On February 19, 2013 two pro-second amendment bills were referred to the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee in the Oklahoma state senate. SB 401 is controversial in that lawmakers would allow firearms owners who have a valid handgun license issued pursuant to the Oklahoma Self-Defense Act carry firearms on school campuses, which would nullify the Federal Gun-Free School Zones Act. SB548 would nullify any federal law that would violate a law abiding citizen’s right to keep and bear arms and criminally punish any federal agent who would attempt to enforce such a law within the state of Oklahoma. SB552 would allow citizens of the state of Oklahoma to carry loaded weapons in their vehicle unless they are committing a crime.
After the tragic shootings in Aurora, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut last year, many law abiding gun owners are concerned that their Second Amendment rights will be overridden by new gun control laws that have been proposed by President Obama, Congress, and numerous state legislators across the country. The Second Amendment states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” (Emphasis by this reporter.)
As there is no constitutional provision for a standing army in the United States, a militia of citizens using their personal firearms was deemed necessary for the defense of the nation. Some would consider self-defense and protecting the lives of children at schools part of the defense of the nation because they would be protecting the nation’s future.
State Senator Don Barrington who chairs the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee has decided to not hear these bills in committee until the Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor, Todd Lamb, has heard the findings of the Oklahoma Commission on School Security. Senator Barrington states that he is in favor of supporting the Second Amendment and that the bills will remain active until the end of the legislative session next year.
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