Sylver Dragon's Journal: Watching the radar

A little while back I wrote about two different bills working their way through their State's legislatures. Specifically, Montana Bill HB246 and California Bill AB390. In both cases, I like what the bills are trying to accomplish, though on the whole, I think both bills are doomed. Even still, sometimes a failure can make enough noise to accomplish something positive in the long run. So, today I had a touch of time and decided to see what the status of each was.

• Montana HB246 - Current status: Transmitted to Governer. Simply put, the Montana House and Senate have passed the bill. It is interesting that the requirement for the State Attorney General (AG) to fight this one out in court, as soon as someone notifies the AG that the person intends to make such a firearm, was stripped. But I don't see that as a completely destructive change. I expect that we will simply see some company and/or individual with deep pockets start the fight on this one themselves, and will likely be better equipped to win the fight. Also of note is that the final bill has wording in it to avoid fighting both the control of explosives and the control of fully automatic weapons. I suspect that this was done to try and pander to the US Supreme Court's recent decision which invalidated the DC handgun ban, but engaged in legal gymnastics to not invalidate the federal ban on fully automatic weapons, at the same time. Also, to narrow the scope of the bill to a single issue, to make the fight easier.
• California AB390 - Current Status: Probably dead. The author Tom Ammiano requested that the hearing for the bill in the Public Safety and Health committee be canceled. Not being privy to the how exactly things work with these committees, I can only assume that he is either reworking the wording before the committee gets the bill, or he's simply given up on it. Either way, I suspect that this bill will now simply die in ignominy. Too bad too, it might have given the US Attorney General, Eric Holden, a way to stop the DEA from raiding marijuana dispensaries. But, only time will tell. Government usually moves at a rather slow pace, which is good, it usually prevents us from engaging in ill conceived, knee jerk reactions.