SJR 17 - FEDERAL GUN POLICIES Number 2661 CHAIR COGHILL announced that the next order of business before the committee would be CS FOR SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 17(STA), Relating to requesting that President Bush renounce and reverse Clinton Administration anti-gun-ownership policies and reorient the United States Department of Justice towards policies that accurately reflect the intent of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution to grant individual Americans the right to keep and bear arms. SENATOR DAVE DONLEY, Alaska State Legislature, came forward to testify as sponsor of SJR 17. He called attention to an enclosure in members' packets pertaining to a discussion between a United States attorney and a federal judge regarding the government's position on the meaning of the second Amendment to the United States Constitution. He said when he read that transcript, he was convinced that it was appropriate for the Alaska State Legislature to ask President Bush to change that policy on the part of the Justice Department of the United States. The packet also contains a letter from the Solicitor General of the United States confirming that it was the policy of the Justice Department under the previous President's administration that the Second Amendment guaranteed absolutely no right to citizens to keep and bear arms; that it only meant that members of the National Guard could keep and bear arms and even they were not allowed to privately own guns, but only allowed to keep them at the National Guard armory. Number 2598 SENATOR DONLEY said he thinks that position is contrary to scholarly interpretations of the Second Amendment and to what most Americans believe it means. He recalled that a few years ago, Alaskans overwhelmingly voted in favor of amending the state Constitution to very clearly state that there is an individual right to keep and bear arms. He explained that SJR 17 calls for President Bush to try to reverse that policy on the part of the Justice Department and "to more accurately recognize the true meaning of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution." CHAIR COGHILL asked Senator Donley if he thinks the resolution is being sent to enough people. He noted that it lists the members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President. SENATOR DONLEY said he thought it was the correct list of people and that he also was going to send it to state legislatures around the nation because he thinks it is a national issue and that it is appropriate to stick up for the rights of all Americans. CHAIR COGHILL asked him if that was a commitment. SENATOR DONLEY said yes, that it was his intent to send it to the presiding officers of all the state legislatures. If the House State Affairs Standing Committee wished to add that, he thinks it would be appropriate. Number 2514 REPRESENTATIVE JAMES moved to adopt that as a conceptual amendment. CHAIR COGHILL stated the conceptual amendment as: "to send it to the presiding officer of each legislative body in every other 49 states." REPRESENTATIVE JAMES said she thought it should refer to "officers". There was no objection to the conceptual amendment to CSSJR 17(STA). Number 2588 REPRESENTATIVE HAYES moved to report CSSJR 17(STA) as amended out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying zero fiscal note. There being no objection, HCS CSSJR 17(STA) was moved from the House State Affairs Standing Committee. [Although the motion that carried should have moved HCS CSSJR 17(STA) out of the House State Affairs Standing Committee, CSSJR 17(STA) was reported instead to the Chief Clerk as having moved from the committee.] CHAIR COGHILL declared a brief at-ease at 9:15 a.m. The committee was called back to order at 9:17 a.m.