Show appreciation for Constitutional Carry

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On April 16, 2010, Governor Brewer signed SB 1108, the AzCDL-requested Constitutional Carry bill, into law. Arizona now becomes the third state to not require written permission from the government for law-abiding citizens to exercise their right to bear arms openly or discreetly. Because Arizona is the first state in the U.S. with a large urban population to take this significant step, this is an historic moment for the entire country.

This is a good time to thank the Governor for signing SB 1108 into law and to thank those legislators who supported SB 1108 and cast the votes necessary to get it to the Governor’s desk.

A letter for the Governor has been prepared and is waiting for you at AzCDL’s Action Center:
http://capwiz.com/azcdl/issues/alert/?alertid=14948161 .

Below is a list of the Senators who voted for the passage of SB 1108 during the final Senate vote. If your Senator is listed, a letter is waiting for you at AzCDL’s Action Center
http://capwiz.com/azcdl/issues/alert/?alertid=14948266 :

Amanda Aguirre, Carolyn Allen, Sylvia Allen, Frank Antenori, David Braswell, Ed Bunch, Ron Gould, Chuck Gray, Lind Gray, Jack Harper, John Huppenthal, Barbara Leff, Al Melvin, John Nelson, Russell Pearce, Steve Pierce, Rebecca Rios, Jay Tibshraeny, Thayer Verschoor, Robert Burns.

The following is a list of the Representatives who voted for the passage of SB 1108 during the final House vote. If your Representatives are listed, a letter is waiting for you at AzCDL’s Action Center
http://capwiz.com/azcdl/issues/alert/?alertid=14948241 :

Cecil Ash, Ray Barnes, Nancy Barto, Andy Biggs, Jack Brown, Judy Burges, Steve Court, Rich Crandall, Adam Driggs, Doris Goodale, David Gowan, Laurin Hendrix, Russell Jones, John Kavanagh, Bill Konopnicki, Debbie Lesko, John McComish, Barbara McGuire, Nancy McLain, Ben Miranda, Steve Montenegro, Rick Murphy, Warde Nichols, Lynne Pancrazi, Doug Quelland, Michele Reagan, Amanda Reeve, Carl Seel, David Stevens, Andrew Tobin, Ted Vogt, Jim Weiers, Jerry Weiers, Vic Williams, Steven Yarbrough, Kirk Adams.

If you do not know who your Senator or Representatives are, simply go to the Action Center home page (http://capwiz.com/azcdl/home/). If you have previously sent an email from our Action Center, all your elected officials are prominently displayed. If you have not used our Action Center before, simply enter your zip code in the box provided and it will help you find your elected officials.

Please take the time to send these notes of appreciation. Thousands of emails were sent urging the support of SB 1108. It’s only fitting we thank those who had the courage to publicly support Constitutional Carry.

In addition to thanking our Governor for her signature and our legislators for their votes, we at AzCDL would like to recognize some of the many people who made the passage of the historic legislation possible.



In the legislature, none of our efforts would have been possible without the cooperation and assistance of the President of the Senate, Senator Bob Burns, and the Speaker of the House, Representative Kirk Adams. Of course, the same can also be said of former Senator Jon Paton, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Representative Jerry Weiers, Chairman of the House Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee, and Representative Adam Driggs, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. These dedicated folks made it possible for this legislation to progress, and we owe them all a debt of gratitude.



We must not forget our sponsors, Senator Russell Pearce in the Senate and Representative Frank Antenori (now Senator Antenori) in the House. Without their commitment, there would have been no bill to fight for. They deserve a special “Thank You”.



Special mention must also go to Representative David Gowan, who took over the handling of the House version of the bill (HB 2347) for Frank Antenori when he was appointed to the Senate to replace Jon Paton, to Representative Carl Seel, who was incredibly helpful to us in rallying votes on the House floor during the Third Read, and to Representative Barbara McGuire, who was the first Democrat Representative to take the plunge and commit to voting for SB 1108, though thankfully not the last.



Last but certainly least on the legislative front, we must thank the many staffers that helped this effort along, from committee analysts to bill drafters to legal counsel to policy analysts. It takes a lot of people and a lot of work to get a bill done, and they all deserve a big hand.



Those of us who handle the details understand that getting this done was very much a team effort, and we would like to thank the membership, staff and leadership of the National Rifle Association and the Arizona State Rifle & Pistol Association for the effort they put into this. Special thanks go to Matt Dogali, NRA’s Arizona State Legislative Liaison, and Todd Rathner, one of NRA’s Arizona Board Members, for the endless hours they devoted to getting this done.



We’d also like to thank the many other people, organizations, Internet boards and lists, blogs, etc. that helped us promote this legislation and keep people informed of its progress. A partial list includes Alan Korwin of Gunlaws.com, Dustin Deppe of Dustin’s Gun Blog, the Second Amendment Sisters, ArizonaCarry.org, ArizonaShooting.com, AR15.com, AZWeaponSite.com, GlockTalk.com, OpenCarry.org, and Charles Heller at Liberty Watch Radio. We apologize in advance if we didn’t include anyone that we should have.



Most of all, we’d like to thank YOU, our members, for keeping the pressure on. Your thousands of emails, phone calls, comments on the Request to Speak system, and even personal visits to your legislators, were very convincing. Those of us who lobby at the Capitol daily on your behalf are only part of the equation. You are the most important part. We are effective because you are standing behind us, so for that, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.



YOU made this historic restoration of our rights possible, so give yourselves a big round of applause. You deserve it.