Arizona amends school safety plan
Senate vote removes key part of the bill
PHOENIX — Republicans who control the Arizona Senate on Tuesday removed a major component of a school safety bill that would have allowed family members or school officials to ask a judge to remove guns from a person at risk of committing a mass shooting.
The amendment adopted in the Senate guts a major part of Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s school safety plan. The only remaining provision for so-called STOP orders allows police officers to seek involuntary hospitalization and an order removing guns, much like current law.
The bill had already been substantially changed to get signoff from the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups. It passed on a 17-13 party line vote and now heads to the state House, where its fate remains uncertain.
Democrats assailed the change, saying Republicans caved to gun rights groups.
Democratic Sen. Steve Farley of Tucson noted that Ducey cited the 2011 Tucson mass shooting that left six people dead and 13 others injured, among them former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, when he introduced the school safety proposal. He said the family-generated STOP order might have prevented shooter Jared Loughner from having access to a gun.
“This amendment guts this bill, period,” Farley said. “Clearly, the governor knew before the NRA and the CDL were brought in that this is a good idea and it could actually help reduce the incidence of these terrible, terrible tragedies in the future.”
Republican Sen. Steve Smith, the bill sponsor who amended it on the Senate floor, said he made the change after determining current law is sufficient.
“This amendment has nothing to do with any 2nd Amendment or gun group whatsoever asking for an ex parte piece to be removed. It’s completely false,” he said. “It was removed because I believe enough of that is covered in Title 36, in today’s law.”
The Senate rejected a series of Democrat amendments during an hourslong session, including a ban on bump stocks and universal background checks, before giving initial approval to the amended proposal.