only asked vehemently that we only focus on the issue and to encourage Speaker Mickelson, our organization has simply reached out to his constituents about his actions and statements. If Speaker Mickelson doesn’t like hearing from his constituents, I believe there are other lines of work available for him to pursue where that isn’t a requirement.
I make no apology for continuing my oath to defend our Constitution and the rights within. I have done so honorably and I have no reason to apologize, nor do the people I represent [Jordan Mason, Facebook post, 2017.02.23].
Also unhappy with the Speaker is rookie Rep. Tim Goodwin (R-30/Rapid City), who shares a privileged communication with his House leader:
The sad trend I see here is the gun absolutists unwillingness to compromise. Every little bill is a Constitutional crisis, a refighting of the Revolutionary War. Every tiny procedural delay is a sign of treason, a cause for mass electoral mobilization.
Get a grip, gun nuts. You’re already taking up more Legislative oxygen than your issue practically deserves. The concealed pistol permit is a reasonable requirement that helps us weed out bad actors. And the permit does not take away any of your Second Amendment rights: you can all strap a holster on your hip and proudly display your pistols around town all you want.
HB 1072’s delay is not the end of the world (though its provision allowing kids to carry concealed pistols with their parents could be the end of a few lives). HB 1072 is just another opportunity for impractical absolutists to grandstand about shiny toys that they will never use to resolve a policy debate, put food on the table, or raise anyone’s wages.
Please note: As the Governor wants to criminalize public assembly, Cory distracts us with his 2A dog whistle.
Come, Sit, Stay. Here’s your cookie… good boys.
HB 1211: Give permit holders sixty days after expiration to walk around with their guns without a permit; passed House, awaiting Senate committee.
Can I do this with my driver’s license and car insurance, too? Oh please.please.
barry freed, since when is a discussion about gun legislation a distraction? Can you only concentrate on one constitutional right at a time?
Cory, you have captured the essence of my problem with the gun lobby when you say:
“Every little bill is a Constitutional crisis, a refighting of the Revolutionary War. Every tiny procedural delay is a sign of treason, a cause for mass electoral mobilization.”
Instead of talking about important issues like how we are going to find funding for education in a tight state budget, the legislature spends most of its time fiddling while Rome burns. The end of the session will come soon and the amount of time that will have been spent on important state issues will be a small fraction of their time in Pierre. Now, let’s get back to talking about guns for toddlers that need to protect themselves at rough daycare facilities.
It’s just get more bizarre every year with the ammosexuals. Children being allowed to carry pistols if mommy or daddy is around? Good lord…..
Then let’s just let them drink and smoke when they’re kids also. A driver’s license doesn’t hurt at nine years old either.
Barry Freed,
If you had bothered to do about 5 minutes of research, you’d have found that Cory did an excellent post on
2-17-17 about SB176 and the governor’s overreach on protestors.
This post did nothing to distract, but only to follow up on the gun legislation proposed.
So then, if we even think a dude or dudette is going for something in their pocket or handbag, say a hanky, we have every right to put a hole in him or her because we feel threatened..nice.
Wait until one of these 2nd amendment nuts loose a kid or a spouse to this nonsense.
Or how bout this, when the brown guys and gals are packing openly. When you have that smoke wagon at the ready, you have to ask the conceal guy just how fast he is. In the meantime, where the hell are the jobs?
When the police go rogue on kids is when we need to take a hard look at what we are doing in a civilized society. Watch this and puke. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/anaheim-off-duty-officer-fires-gun-at-minors_us_58ae34aee4b057efdce8f729?b1n19gal7u1bgldi&
Do we really need all of this?
On the bright side, if enough of these paranoid whack jobs get to looking at each other while they are all armed to the hilt, this states conservative problem could sort itself out.
Never interfere with an enemy while he’s in the process of destroying himself.
The comfort that SD conservatives take in this being a conservative state is the complacency that eventually gets yourself killed.
Live by the gun; die by the gun.
Just when you think your gun makes your family safer, your 8 year old son accidentally blows his own head off.
Same as: just when you think gun issues are the thing that defines you, gun issues have already been settled upon decades ago and reinventing the wheel only makes a fool out of the inventor.
No wonder violent crime is exploding in FSD – higher than in OMA, FAR and headed to MSP rates. Guns for everyone! Mandatory guns in school backpacks! Cancel PE for mandatory grade school marksmanship classes. Soon we won’t need to debate legislation or court cases – we’ll shoot it out.
Chances in the US of being killed by a terrorist: 1 in 3.6 billion.
Chances in the US of being killed by a gun: 1 in 300.
We met the enemy and it is us.
The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals recognized so this week by refusing to allow war weapon coverage under the 2d Amendment. https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3469330/Decision-upholding-Maryland-s-weapons-ban.pdf Even former Justice Scalia wrote there are limits to the reach of the Second Amendment.
It would be helpful if the legislators sent to Pierre, spending our money, worked on our problems – like the state budget, like education, like public health, like bridges . . . instead of the ammosexuals solutions in search of problems.
As you embrace Cory’s lie about babies with guns and degrade yourselves by calling names, the Lawmakers took the first step to relieve you of your 1st Amendment Rights to assemble… just as predicted.
Next on Dakota Fake Press ©: Puppies with Guns…
oh, the humanity!
Nothing is going to change until we have a shootout with everyone pulling and shooting. If everyone is white, then what? Who do you go for? The poor sucker that is brown or black or Jewish, better get armed or they are going to get in the middle of the mess, because make no mistake, this is about you. This is clearly about race. In case you missed it, the place is being led by the alt right or white supremacists.
So why do we need the police then? Why are we paying them the salaries, benefits and retirement plans we are paying if they are viewed as useless and our legislature has chosen that we take the law into our own hands as judge, jury and executioner? Are the police just about rounding up migrant workers as well as other low hanging fruit? That seems to be where this is going.
In the meantime, if you are having a bad day or if there is a minor traffic accident or your having feelings of control, you always have Princess to talk to. She can make you feel whole as well as powerful. Just hope that you do not run into the same butt head out there that feels the same. Terminating someone just turned into a whole new game for employers to deal with. Jobs program would be to hire muscle for protection and get a subsidy for it from Daugaard and his legislature.
John,
That decision used one unconstitutional decision, limiting possession of machine guns to only the rich and the criminal, to justify ANOTHER unconstitutional decision.
Much like starting a Fake News story about babies with guns, and then using that story to give the air of credibility to your unsupportable and hyperbolic positions.
HB 1091 and 1211 seem pretty reasonable. I can renew my driver’s license 180 days ahead of time and 30 days after its expiration date. That’s 210 days to renew. Combined, those two bills would give 120 days, or two months less time.
I wonder why 1194 was withdrawn? I like the idea of furnishing evidence for denial.