The Yuma Zone Blog

Phoenix Rep. Krysten Sinema had her HB2286 killed in committee, as was well deserved. The mainstream media of course touted this as a victory for organizations such as the Minutemen and other border patrolling groups. What is lost in the media hoopla is the impact to ordinary citizens if the bill had been passed.

The bill provisions specifies that an individual or a group of individuals commits domestic terrorism if the individual or group of individuals are not affiliated with a local, state or federal law enforcement entity, are armed with a firearm or other weapon and either: Associate with another individual or group of individuals as an organization, group, corporation or company for the purpose of patrolling to detect alleged illegal activity; or Individually patrol for the purpose of detecting alleged illegal activity.

The provisions of the bill although targeted at the Minutemen, would have had made anyone that patrolled around their property checking for trespassers or vandals to be considered as a domestic terrorist. Security guards and department store loss control employees were not exempted, so they too were vulnerable to being targeted as criminals under the provisions of Ms. Sinema’s bill. As vehicles, flashlights, and even body parts have been classified as weapons in the past, leaving your gun at home would be no protection from the criminal penalties called for under the bill.

The chilling impacts of this proposed legislation should not be ignored by any American much less the voters in Rep Sinema’s district. Either Ms. Sinema was unaware of the far reaching implications of her bill, in which case she should be recalled for being one of the stupidest representatives ever elected, or in fact she knew that this bill would seriously hamstring any individual or group of individual attempting to protect themselves and others from criminals such as serial rapists, again a reason for recalling her.

It is unfortunate that the media ignored the ramifications of HB2286 in favor of highlighting the conflicts between Arizona Democrats and the border watch groups. It is also somewhat disturbing that some within the extremist right wing took the opportunity to send Ms. Sinema death threats, further distracting the citizenry away from a true examination of the bills provisions. Although this bill has been killed, the citizens of Arizona need to look closely at Ms. Sinema’s record along, with the 7 idiots that co-sponsored HB2286. Why these politicians would seek to enact a bill that clearly supports criminal activity is a question that should be answered.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 at 4:19 pm and is filed under State Politics, Yuma Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.