Legislative bills that would impact our daily lives

Memorial to U of A professor Thomas Meixner.

Here are some bills at the Arizona Legislature that will negatively or positively impact our daily lives here in Tucson. There are bills that prohibit college campuses from banning concealed weapons (even after the recent shooting of a U of A professor!) and further criminalize the homeless. But there are also some good bills that support school gardens and provide low interest loans for down payments for first time, limited income home buyers. You can find some more good bills here. 

If you are registered on the Request to Speak system, please, weigh in while they are still in committee.   

Sign in to RTS here: https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

These bills are dangerously close to going for a vote on the floor, so you might want to contact the committee members directly. I'll put the contact info belove bill descriptions. 


Scheduled for House Appropriations Committee, Monday and Wednesday

HB2329, sponsored by Marcelino Quiñonez (D-11), would appropriate $12 million from the general fund to create the First Generation Home Buyers Down Payment Assistance Grant Fund. The fund would provide five-year loans for first-time disadvantaged homebuyers to use for down payments. The goal is to help people buy what may be the first home for anyone in their extended family. SUPPORT.

Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday

SB1300, sponsored by Wendy Rogers (R-7), would prohibit universities and community colleges from banning anyone with a concealed weapons permit — not just students — from possessing, storing, transporting guns on campus. College campuses and guns are a deadly combination, increasing the risks of suicide, homicide and sexual assault. Even our founding fathers believed guns had no place on college campuses. Getting a concealed-weapons permit in Arizona is ridiculously easy. The same bill was also introduced last year. Duplicate bill HB2667, sponsored by Rachel Jones (R-17), is also in committee this week. OPPOSE.

SB1413, sponsored by Justine Wadsack (R-17), would require cities and counties to immediately remove any "homeless encampment" and throw away all materials found there. Homeless people on private property would be charged with trespassing. The bill does not include solutions for housing or shelter. The definition of “homeless encampment” is so broadly written as to criminalize recreational camping. In addition to being blatantly cruel, this bill criminalizes homelessness and has constitutionality issues. The bill was written by the libertarian lobbyist group Goldwater Institute. . OPPOSE.

Scheduled for Senate Appropriations Committee, Thursday

SCR1011, sponsored by Steve Kaiser (R-2), would ask voters to allow the Housing Trust Fund to be used to fund state-funded “tent cities” for individuals experiencing homelessness, which would have to be prioritized before any permanent housing solution. Any city with higher homeless rates than the state average would face penalties, encouraging them to simply evict people. It would also ban “unauthorized sleeping” on state land, even as rising rents push more people toward that option. Arizona has one of the worst homelessness crises in the nation. This would segregate and criminalize people without addressing the root causes: “a vicious mix of inflation, stagnant wages, limited housing, and skyrocketing rent.” Why not invest in another, better option?  OPPOSE.

Support the good bills, like...

SB1546, sponsored by Lela Alston (D-5), would set up a $100,000 grant program for district and charter school community gardens. School gardens offer many benefits, including making healthy food more appealing to kids, helping fight hunger, and aiding emotional regulation. SUPPORT.

Contact info. if you want to contact committee members: 

House Appropriations

David Livingston (R-28) - Chair - dlivingston@azleg.gov / 602-926-4178
Joseph Chaplik (R-3) - Vice Chair - jchaplik@azleg.gov / 602-926-3436
Selina Bliss (R-1) sbliss@azleg.gov / 602-926-4018
Michael Carbone (R-25) mcarbone@azleg.gov / 602-926-4038
Lupe Diaz (R-19) ldiaz@azleg.gov / 602-926-4852
Tim Dunn (R-25) tdunn@azleg.gov / 602-926-4139
Matt Gress (R-4) mgress@azleg.gov / 602-926-4015
Quang Nguyen (R-1) qnguyen@azleg.gov / 602-926-3258
Barbara Parker (R-10) bparker@azleg.gov / 602-926-3681
Lorena Austin (D-9) laustin@azleg.gov / 602-926-3968
Marcelino Quiñonez (D-11) mquinonez@azleg.gov / 602-926-3285
Athena Salman (D-8) asalman@azleg.gov / 602-926-4858
Judy Schwiebert (D-2) jschwiebert@azleg.gov / 602-926-3390
Amish Shah (D-5) ashah@azleg.gov / 602-926-3280
Stephanie Stahl Hamilton (D-21) sstahlhamilton@azleg.gov / 602-926-3279

