Town Hall - Today

Sisyphus actually got a reduced sentence in rolling that rock uphill. He could have been doomed to spend eternity trying to get a politician to change his or her mind.

Present were:
2 senators, Kerr and Jahn along with 1 representative, whose name escapes me.
4-6 legislative aides
10-12 cops
about 300 constituents, some 275 of whom wanted to discuss the upcoming gun bills.
Topics to be discussed ranged from Education and how we should spend more money on a system that doesn't teach students anything (they admitted this!) to Transportation and how we should spend more money on roads and bridges while keeping 50% of the state transportation budget devoted to light rail. Business was also discussed, although Magpul never came up.

20 minutes was allotted at the end for general questions, which turned into 15 minutes after the intros, and 10 minutes after a windy statement by some fool whose cutoff was applauded even by the gunnies.

The Senators were accused of sweeping the issue under the rug. The Senators responded that they had been having town halls for the last 2 or 3 months and where were we? No one had a chance to point out that the bills in question had been before the House for only about 1 month which was where our efforts had been focused. Likewise no one got to bring up the pretty standard form letter we get back from a Senator (all of them) stating that since the bills had not yet appeared in the Senate, they hadn't read them or given them much thought.

Senate offices must be located in a padded, soundproof part of the Capitol building.

Sen Kerr studiously avoided taking anything that might be interpreted as a position, and Sen Jahn went on about her ongoing concern with the possibility of some of the bills having "unintended consequences". Remember that phrase when you write Sen Jahn.

Keep those cards and letters (and phone calls) coming. I think they have in mind committee hearings on Monday, Senate approval on Wednesday, and Governors signature on Friday.

Today it was noted that the magazine restriction bill was written in such a way as to ban most pump shotguns if a magazine extender is even available for it that would extend its capacity to greater than 8 rounds. That would be most of them. Unintended consequences anyone?