Cheuvront Sabotage in the Senate

Yesterday afternoon Sabotage of the Senate Version of Constitutional Carry was conducted by Senator Cheuvront and those who voted in support of his hostile amendment. You can witness the horror of their attack on our freedoms for yourself here (currently not available but it should show up within a few days) Details from AZCDL:

[On the afternoon of Thursday February 18, 2010], the Senate debated SB 1102 in the Committee of the Whole (COW). The COW debate is the last chance for a bill to get amended before a formal (Third Read) floor vote by the full Senate. During the COW debate, Democrat Senator Ken Cheuvront (http://azcdl.capwiz.com/bio/id/1881) submitted a hostile amendment, right out of the Brady Center playbook, which would make it a class 4 felony to not verify citizenship on any private sale conducted at a gun show. This is the same amendment that was defeated during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on SB 1102. The text of Senator Cheuvront's amendment is here: http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/adopted/s.1102cheuvront1027.pdf .

Initially, Senator Cheuvront’s amendment was defeated by voice vote during the debate on SB 1102. However, parliamentary procedures allowed him to reintroduce his amendment during the process of “closing” the COW calendar containing SB 1102 and a number of other bills. At that point, Senator Cheuvront asked for a recorded vote. As expected, all 12 Democrats in the Senate voted for the Cheuvront amendment. Of the 18 Republicans, Senator Jonathan Paton was not present for the vote, and the following 3 Republicans “crossed the aisle” to limit your freedoms, voting to PASS the Cheuvront amendment by a 15-14 vote.

Senator Carolyn S. Allen: http://azcdl.capwiz.com/bio/id/1886 .
Senator Steve Pierce: http://azcdl.capwiz.com/bio/id/24366 .
Senator Jay Tibshraeny: http://azcdl.capwiz.com/bio/id/48998 .

If any one of this “turncoat trio” had voted against the Cheuvront amendment, it would have failed by 14-15. Joining in the vote of their fellow Democrats to damage your rights were two Democrats who have received favorable NRA ratings because of their prior support of pro-rights firearms legislation:

Senator “Manny” Alvarez: http://azcdl.capwiz.com/bio/id/136029 .
Senator Rebecca Rios: http://azcdl.capwiz.com/bio/id/148303 .

It is imperative that we let these 5 senators know, in no uncertain terms, what a grave mistake they have made. We strongly encourage everyone receiving this Alert to go to our Action Center and send the letter that is waiting there. We urge you to express your feelings and feel free to modify the language we have provided:
http://azcdl.capwiz.com/azcdl/issues/alert/?alertid=14703956 .

This is NOT the end of our attempt to get Constitutional Carry passed this session. There are several opportunities that we can take advantage of. However, at this point SB 1102 will not be calendared for a Senate Third Read (final vote before being sent to the House) until we have determined the optimum strategy.

Bottom-line: We will not sacrifice your right to privately sell firearms in order to achieve Constitutional Carry!

Stay tuned! When critical legislation moves, we will notify you via these Alerts.

If you want to get legislative news as it happens, follow AzCDL on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AzCDL_Alerts .
AzCDL “tweets” from the Capitol with committee votes and breaking news as it happens.

You can also follow AzCDL on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/FacebookAzCDL .

AzCDL’s Political Action Committee (PAC) is also on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/FacebookAzCDLPAC .

These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization. Renew today! http://www.azcdl.org/html/join_us_.html .

AzCDL – Protecting Your Freedom
http://www.azcdl.org/html/accomplishments.html .

Copyright © 2010 Arizona Citizens Defense League, Inc., all rights reserved.