Senate Appropriations

John Kavanagh (R-3) - Chair - jkavanagh@azleg.gov / 602-926-5170
Jake Hoffman (R-15) - Vice Chair- jake.hoffman@azleg.gov / 602-926-3292
Ken Bennett (R-1) kbennett@azleg.gov / 602-926-5874
David Farnsworth (R-10) dfarnsworth@azleg.gov / 602-926-3387
Anthony Kern (R-27) akern@azleg.gov / 602-926-3497
Sine Kerr (R-25) skerr@azleg.gov / 602-926-5955
Lela Alston (D-5) lalston@azleg.gov / 602-926-5829
Eva Diaz (D-22) ediaz@azleg.gov / 602-926-3473
Brian Fernandez (D-23) bfernandez@azleg.gov / 602-926-3098
Raquel Terán (D-26) rteran@azleg.gov / 602-926-3308

Sign the petition: Block the NRA’s dream bill

Senate Democrats: Stop the NRA. Block concealed carry reciprocity

Tell Senate Democrats: “Block concealed carry reciprocity legislation that would undermine state laws that protect residents from gun violence.”

Add your name:

Parkland, Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, Orlando. Whether it’s mass shootings or the appalling number of daily gun deaths, the National Rifle Association’s “guns everywhere” agenda is fueling an epidemic of gun violence in our country.

After each mass tragedy, Republicans offer their thoughts and prayers for the victims but show their blind allegiance to the NRA by refusing to act to keep their constituents safe. But now that Trump’s in the White House, they are going even further to help the NRA ramp up its extremist agenda on a national scale – with a reckless, dangerous bill to undermine gun safety laws across the country.

The right-wing Republican extremists in the House of Representatives recently passed the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) dream bill.1 The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act would undermine state efforts to protect residents from gun violence and force every state to abide by the weakest gun laws in the country.

Now more than ever we need to do everything we can to stop the NRA. Republicans are so beholden to the NRA that they will do their bidding, but Democratic senators have the power to block the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. Can you add your name today to make sure they act as a firewall between our communities and the NRA’s extremism?

Tell Senate Democrats: Block the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. Click here to sign the petition.

Every state allows some kind of concealed carry, but 39 states require a gun owner to obtain a permit before publicly carrying concealed weapons in public.2 Some of those states require training before residents can get those permits. Some states block people who have committed violent crimes, domestic abusers, stalkers or people with mental illness that make them a danger to themselves or others from buying a gun or getting a concealed carry permit. Nearly every state restricts residents from carrying concealed weapons in places like schools, hospitals, government buildings or bars.3

The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act uses the differences between states’ gun control laws to water down protections across the country. It forces states to recognize concealed carry permits issued by any other state, no matter how lax the state’s permitting standards are.4 It will encourage people, including domestic abusers, who cannot get a concealed carry license in one state to “permit shop:” applying in another state with weaker laws and bringing their gun back to the state where they live.5 A resident of a state whose legislature has stood up for public safety and passed gun control legislation would be no safer than a resident of a state whose legislature is in the pocket of the NRA.

Years of statistics prove that comprehensive state gun laws lead to fewer gun deaths, but the NRA wants to undermine public safety by advancing a reckless, dangerous policy like concealed carry reciprocity.6 Senate Democrats must use their power to reject the NRA’s extremism and block this deadly bill.

