Sine die has come and gone and so are a lot of places previously off limits for carrying of firearms. HB60 was agreed to and passed (112-58) last night in the House and now goes to the governor’s desk for his signature. This has been a long hard year (actually 4 years since we had any meaningful pro gun legislation) and we appreciate all the efforts put forth by you, the members of GCO this year. We would never have been able to accomplish this feat without you backing us up and contacting your legislators in the professional manner in which you conducted yourselves.
Was HB60 all we wanted? Of course not! But we feel that we got a great bill and this will clear the way for some great improvements in the future. And those of you who have been with us for any length of time know, we ask for everything we want and accept what we can get without giving up any of the gains we have made in the past. We keep marching down the field and one day, we will get all our rights back. This is the way we lost our rights (one step at a time) and this is the way we will get them back. There is always next year.
We are almost home but the governor still has to sign the bill into legislation and then we wait until July 1 for the bill to go into effect. I know we continue to ask more of you and we do have a couple more requests for our members.
1) We need to contact Governor Deal and ask him to sign HB60 into law as he now has 3 options.
A) He may sign the bill and it becomes law on July 1, 2014
B) He may veto the bill and send it back to the chambers, which can be overridden by a 2/3 majority vote from each chamber.
C) He can ignore the bill and it becomes law 40 days, depending on when it was transmitted to the governor. We asked that it be transmitted immediately, but did not get confirmation on whether that happened or not.
We expect Governor Deal to sign the bill as he has always stated that he will sign any pro 2A bill that reaches his desk. This fits that definition to a “T”. That is also a promise he has on his reelection website.
2) Contact your elected officials who voted for the bill and let them know you appreciate their vote on HB60. It is always nice for them to know you appreciate their efforts. This is why several GCO members waited outside the House Chamber to shake hands and thank the representatives who voted to make HB60 a reality and also why this email is being composed at this late hour. Your email, phone calls, and letters will be greatly appreciated by them. You can find out how Representatives voted here.