"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms."
-- Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters from the Federal Farmer (1788) at 169.
Politicians, like most of us, respond to pain and pleasure. GOUtah!’s goal at this time is to utilize Utah’s state and county party nominating conventions to create political pain for certain prominent anti-gun legislators who are being challenged from within their own parties, and to provide political pleasure (in the form of volunteer help) for certain prominent pro-gun-rights legislators who are being challenged from within their own parties.
Phase 1 of Operation Pain and Pleasure was when you got involved in your local party caucus meetings last month. Thanks to those of you who did this, and congratulations to those who got elected as delegates.
Phase 2 is to help pro-gun candidates to win their parties’ nomination at convention, and to make it more difficult for anti-gun candidates to do so. This phase is currently underway. Some county parties have already held their conventions. Others have yet to do so, and the state conventions will be held on May 10. Please not that you don't need to be a delegate to help in Phase 2.
Please go to the Action Item at the end of this alert to find out what you can do to finish this process, which ends on May 10 (the date of the state conventions of Utah’s political parties). Thus far, the three pro-gun-rights state senators who most need our help have received very little in the way of assistance from gun owners. If you value your right to own and carry firearms, you should at least do something to help these guys, if only to thank them for their efforts to protect your rights and to offer them some positive reinforcement so that they’ll be encouraged to continue in their efforts if they get re-elected.
Thus far, we believe we've succeeded in causing political pain for Rep. Steven Urquhart and Sen. Curt Bramble, both of whom have, in our opinion, worked against us during the recent legislative session. Even though both of these legislators won their parties’ nominations for the State Senate, we believe that we may have made their victories a bit more difficult, and we hope that if they get elected in November, their lives in the Senate will not be as pleasant as they would have been without our efforts. We give an update on Rep. Urquhart's situation below. We also want to thank those of you who offered to help at last week's Utah County GOP Convention to create some political pain for Sen. Bramble. We'll give an update on Sen. Bramble's situation in a future alert.
More good news: Two legislators who were of tremendous service in defending the Second Amendment during the recent legislative session, Rep. Curt Oda and Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, have won their parties’ nomination despite being challenged by candidates from within their own parties. We congratulate Rep. Oda and Rep. Sandstrom and we thank them for their efforts to protect your Second Amendment rights.
Recall that anti-gun Rep. Steve Urquhart told GOUtah! (see Alert #298) that he sponsored his amendment to HB 473 (which in our opinion turned that bill from a very good bill into a very bad one) because Senate President John Valentine and House Speaker Greg Curtis had both directed him to do so, and that he sent SB 67 (Sen. Madsen’s excellent parking lot bill) to a hostile House committee (thereby guaranteeing its death after it had already passed the Senate) because Speaker Curtis had directed him to send it there. We published Rep. Urquhart’s letter in Alert #298. Here’s Sen. Valentine’s response, sent to GOUtah! Policy Director Charles Hardy after we had already published Alert #298:
Hi Charles,
Thanks for your Email. Rep. Urquhart is correct in that I did believe the original HB 473 would not fly in the legislature this year. I do recall being briefed that Rep. Urquhart was running an amendment to Rep. Curt Oda's bill, but I did not order it done, nor did I track the action on that bill in the House.
My instincts tell me that pushing for open carry right now would backfire on all of us who strongly believe in the natural right to self-protection. I believe the eventual result would do more harm than good to the legal ability to exercise rights enunciated by the Second Amendment. I would, however, support a bill to clarify that accidental displays do not violate the law. I understand this needs to be carefully written to avoid unintended consequences. I would look to you and your group for feedback on proposed legislation to that effect.
Thanks for your work. Keep in touch.
John
P.S. I co-sponsored Senator Madsen's parking lot bill (SB 67).
John L. Valentine
President of the Utah State Senate
Utah State Capitol Building
SLC, UT 84114
It appears that Sen. Valentine’s account conflicts with Rep. Urquhart’s version of events regarding the anti-gun amendment to HB 473. Rep. Urquhart says that he ran his amendment "pursuant to [the] direction" of Sen. Valentine and Speaker Curtis. Sen. Valentine says that he never ordered Rep. Urquhart to sponsor such an amendment.