Tell Senate Democrats: Block the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. Click the link below to sign the petition:

https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Senate_Concealed_Carry?t=7&akid=27312%2E3130208%2Ey_L0aP

Heidi Hess, CREDO Action


Add your name:

References:

1. Dana Liebelson, "One Month After Texas Church Shooting, House Republicans Vote To Expand Gun Rights," HuffPost, Dec. 6, 2017.
2. Michele Gorman, “Guns in America: What is national concealed carry reciprocity?” Newsweek, April 10, 2017.
3. Ibid.
4. Everytown for Gun Safety, “Federally Mandated Concealed Carry Reciprocity," accessed Dec. 6, 2017.
5. Polly Mosendz, "Get Ready for Concealed Guns in All 50 States," Bloomberg Politics, Nov. 30, 2017.
6. Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, "2016 Gun Law State Scorecard,” accessed Dec. 6, 2017.

Tell Republicans in Congress: Thoughts and prayers are not enough

Detective Barbara J. Mattson with a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle

The petition to Republicans in Congress reads: “Put your constituents before the National Rifle Association. Take immediate action to ban weapons of war, including assault weapons and large capacity magazines, which have no place in the hands of private citizens.” Add your name:

Within hours of Wednesday’s deadly mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school – which took the lives of at least 17 people – Republican politicians without the courage to support real solutions to our gun violence crisis released statements and social media posts offering their “thoughts and prayers” to the victims and their families.1 It was the exact same cowardly, ineffectual response they offered after gunmen wielding AR-15 assault rifles killed people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, a concert in Las Vegas, Pulse nightclub in Orlando and Sandy Hook Elementary School.2 It is time for Republicans in Congress to join Democrats in standing up to the National Rifle Association and pass an assault weapons ban that will save American lives. Tell Republicans in Congress: Thoughts and prayers are not enough. We need gun control now. Click here to sign the petition. Tragic mass shootings like the one Wednesday in South Florida have become all too common. The last 5 months alone now account for three of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history.3 In the past 5 years, there have been nearly 300 school shootings in the United States4 – including 18 so far in 2018 alone.5 According to Newsweek, “Florida has some of the weakest gun laws in the country.” Gun owners are not required to have a license, they are not required to register their guns and it is perfectly legal to own semi-automatic assault rifles like the one used in Wednesday’s tragic shooting.6 The heartbreaking truth is that the combination of weak state and federal gun laws made Wednesday’s horrific attack possible. Tell Republicans in Congress: Thoughts and prayers are not enough. We need gun control now. Click here to sign the petition. There’s one reason why politicians consistently fail to take real action on gun violence: The National Rifle Association. The NRA has a chokehold on Congress that keeps most bills about gun control from even coming to the floor for a vote. Politicians beholden to – or afraid of – the NRA are willing to turn their backs on their constituents when it comes time to implement reasonable limits and controls on guns. But you can count on them for a “heartbroken” tweet about their “thoughts and prayers” when a tragic shooting makes the national news. Finally breaking the NRA’s chokehold on Congress will require massive grassroots pressure on our elected officials, demanding that they deliver more than thoughts and prayers in the face of our epidemic of gun violence. We must forcefully demand that Congress takes immediate action to ban weapons of war, including assault weapons and large capacity magazines. Please add your name to our emergency petition now. Tell Republicans in Congress: Thoughts and prayers are not enough. We need gun control now. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/parkland?t=8&akid=27298%2E3130208%2EzI61pD - Heidi Hess, CREDO Action Add your name: Ed Mazza, "People Sick Of ‘Thoughts And Prayers’ Demand Action After Florida School Shooting," HuffPost, Feb. 15, 2018. Igor Volsky, "Tweet," Twitter, Feb. 14, 2018. The New York Times, "Florida Shooting: Nikolas Cruz Is Charged With 17 Counts of Murder," Feb. 15. 2018. BBC News, "Florida shooting: 'Policy and change' not 'thoughts and prayers,'" Feb. 15. 2018. Meghan Keneally, "There have already been 18 school shootings in the US this year: Everytown," ABC News, Feb. 14, 2018. Chantal Da Silva, "Florida Massacre Survivor Tells Trump: 'I Don't Want Your Condolences,' Demands Gun Control," Newsweek, Feb. 15, 2018.