Bill targets city, school gun critics

A measure filed at the Oklahoma Senate aims to silence critics in the gun control debate who use public funds to get their word out.

The bill would ban the use of taxpayer money to lobby against gun rights expansion.

State Sen. Nathan Dahm’s legislation covers all public employees, but on Tuesday he specifically cited attempts by universities and local governments to sway opinion about his bills and others filed by lawmakers. Those institutions regularly hire lobbyists to advocate for or against a broad swath of measures, and Oklahoma’s higher education system has come out strongly against proposals that would, for example, allow guns on campuses.

If adopted, Senate Bill 65 could also prevent public officials from using taxpayer money to advocate for tighter gun restrictions.

Dahm said his bill would still allow officials to give their opinion in some cases, like in a committee hearing at the Oklahoma Capitol.

“Asking experts in a field or talking to people and asking them to give testimony is different than using public money, taxpayer funds, to actually lobby against the Second Amendment,” said Dahm, R-Broken Arrow.

Without the protections laid out in his measure, he said the government could be infringing on a person’s right to keep and bear arms by using public resources to oppose new legislation.

University of Oklahoma President David Boren said by email that the university has always been careful to observe restrictions against using public funds to promote political

issues.

“That prohibition is already in law,” Boren wrote. “With all due respect, any attempt to further limit the free speech of education officials to speak out on behalf of the safety of their students from gun violence would be unconstitutional.”

Boren has frequently spoken out against attempts to allow the carrying of firearms on campus, and wrote that injecting people without professional training into a situation involving gun violence would pose a danger to the community.

Oklahoma State University declined to discuss the bill because it hasn’t passed through the committee phase yet but restated its opposition to guns on campus.

Dahm said he only wants to restrict lobbying on gun measures because it has dominated other issues.

“We haven’t really seen a big push from lobbyists or from public entities hiring lobbyists to go after free speech rights,” he said.

“We haven’t seen them go after religious rights. We’ve seen and experienced them going after gun rights; whether it’s from education or local governments or law enforcement, they’ve used taxpayer monies to advocate prohibiting peoples’ right to keep and bear arms.”

Last year, the business community and law enforcement associations joined with several universities and the city of Oklahoma City to oppose two gun measures introduced at the legislature.

One of the bills, coauthored by Dahm, would have allowed the open carry of firearms. It did not pass.

This year’s legislation was crafted before the joint letter to lawmakers, but Dahm cited the letter as an example of using taxpayer money to lobby against a gun bill.

“Regardless of what the issue is, we would not favor legislation that would block city officials from expressing their views on an issue,” said Jane Abraham, Oklahoma City’s community and government affairs manager.

“I think the public looks not only to elected officials in the legislature, but city officials to weigh in on issues that affect their daily lives.”