Letter to Senator Steve Hobbs About His Vote For SB 5992

Good morning.

I enjoyed talking to you at the Capitol a couple weeks ago and wanted to provide feedback about Senator Hobbs and his vote for SB 5992, the bump stock ban.

Frankly, I am somewhat concerned about the Senator's vote for 5992. I hope it does not mean he is reconsidering his support to this point for gun rights or that he might support worse laws now, such as semi-auto and magazine bans..or crippling firearms preemption.

The bump stock ban in the form he voted for is sort of a complicated topic so I thought it might help to explore some angles that are worth considering. I am very interested in understanding why this bill had his support.

On one hand:

1) The version the Senator voted for (solely looking at bump stocks and not including, say, match triggers) is the least harmful law being considered in this legislature. Very few people own bump stocks and they are basically novelty items which probably end up lost in most peoples' closet after a
couple days of wasting money missing things.

On the other hand:

1) I am concerned about having possession of something that could be bought today suddenly being a felony in a few months. To me that seems arbitrary and dangerous. I think this deserves very careful consideration and not the assumption that it is OK to just ban the possession things purchased legally.

2) I seriously question whether banning bump stocks does anything to remove a public safety hazard. The Las Vegas atrocity was committed by someone firing indiscriminately in a situation where he simply could not miss. Bump stocks let him shoot faster but as I understand it, also caused his guns to
malfunction at times. The same thing could be achieved without a bump stock because bump firing is something people have known how to do for ages.

None of these considerations is pleasant to write or read about, obviously.

3) I am concerned about the signals this vote sends

Gun control organizations, which tend to be factually disengaged (politely said) are going to be happy about this because they'll feel like they have momentum. Where civil liberties are concerned, I think letting infringements build momentum is very dangerous.

Right wingers, who tend to have blanket notions that only Republicans are pro-second amendment are going to be happy at having their world view validated and aim at replacing Democrats with more Republicans. As we discussed, that does not appeal to me either. I make my voting decisions based on the character of the legislators involved and the extent of their passion for protecting my rights.

In conclusion:
I hope this vote does not mean Senator Hobbs has changed his position on gun rights.

I hope that he will talk to the firearms community about legislation he might consider supporting and its side effects, rather than taking gun-hostile sources without a grain of salt.

I hope that if the House version is different and there is another Senate vote to confirm changes that Senator Hobbs reconsiders his support for this bill.

Thank you,

Don B