The deadline for pistol license recertification is this Wednesday. All indications point to a major clusterfuck with somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000 to 1 million license holders not complying for one reason or another.
Some Republican legislators have sent out glowing press releases about how they’ve introduced legislation to extend the deadline.
It’s nothing but cheap, political theater.
First, look at the bills. The Senate bill S-7343 extends the deadline through March. The Assembly bill A-9086 introduced a couple weeks later extends it through January 2019. Legislators are clearly not on the same page.
Second, and this is the most important, is that neither sponsors have made even the slightest effort to advance their bills. With so little time remaining Republicans have one option left, make a Motion to Discharge to move their bills out of committee and to the floor.
In years past, Senate Democrats would try this to advance antigun bills and the Motions were always defeated along party lines. I cannot recall Assembly Republicans ever doing it for pro-gun bills. If they did now I would expect the same result, but it would at least highlight the issue. As for the Senate, this would require Republican Senators going against their own “leadership” who voted for SAFE in the first place. That is something they would never do.
Thus is exposed the fraud Republicans are trying to put over on the public. They have no desire to stand up for gun rights. They’re just hoping for some good press to quiet down angry constituents and hopefully get them through their next elections.