Earlier today, the House Judiciary Committee voted to advance two pro-gun bills that will further protect Second Amendment rights in Arizona. Thank you to House Judiciary Chair Representative Nguyen and all committee members that voted to protect the rights of Arizona’s law-abiding gun owners!
The House Judiciary Committee passed the following bills:
Senate Bill 1014 amends Arizona’s definition of “Prohibited weapon” to no longer include suppressors. Current state law already exempts suppressors that are possessed, manufactured, or transported in compliance with federal law, which tightly regulates them.
Senate Bill 1020 prohibits governing boards of universities, colleges, and community colleges from enacting or enforcing any policy preventing the carrying of concealed handguns by carry permit holders or preventing citizens from lawfully transporting or storing firearms in locked vehicles hidden from view. Adults who are officially licensed to carry a firearm for self-defense should not be prevented from doing so just because they seek higher education.
Additionally, the Senate voted last week to pass the following bills, which have now been transmitted to the House for further consideration:
Senate Bill 1143 would prohibit financial institutions from using specific merchant code to track firearm purchases. In the Fall of 2022, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved a Merchant Category Code (MCC) for firearm retailers. MCCs are used by payment processors (like Visa and Mastercard) and other financial services companies to categorize transactions. MCCs enable payment processors and banks to identify, monitor, and collect data on certain types of transactions. Collecting firearm retailer financial transaction data amounts to surveillance and registration of law-abiding gun owners.
Senate Bill 1705 allows a court to assess a $5,000 civil penalty against a government official or agency head who knowingly and willfully violates state firearm preemption laws and would also prevent public money from being used to defend or reimburse this unlawful conduct. Firearms preemption statutes reserve for the state legislature the ability to regulate firearms in an effort to create consistency statewide and avoid a patchwork of local ordinances. SB 1705 will help ensure Arizonan’s Second Amendment rights are not infringed by local government officials acting in violation to this existing law.
Please stay tuned to your email inbox and www.nraila.org for further updates on these bills.
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