WA State Alien Firearms Licenses Part II

[Gungnir]

IANAL but my logic would be...

They would only stand any real chance if the RCW was repealed because of court action declaring it Unconstitutional, and therefore illegal. Then they sued.

If the State eliminates the problem before they're prosecuted, then they have taken action to stop enforcing an unconstitutional law, and they're mostly clean. Since once this happens the legal situation is much more confused, the chances of successfully issuing a class action lawsuit against the state, for illegally repressing lawful rights of "under the jurisdiction thereof..." whether directly impacted (by arrest, conviction, and/or deportation, loss of Job etc.) or indirectly impacted for mental anguish. Is not as cut and dried. The burden of proof would be on the plaintiffs not the defendants, you'd have to prove that the law was Unconstitutional, and that the State demonstrated Mens Rea (intent) to enforce the law in FULL knowledge that the law was unconstitutional to basically prove knowingly victimizing Aliens. This is much more difficult to prove if the law is repealed in Olympia rather than the courts.

 

[waverace]

The fact that there have already been several attempts to fix this already constitutes (in my op) their knowledge that its wrong on some level .

 

[waverace]

emergency clause

Heres a question for those that understand how lawmaking works , on HB1052 there is a line that reads that there is an emergency clause and that the bill should be effective immediately , what does this mean in real life ?
If you are just guessing please say so if you know for sure then say also .
IMO it means that as soon as the governer signs that it should be effective and we should not have to wait until the RCW is actually physically rewritten .
Does this sound about right ?
Also I realise that this is not a one step process , so how long could we reasonably expect this to take ?

 

[MD_Willington]

I'll ask the Attorneys about that clause.

 

[Gungnir]

on HB1052
Jan 29 Executive action taken in the House Committee on Judiciary at 10:00 AM.
JUDI - Executive action taken by committee

 

[armedandsafe]

First reading. Keep sending notes and calls, people.

Pops

 

[Gungnir]

Yeah, just keeping the thread alive, and making sure that people are aware, write your State Congressmen found here.

Write them, asking for support of the bill, explain the current NRA/SAF situation, and how they're pursuing Washington State on 2nd and 14th amendment violations for LPR's.

The AFL re-issue is a small win and provides a small amount of relief, but we need to eliminate RCW 9.41.170 from the statute books.

 

[waverace]

ok so its gone through its first phase now onto round 2

 

[cdninusa]

more info available here...

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/cmd/default.aspx?cid=judi

You must use Internet Explorer for this to work properly. Firefox does not work on this part of the site.

go to the link above
click on the + before 1/29/2009
click on the + before possible executive session
click on 1052
you can see the proposed changes

 

[Gungnir]

Yeah nothing really changed. Except the removal of the emergency clause.

It will mean that the AFL will still apply to non-resident aliens.

 

[waverace]

NON resident is what it was originally designed for , thats actually a good thing as normally they would have no way of partaking in hunting or sporting activitys , I can appreciate the need for the government to have some kind of checks on them as they have not been through the immigration process.

 

[carnaby]

So resident aliens (green card) like my wife will no longer need the alien firearm permit???

 

[waverace]

if 1052 goes through yes , it makes the difference between non immigrants and immigrants thats why we are all praying for it . if it fails then we have to wait for the NRA lawsuit to kick it out altogether

 

[MD_Willington]

Carnaby, correct, your wife will not need the silly license.

Federal law already covers non-immigrant alien in possession of firearm, and there are certain provisions that cover visiting parties and how they can get excluded, I looked up all these laws back in 2001 when I was researching the WA State AFL.

In our case,LPRs, WA State thinks they can usurp FEDERAL law, bottom line is they cannot.

 

[MD_Willington]

Just got off the phone...

The budget or lack thereof is gumming up the works in Olympia at this time...

My insider will call me ASAP when things get going.

 

[Gungnir]

I don't think that WA State thinks they can usurp FEDERAL law, I don't think they're smart enough to think that in any way; which is why they're dragging their feet. They've been called on this and my suspicion is they don't comprehend the urgency they need to act on this. Which is why the thing was voted into law in the first place.

There's a large part of me that hopes this is declared unconstitutional in the State Supreme Court, and it's stricken from the Statute books. So here's to HB1052 being signed into law in September (for purely vindictive reasons).

 

[carnaby]

Why September? Shouldn't this happen right away?

 

[Gungnir]

Yes, however if the legislature doesn't get off its collective butt, and pass this bill, then law abiding residents (both LPR and US Citizens) have a better chance of suing the state for infringement of Constitutional rights.

They've already been warned that the law is very likely unconstitutional by the courts with the injunction to force the DOL to begin reissuing AFL's. If the case goes to trial, and finds for the plaintiff's then WA is liable for Constitutional Violations and Discrimination against LPR's, under the 14th amendment and the Civil Rights Bill of 1981.

i.e. while it ties up rights of LPR's for a while, striking the Statute by court is much more damaging to the state, than them self-correcting, and mealy mouthed apologizing later, with "we fixed it when we realized that it wasn't working as we expected. Sorry to trample your LPR rights for I think nearly 40 years".

 

[MD_Willington]

My local rep is in the Rules Committee, so is Moeller IIRC, at least we have two people in favor that I know of right now.

Contact the Rules Committee members and make them aware of the bill.

 

[user3214]

It is clear that the state doesn't care about that bill.

I kind of hope the bill doesn't pass, the lawsuit wins and the state is ordered to pay a few million for legal fees of the plaintiffs.
Then they can answer why they failed to act for 4 years straight to fix an unconstitutional law.

 

[Gungnir]

Yes, sorry, revenge fantasy aside.

We should try to drive this through the house as soon as possible.

I've just completed mailing the list of the Rules Committee, asking for their support for this bill, and restoring our RKBA rights by doing so.

 

[MD_Willington]

To answer a question posed earlier regarding removal of the emergency clause.

Hi Matt:
Thanks for your email. The removal of the emergency clause has no effect
on legal alien residence exemption from the requirement of a Alien
Firearm Permit. It merely means you will need to wait 90 days after the
governor signs the bill for it to become law.

Sincerely,

Jim

Rep. Jim Moeller

So 90 day wait AFTER the "gov" signs the bill, that is IF she signs the bill at all...

 

[waverace]

merely huh well ill maybe merely wait 90 days before i vote for these guys in the next elections

 

[MD_Willington]

I'll have my new AFL by then, if the HB ever goes the distance...

 

[waverace]

how long do you think its gonna take ?