Note that Rep. Urquhart has secured his party’s nomination for the State Senate. If Mr. Urquhart gets elected to the State Senate, where he will get to rub elbows with Sen. Valentine, we hope that the Senate leadership will not see fit to appoint Mr. Urquhart to any important positions in that august body.
There’s still some work to be done on Phase 2 of Operation Pain and Pleasure, and you can help.
Three State Senators who have helped our cause a lot in recent years are being challenged from within their own parties [district - party]:
Sen. Mark Madsen [13 - R],
Sen. Mike Waddoups [6 - R], and
Sen. Chris Buttars [10 - R].
We encourage you to help Sen. Madsen on or before May 10, and to help either Sen. Waddoups or Sen. Buttars on or before May 3. Note that you can help any of these senators to win at their respective party conventions, even if you aren’t a delegate and even if you aren’t a member of the same political party. If you do offer to help one or more of these senators, please mention that you are doing so because of their support for the Second Amendment.
Sen. Mark Madsen’s district includes portions of two counties, so his fate will be determined at the Utah State Republican Convention on Saturday, May 10. He is being vigorously opposed within his own party by a candidate who, we believe, will not be nearly as good on Second-Amendment issues as Sen. Madsen has been. Sen. Madsen has courageously sponsored several great pro-gun-rights and pro-self-defense bills the last couple of years, despite being opposed in his efforts by prominent members of the legislative leadership. The best way to thank Sen. Madsen for his efforts and to ensure that he’ll be able to continue in this vein is to help him at the Utah State GOP Convention on May 10. Sen. Madsen is looking for 30 volunteers, preferably people who are NOT state delegates. He’ll need you to spend 3 hours that Saturday morning at the convention to help his campaign. Please contact Sen. Madsen’s campaign directly at (801)361-4787 to get details on how you can help, or you can visit his website at http://www.votemadsen.com/volunteer.
Sen. Mike Waddoups has also been a staunch defender of the Second Amendment in recent legislative sessions (most recently he managed to kill HB 473 after it had been hijacked by Rep. Urquhart and turned into an anti-gun bill), and he is being challenged within his own party. His fate will be determined at the Salt Lake County GOP Convention on Saturday, May 3. You don’t need to be a delegate to help out with Sen. Wadoups’ campaign. If you live in Salt Lake County, please contact Sen. Waddoups at mwaddoups@utahsenate.org or at (801)967-0225 for details on how you can help.
Finally, Sen. Chris Buttars is being challenged at the Salt Lake County GOP Convention this Saturday, May 3. Please contact him at (801)561-0535 or at dcbuttars@utahsenate.org for details on how you can help.
"I question the legitimacy and accuracy of an editorial that uses terms of excess like 'toss them (gun permits) around like confetti,' 'littering the streets with handguns' and 'gun-loving' ('Loose Cannon', Our View, April 19). The editorial describes unlikely events that would occur if all states had reciprocal agreements on hidden-gun permits. It says that states' rights are violated by allowing the more liberal gun rights states to dictate to those states with more strict controls.
To put this in perspective, suppose that you had to have a driver license for every state that you drove in? Wouldn't that be fun? Remember, the right to bear arms is a constitutional matter, driver licenses are not."
-- William E. Jones, in a letter printed in The Salt Lake Tribune, 25 April 2008.
"Craig Nytch is wrong to assert that the same need for self-defense that existed in the time of the founders exists now ('Guns and self-defense,' Forum , April 17). The situation is, in fact, very different.
Our colonial forebears banded together with their single-shot weapons in militias (some more well-regulated than others) typically to defend their homes and families from the depredations of the natives who objected to having their lands stolen from them.
The present problem is psychopaths armed with automatic weapons running amok in public places. The National Rifle Association and its apologists have failed to produce a single useful suggestion on how to protect the public in these circumstances. No, a shoot-out in our malls or schools is not the solution."
-- Christopher A. Biltoft, in a letter printed in The Salt Lake Tribune, 26 April 2008.
That concludes the GOUtah! Political and Legislative Alert #300 for 30 April, 2008. We hope this information will be of assistance to you in defending your firearms rights.
Remember that getting this information is meaningless unless You Act On It Today. If you just read it and dump it in the trash, your gun rights, and the gun rights of future generations go in the trash with it. Get involved, get active and get vocal!
Return to GOUtah! Archive Index
Return to GOUtah! Home Page