Guys, I'm sorry as h-e-double hockey sticks for not posting here like I should be.
I won't give you excuses, but I will give you my take on the last legislative session.
You will remember it started out with the emergency legislation to fix the previous GA's screw up, a screw up that we, OFCC, found and brought to the attention of everyone else. At the time everyone was saying it wasn't a big deal and emergency legislation wasn't necessary, and in the end it got exactly what we said was needed, and they even used our words in the bill.
Scott Wiggam, our ball carrier on repealing notification, introduced repealing Duty to Retreat, in the form that Larry Householder told him to, which was a form that was unacceptable to us; not notifying would still be a crime, but one with a lesser penalty. Larry Householder was/is MY representative and I was not happy. (He's only made me more unhappy since)
So, right before the TEOTWAWKI with Larry, he tells Scotty to amend HB 142 to read the way we want it, Scotty tells me and I'm happy once again, calling house members and drumming up support. It gets to the Senate and I get to Bill Coley's office, who flat out tells me that refusing to notify ought to be a crime, period. He then tells me that they're going to give us something big that we'll like and won't say what, so I bring up all the House bills for SYG, Constitutional Carry etc, and ask him if he really believes both chambers will act on them in time, and he looks smug. I say for God's sake don't make some late night last minute not thought out changes and screw it up like last year and he showed us out. (They fist bump instead of shaking hands now-a-days down there)
Senator Coley used his final lame duck to insert/amend HB 142 include some lame bill of his that was dying a painful death over in the House and it never got a Senate vote, he did EXACTLY what I asked him NOT to do.
I won't miss him a bit
Terry Johnson's office tells me that his second SYG companion bill, number doesn't matter, (it was the same language from our first effort in 2013), was going to be inserted into a bill, and they didn't know which one yet, but they knew when.
I took the day off work (unpaid) and went to see the show for myself.
I've had a rough year, personally. my leg swelled up to twice it's size with some infection and I used a whole years worth of time off before the COVID made itself known. When the head of OSU Radiology died from it, I took myself out of work on temporary disability and prepared to die, seriously. My heart's output was so low it could NOT draw the water from my leg and I couldn't walk to work it out.
Then I got this brand new (and expensive!) heart medicine and started improving; went back to work after three months.
But we were in the middle of COVID, and all the insanity that went with it. After several arguments with Capitol Square, I finally got the Statehouse lawn booked for Patriots Day, one week after the actual holiday. Then the governor shut down everything, people are screaming at the Statehouse daily about the tyranny of not being allowed to go to work and being forced to wear masks anyway, and before long they had riots at night, so I just kept a low profile, and worked on my health.
The park also canceled our PITP because of the COVID, I'm sorry.
My friend Gary, Mr. Magoo here on the forums and a fellow director for OFCC, would occasionally go to the Statehouse for me, go to a committee hearing and/or testify, sometimes he'd meet them in their offices until the COVID got too big. With no time off work available to me
You used to often see me out front, cheerleading and rousing the troops to email this or call that and make your voice be heard, or putting on and promoting events like Patriots Day or Open Carry walk and picnics. It reached a point where I felt it was more about me than the cause. Gun rights is what we are about, and improving them through legislation and the courts, and it was turning into who can give the best speech and who is the biggest celebrity we can get.
So anyway, this year, I didn't say much publicly. We tried to stay involved and in contact with the bills we (what's the word I'm looking for, engineered?) requested/drafted/petitioned for. I called more than email and I made no calls for attention. I think our approach was well received where you would expect it to be and towards the end of the session several legislators made comparisons in the approach of the different gun groups.
Did we make a difference?
I think we did. I won't share with you private texts and what not, but I will share this photo Terry Johnson took the day they inserted his bill into Tim Shaffer's bill and they both became law:
PS. I didn't proof read this and I know I should have.
It's 3:15 am
to address your concern.
