With Constitutional Carry now enshrined into law in more than half the country, one issue for pro-gun lawmakers in those states is what other laws they can make to strengthen the right to keep and bear arms.
Republicans in Oklahoma have filed a number of bills for the 2025 session that would positively impact gun owners, including one measure that would scrap one of the relatively few “gun-free zones” in state statute.
“If you have one event and there’s some type of violent encounter at one poll place at early voting, then what are people gonna do that following Tuesday or whenever they’re voting? I think a lot of people would stay home,” said State Senator Darrell Weaver.
Securing the right to vote and the right to carry is what Senator Weaver said is the motivation behind senate bill 524, which would allow concealed carry at a polling location for state, county and municipal elections.
He said the bill is also in response to a few threats made across the country on voting day this past November.
“Law enforcement can’t be everywhere. So I just think the citizens have the right to protect themselves. And it is a target,” he said.
There are also bills that would allow municipal employees to carry on the job, expanding the state’s preemption law to include ammunition and firearm components, and adopting a campus carry law.
Some other notable gun bills also include senate bill 381, which would give felons convicted of a non-violent offense the right to carry if they’ve fully completed their sentence and meet other criteria, and senate bill 768, which would allow firefighters and paramedics to carry while on the job.
The small number of Democrats in the state legislature have filed several gun control bills as well, though I’d be surprised if any of them move beyond their initial committee.
SB512, authored by state Sen. Mary Boren, would make every government building where business is conducted with the public a “gun-free zone”.
HB1404 would establish a “Voluntary Firearm Restriction List” where residents who wanted to block themselves from being able to purchase a firearm could register their names.
HB1987 would create an Extreme Risk Protective Order statute that would allow family members, intimate partners, and law enforcement to file an ERPO petition with the local courts. Like most “red flag” laws, there are issues with due process protections in the bill, which also offers no mental health treatment for those deemed by a judge to be a danger to themselves or others. The bill instead requires the courts to offer “information and resource options for community-based mental health treatment,” but leaves it up to the individual who’s supposedly a danger to themselves or others to seek help.
With GOP supermajorities, I’m not really concerned about any bad bills getting to Gov. Kevin Stitt’s desk. The bigger question is what pro-2A bills will garner enough support for passage. Campus carry, for instance, has been introduced for the past several years, but so far opposition from higher education and some business leaders has stymied its passage. Hopefully this will be the year it can finally become law, but it will take some effort from gun owners and Second Amendment advocates to get it across the finish line.
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