Current Legislation?

[Enjay]

I'm wondering if we have anything in the works right now and what it is.
Any more news on being able to carry in restaurants that also serve alcohol?

 

[carsontech]

The page below was a good place to see what kind of firearm related bills were in legislation. Now that Grassroots is dead, I'm not sure if they are gonig to update it when the next legislative session starts up. So far, it seems up to date, as nothing new was introduced before they got shut down"

http://www.scfirearms.org/Legislative/LegislationUpdate.html

This tool almost always returns the latest bills in legislature. You can use the SCStateHouse.gov serch function to return an index of bills concerning firearms. Just select a topic that is related to what you are searching for. For bills concerning firearms, select "Weapons" near the bottom of the list, NOT "Firearms":

http://scstatehouse.gov/cgi-bin/web_index.exe

 

[carsontech]

Here's what the SC State House search returns. I modified the format of the returned results so that the bill number is in front of the descriptions and the bill number link takes you to the bill instead of that bill's into/description page:

WEAPONS - Session 119 - (2011-2012)
WEAPONS

• h3140 - Assault weapon, included in statute, penalties, defined
• h3639 - Concealed weapon permits, provisions deleted that prohibits a permit holder from carrying a concealed weapon into certain places
• h3161 - Concealed weapon, person with permit may secure his weapon under a vehicle seat or storage compartment
• h3292 - Concealed weapon, revise circumstances and locations that allows lawful carrying of firearm; permits provisions; motor vehicle weapon provisions
• s0203 - Concealed weapons, this section supersedes and preempts any ordinance that restricts carry concealed weapons
• h3664 - Firearm or ammunition, in enclosed compartment, prohibit a business entity, property owner or employer from creating or maintaining a policy which prohibits a person from storing; provisions and penalties
• h3766 - Firearm, Violent crime, discharging a firearm into a dwelling house added to
• s0265 - Firearm, in possession of during commission of a controlled substance offense and person is convicted of committing a controlled substance offense; person to be imprisoned and additional five years, provisions
• h3398 - Firearm, theft of offense created, penalties
• s0618 - Firearm, used in the commission of an alleged murder must be returned to it owner under certain circumstances
• s0249 - Firearms Freedom Act
• h3882 - Firearms, Fraudulent firearms and Ammunition purchase prevention, penalties and provisions
• h3116 - Handgun, unlawful carrying and sale of, penalties for each increased
• h3127 - Hunting firearm, limited pardon granted to person convicted of nonviolent felony offense that would allow him to carry firearm used for hunting
• h3769 - Jayden's Law, firearm, illegal possession of to be a felony offense; penalties and confiscation provisions
• h3292 - Law-Abiding Citizens Protection Act
• h3405 - Public official, elected or appointed, allowed to carry a concealed weapon while on duty
• h3559 - Vehicle, unlawful for person to operate a vehicle that has a false or secret compartment that contains illegal substance, firearm or other contraband; penalties

 

[Frost]

I personally think the loss of Grass Roots is a major problem.
I have read about the problems with the organization but it was better than nothing.

Does anyone have any updates on the status?

 

[carsontech]

The Grassroots "forum" is still alive, barely, and open to the public. The only thing is, its in the format of Yahoo Groups, which is a throwback to old school late 80s early 90s message boards... I HATE that format. The default format lists posts in order, instead of grouping them togething by topicsm but you can change that in the settings.

You do have to sign up with yahoo to get on the board. I'm on there and I haven't seen much on the status of Grassroots.

There use to be a bunch of posts that bashed the guy who disbanded them, but those have been removed. From the looks of it, Grassroots, as a 2nd Amendment rights fighting group, is deader than a door nail:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scfirearms/

 

[carsontech]

Actually, I take that back, I meant to say "Grassroots is deader than a door nail, for now." I forgot to mention the status of the suite is pending, according to the Lexington County Eleventh Judicial Circuit:

http://cms.lex-co.com/scjdweb/Publi...P3201393&CourtType=G&County=32&CaseType=Civil

 

[Enjay]

The Grassroots "forum" is still alive, barely, and open to the public. The only thing is, its in the format of Yahoo Groups, which is a throwback to old school late 80s early 90s message boards... I HATE that format.

I also dislike the Yahoo Groups format, but use it for several of the lists that I'm on that won't leave LOL
I went and checked out the group but was unable to see anything unless I joined. I requested membership, we'll see how long it takes the moderator to allow me in.

