NRA, OK2A react to Fallin's veto

Following Gov. Mary Fallin's veto spree yesterday, which included 2nd Amendment-friendly legislation, pro-gun groups have issued strong responses.

From the NRA-ILA:

Today, in a surprising move, Governor Mary Fallin (R) vetoed high-priority NRA-supported legislation, House Bill 2461.  As previously reported, HB 2461 was sent to Governor Fallin for her signature following nearly unanimous passage in the Oklahoma Legislature.  HB 2461 passed unanimously in the Senate and passed in the House by a 92 to 1 vote.

Authored in the House by state Representative Mike Turner (R-82) and in the Senate by state Senator Nathan Dahm (R-33), HB 2461 would require that a chief law enforcement officer (CLEO) sign an application for the transfer of any item regulated under the National Firearms Act (NFA) within fifteen days if the applicant is not prohibited by law from receiving it.

This important policy improvement would prevent an arbitrary personal bias from determining Oklahoma firearm policy and ensure that qualified, law-abiding Oklahomans will not be denied their ability to legally possess and own NFA items.  The reforms in HB 2461 benefit law-abiding Oklahoma Second Amendment supporters by ensuring that the process to obtain NFA items already legal in Oklahoma remains consistent, fact-based and objective.

Despite today's veto, the NRA will be working tirelessly to ensure passage and enactment of this legislation this year.  It is critical that you call your state Representative and Senator and respectfully urge them to work with the NRA to ensure this widely supported important policy improvement does not fall victim to political games.  Contact information for your state Representative can be found here.  Contact information for your state Senator can be found here.  Please thank the bill sponsors for their continued dedication to the enactment of this measure this session.

Also, please call Governor Mary Fallin and send her a clear message that Second Amendment supporters in Oklahoma support this measure and demand enactment of this protection.

Governor Mary Fallin:
Oklahoma State Capitol
2300 North Lincoln Boulevard, Room 212
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
Phone: (405) 521-2342
Fax: (405) 521-3353
E-mail

From OK2A's president, Tim Gillespie:

What is the definition of stupid? When a governor of a conservative state vetoes two Second Amendment bills on an election year while facing a conservative democrat. That’s the definition of stupid and that’s exactly what Mary Fallin did Tuesday. To some my use of the word stupid might seem harsh or disrespectful. How else would you describe the Governor’s actions today? Misguided? Misinformed? Not well thought out? With all due respect, I think I’ll stick with stupid.

Our Vice President and I both spoke with the Governor’s staff on Tuesday and both conversations lead me to question the Governor’s judgment and that of her staff. I spoke with them about the knife preemption bill, that would bring knives under the state preemption law for firearms (the idea being that no town could have stricter knife or gun laws than the state so a person isn’t in jeopardy of unknowingly breaking a law as they travel between towns). The argument presented was that they didn’t want to muddy the waters on firearms law by including knives – that firearms law is a Second Amendment issue but knife laws aren’t. First, several attorneys were involved in the process of crafting this bill and none of them seemed to have a problem including knives under firearms preemption laws. Second, do we need to have a lesson on the meaning of the word arms? If all a person has to protect themselves with is a club, then government shouldn’t infringe on that person’s ability to keep or carry that club.

Our Vice President’s conversation with the Governor’s staff centered around the NFA shall issue bill. This bill would require chief law enforcement officers (Sheriffs) to perform background checks on NFA applications for full-autos, silencers, etc. This is in response to the President’s illegal rewriting of federal law concerning procedures for acquiring these items. Their reason for vetoing this bill? The state cannot regulate a federal agency. Huh? Tell me how this bill regulates a federal agency. It regulates Chief LEO’s in Oklahoma. The reality is by vetoing this bill, Governor Fallin has given the President exactly what he wants. Veto override efforts for these bills and the others the Governor vetoed on Tuesday will likely begin shortly.

The reasoning, or lack thereof, for the vetoes of these bills leads me to wonder if the Governor and her staff didn’t just use a good old fashioned game of eenie meenie miney mo to pick which bills she would veto. These are ridiculous reasons and they are nothing but a smokescreen. The real reason, and they aren’t even ashamed to admit this, is because the Governor isn’t happy with the House leadership’s priorities. They won’t allow her to take the state further into debt to fund her pet projects. In other words, they won’t give her what she want so she’s taking her ball and going home. What is this, a middle school playground? Tantrums are unbecoming for a person in Mary Fallin’s position!

So, let’s recap. Our Governor is proud of her efforts to play politics with one of the most basic and fundamental rights of mankind, the right to defend oneself. Our Governor, who claims to be pro-gun is more than willing to compromise the rights and freedoms of gun owners to make a political point. Wonderful. Perhaps instead of posting snarky comments on Facebook about and to legislators, the Governor’s staff should actually give her some good advice. Perhaps they should remind her that she does have a viable, conservative Democrat with a solid pro-gun record to contend with in the campaign. Perhaps they should remind her that this is a conservative, reddest of red, gun-loving state. Or, perhaps the Governor should just fire them for giving her terrible advice and then apologize to the people of Oklahoma for playing politics with their right to keep and bear arms. If she doesn’t, the people just might fire her in November.