As expected, it's been a pleasure working with my long-time friend, Representative Judy Boyle on our 2nd Amendment issues this session. We've tried to herd all the ideas for protecting our rights, as well as our citizens, and have come together with many very good bills. Here is a summary of what you should see happening this next week in both the House and Senate on 2nd Amendment issues:

Monday will be public hearings in House State Affairs for two of the bills and print hearings for two more. Legislation is called an RS (Routing Slip) before becoming an official bill. An RS is the confidential personal property of the sponsor and is not seen until it receives a print hearing. If a committee agrees to print the RS, it is then given a number and placed on the legislative website for the public to review prior to a public hearing. Once/if these 2 RS's are printed we will be able to discuss their intent and impact

One bill, now printed is H192, up for a full hearing Monday, is a new enanced carry conceal permit which should allow Idahoans to carry in at least 39 states. This permit will require 8 hours of intense face to face training with 98 rounds of live fire, information on legal aspects, how to handle an active shooter situation, and more. Rep Joe Palmer (R-Meridian) is the sponsor.

Another bill, H183, is also scheduled for a full hearing Monday and is sponsored by Rep Terry Gestrin (R-Donnelly). This is cleans up old language that was missed in our 2008 Senate bill S1441 which declared the legilature would be the sole authority to regulate concealed firearms with a few exceptions. The old language of still on the books that was found by a citizen in Dist 20 is now conflicting with the new language and says that cities have the authority to regulate, prohibit, or punish the use of concealed weapons. H183 would remove that ability and make clear only the legislature regulates concealed firearms as defined in our Constitution and Idaho statute.

In the Senate, we have S1099 which de-regulates the requirement for the tax stamp required when purchasing a suppressor or transferring a suppressor between Idaho citizens within Idaho boarders. The importance of this is based on hearing loss and costs now being incurred by Idahoans through the noise pollution of shooting sports while not wearing proper hearing protection. Hearing loss to all Idahoans is now in the 6% range directly caused by shooting sports. Health and Welfare, in 2012, spent over $330k in hearing mitigation for Idaho's poor directly related to shooting sports. The rest of Idahoans each spend well over $4k in repairing damaged hearing. Most of this happens in hunting situations where wearing hearing protection is counter productive to the sport. Suppressors are now legal for anyone to own (they are not a firearm, more like a car muffler) and hunt with in Idaho, the $200 tax stamp is another price barrier keeping many from buying one to shoot with to protect their hearing and the hearing of those around them.

A final RS in the Senate should be heard this week that has to do with K-12 security ensuring that we have proper plans in place needed to protect our citizens attending, teaching and working in our schools. Ensuring that measures taken are left up to local managers to control based on available resources... more once this is printed.

Once all of these RS's are printed, I will provide the links to you all here for review so you can provide your input to your legislators.
http://chumly.com/n/1a6c604