Frost, Caitlin posted a link a while back to an article where the man who brought Grassroots down said that he welcomed questions and to contact the author of the article for his email. I contacted the author and have yet to receive a response.

(and I keep typing Grassrots, mildly amusing and perhaps appropriate)

I was checking out the new legislation and the Law Abiding Citizen act looks promising, it appears as though they're trying to make it so that unless the business that is licensed to consume alcohol on premises doesn't have the correct legal signage it's not illegal, but it also appears as though they're beefing up the punishment for carrying into a place that does have the proper signage.

When is the next session?

 

[carsontech]

Frost, Caitlin posted a link a while back to an article where the man who brought Grassroots down said that he welcomed questions and to contact the author of the article for his email. I contacted the author and have yet to receive a response.

Definitely let us know what he says if he contacts you back.

I was checking out the new legislation and the Law Abiding Citizen act looks promising, it appears as though they're trying to make it so that unless the business that is licensed to consume alcohol on premises doesn't have the correct legal signage it's not illegal, but it also appears as though they're beefing up the punishment for carrying into a place that does have the proper signage.

Yup, that's H3292 in it's original form, pro-gun but it has ambiguous verbiage. You will see another H3292 listed as well, it's the same thing, they just changed the name for some reason. That's not the actual bill though, as you have read in the thread about H3292's history. The actual H3292 bill that's sitting in legislature is Vier's "anti-gun" bill.

When is the next session?

Sometime in January of 2012, I forgot the exact date.

 

[Enjay]

Andrew, I sure will let you know what, if any, reply I get.

Also, when I posted:

...they're trying to make it so that unless the business that is licensed to consume alcohol on premises doesn't have proper signage ...

I meant to say ...so that IF the business...

 

[Frost]

I have to wonder about the guy who brought them down.
What was his REAL agenda?

 

[Enjay]

It does make one curious, doesn't it?
I have, again, used the contact form at stuffed suits to ask to be put in touch with Mr. Looney. Here's what I said:

Copy of:

This is an enquiry e-mail via http://stuffedsuits.com/ from:
Enjay Steele <[email protected]>

I'd like to get into contact with Mr. Looney to see what is/can be done to either resurrect Grassroots or to begin anew. Thank you.

 

[John Canuck]

For what it's worth, I've made some efforts to contact the NRA ILA representative in SC. I was basically told that they aren't interested in talking to the membership about the upcoming session. I guess I have no reason to become a member. Anyone know who works for the NRA here?

 

[carsontech]

There are two "NRA Field Reps" listed on the following site, along with 3 upcoming events for the "Friends of the NRA":

http://www.friendsofnra.org/StateHome.aspx?sid=42

I thought about going to the Gaffney one to try to get some answers, that is, until I saw the admission was $30.00 a ticket. I wish I had more money to help fight for our rights. Plus, I don't feel like giving money to a group that actually fought against getting Constitutional Carry in Arizona and Wyoming, and then took the credit for getting it passed.

 

[The General]

The job of the NRA Field Reps is to fund raise (with the dinners, etc). They do NOT address legislative issues. That's the ILA guy.

If you want to know what is happening in the SC Legislature, contact Mike Pitts - He is our Champion in the State Legislature.

Basically, he's trying to consolodate the gun laws into one section and then get more in line with the 2nd Amendment: If you're law abidding, do what you want.

Can anyone give a 5-minute version of what happened to Grass Roots?? I heard it has something to do with gaining access to the membership list - Looney wants everyones name, address, and phone number.

-Mike

 

[Enjay]

There's this article:
http://stuffedsuits.com/news/sc-politics/379-grassroots-gun-rights-the-full-story-

It was written by Looney so I don't know how truthful it is to his motivations, but he says he did it because Grass Roots wasn't following the legal requirements for a non-profit in that there hadn't been an election for the board in several years, they weren't providing members with bi-laws as they are supposed to, etc. He also mentioned things such as internal politics that kept bills from being pushed or even worked on but I don't know that there is a way to verify that information.

If anyone knows of a less biased explanation please post it.

 

[John Canuck]

Mike Pitts. Time to write a letter.

http://www.scstatehouse.gov/members/bio ... 33914.html

Some more info about Grass Roots.

http://www.redstate.com/workingtommyc/2 ... oking-gun/

 

[Enjay]

Interesting that Looney never mentions Kelleher and instead seems to focus on Butler entirely. I hadn't read the article you linked to before and had (incorrectly) assumed that Butler was the president of the organization.
Thank you.