PHOENIX — Want a sawed-off shotgun? How about a silencer for your pistol?
State senators have given preliminary approval to legislation to let you have them — at least as far as Arizona law is concerned.
In a surprise move Monday, Sen. Kelli Ward, R-Lake Havasu City, tacked an amendment onto a relatively noncontroversial measure dealing with restoration of civil rights for convicted criminals. The change repeals existing bans on what kind of weapons cannot be carried in the state.
Her amendment to SB 1460 would legalize devices “made or adapted to muzzle the report of a firearm.” Also gone would be prohibitions against any rifle or shotgun with an overall length of less than 26 inches, with no new minimum in its place.
Both can be legally possessed under federal law. But buyers must go through a more-intensive screening than is required to purchase other weapons.
Ward also got senators to provide preliminary approval to “nunchucks,” essentially two or more sticks, clubs, bars or rods connected together to be used as a weapon.
“What’s the problem with having law-abiding people having weapons?” Ward said. “Criminals who want those weapons will already get them.”
Ward’s measure leaves untouched the ban on machine guns and Molotov cocktails, a firebomb.
Separately, the Senate voted 19-11 on Tuesday for legislation that would punish any community or public employee who enacts or enforces guns laws found in conflict with state statute.
There already are laws that pre-empt local gun regulations. But Sen. Steve Smith, R-Maricopa, said SB 1291 is necessary because Tucson ordinances letting police request a breath sample from someone who has negligently discharged a firearm and appears intoxicated and one requiring people to report the loss or theft of a gun ignore existing state law.
And the House voted 37-23 for HB 2505, which would make it a felony for someone other than a police officer to take away an individual’s legally possessed firearm. Rep. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, said right now taking someone’s gun from his or her hands probably is just simple theft and carries a much lesser penalty.
The most sweeping, though, is SB 1460, which would allow those who have been convicted of a felony but have had their civil rights restored to once again possess firearms, which opened the door for Ward’s silencers, sawed-off shotguns and nunchucks amendment.
Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, opposed the addition, saying a change that big should go through committee hearings, where law enforcement can comment, rather than be added on the floor.
Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, a former police officer, said there likely will be a move to strip out the new language when the bill goes to the House, following a Senate roll-call vote.
The legislative action comes as a new statewide survey finds that Arizonans appear less interested in new regulations of weapons. Pollster Earl de Berge of the Behavior Research Center found just 33 percent of those asked want stricter laws on the sale of firearms. That compares with 48 percent just two years ago.
What has occurred, de Berge said, is most folks seem to like the laws just the way they are.
