Ross: The assault weapons ban in the words of the legislators

The assault weapons ban survives.

For this guest commentary — I’m turning it over to the members of our state House of Representatives, who conducted what I thought was a sincere, mutually respectful, and at times gripping debate on the wisdom of banning assault weapons.

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“I previously served as a war crimes prosecutor, I have held the hand of witnesses who struggled to testify about loved ones whose bodies were literally mutilated by assault weapons, only to return home to the United States and find that our neighbors and our children are facing a similar reality,” Rep. David Hackney-D said.

“Twelve years ago, my life changed forever on a bright sunny morning in Tucson, Arizona. When a gunman opened fire on a constituent event of my boss, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, two of my colleagues, Ron and Pam, were shot,” Rep. Liz Berry-D said.

“Madam Speaker, I’ve been in a lockdown for a mass shooting. Madam Speaker, I’m here to say that this is not good enough. Our young people deserve better, and our young people are saying that it is not good enough,” Rep. Darya Farivar-D said.

“So I opened up my daughter’s door to her bedroom. And lo and behold, there is a man outside her window, kicking our house and going ballistic. It turns out, Madam Speaker, that this was a gang member that had a fight with the girlfriend next door why he was on our roof. I can’t tell you. But what I can tell you, Madam Speaker is that it was frightening having that man outside my daughter’s bedroom window. Madam Speaker, we live in the city. And we were forced to have to go out there and deal with gang members ourselves. Because when we picked up the phone to call 911, they can’t send officers they don’t have,” Rep. Jenny Graham-R said.

“The kids who don’t feel safe are not the only ones who had been screaming out. In fact, the very ones who have been perpetrating these crimes, misusing these firearms, they are crying out for us to help them,” Rep. Ed Orcutt-R said.

“I think that there’s something going on deeper in our culture to our boys and our men, that they start to realize a sense of hopelessness, and they stayed at that point of despair, that they feel useless, and they feel worthless. And perhaps we should look at that first,” Rep. Mary Dye-R.

“We surround our young people with movies that are full of violence, abolishing an object is not going to fix those issues,” Rep. Tom Dent-R said.

“And you know, where they’re more likely to commit these crimes in gun-free zones. And you know, where we have higher crime rates, in places with lots of gun laws,” Rep. Cyndy Jacobsen-R said/

“This bill makes the same mistake that many others do. It assumes that by restricting the choices of law-abiding citizens, it will somehow affect the behavior of psychopaths and criminals, and people bent on making mayhem,” Rep. Jim Walsh-R said.

“Talked about the language talked about hunting and target practice. My daughter was in her language class. And somebody was hunting and looking to use children as target practice. So their self-defense was to stack up all the tables and chairs in their classroom against the door. We are here to defend our children, so they don’t have to defend themselves with their desks and pencils and tables and notebooks in their classroom,” Rep. Tana Senn-D.

“Madam Speaker, there are 55 yeas 42 nays one excused. Having received a constitutional majority substitute House Bill 1240 is declared passed,” the clerk said.

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