Thread by @MistyTrails

Senate Judiciary Committee: A thread

Sen. Ballinger is introducing an amendment to the Deadly Physical Force bill, which the Senators had not seen until now and which isn't available to the public.

Sen. Flowers asks if the Arkansas Prosecutor Attorney's Assn agrees to the amendment. She also points out that neither she nor the public has had a chance to view the amendment. #arpx #arleg

Prosecuting Attorneys Assn is in the room now. Sen. Flowers asks if they approve of the proposed amendment. He says that (unlike the public or other senators) the association has had a chance to review the amendment and approves it.

The amendment is approved. Now they will discuss the bill. Sen. Ballinger is explaining the changes the bill makes to the existing Arkansas Code. In short, it takes away the duty to retreat before shooting someone.

You can find the full text of the bill here: arkleg.state.ar.us/Bills/FTPDocum…

However, be aware that this doesn't include the amended language that was just presented and approve.

Hey, there, @ArkansasSenate, is the amendment to SB 24 available anywhere online?

Guy from the NRA is sitting beside Sen. Ballinger, not wearing a mask even when he isn't speaking. He's "dispelling myths" about the bill and pre-emptively addressing opposition.

Just to point out, 5 of the 8 members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are co-sponsors of this bill.

Sen. Flowers: Are we saying that people who are convicted felons who aren’t allowed to have a weapon are allowed to have a weapon and use it for deadly force?
Sen. Ballinger: It’s saying that if you’re at home, you can still be prosecuted as a felon for having a weapon.

Sen. Ballinger just said that he spoke with a prosecutor who said they don't even take into consideration the ability or not to retreat. Thereby admitting that there is no need for the bill he's presenting, which is totally based on eliminating the need to retreat.

Sen. Hendren is trying to find out from Sen. Ballinger if there has ever been a case in Arkansas where anyone has ever been convicted for not retreating. He's challenging the need for the law. Sen. Ballinger can't come up with a case where his bill would apply in Arkansas.

Man, Sen. Ballinger is getting super defensive as Sen. Hendren asks him about sections in the Arkansas Code that Ballinger's bill references. Sen. Ballinger can't actually elucidate what those other sections of code say.

Sen. Ballinger is trying to make the discussion about the Hate Crimes Bill (sponsored by Hendren) when Sen. Hendren is trying to ask questions about the state of mind of the person committing the crime and their motivations.

Sen. Clark just got on to the public and threatened individuals with being escorted out if they make noises of approval or disapproval. I didn't hear anything on the video.

Sen. Hendren asked Sen. Ballinger if he really thought the law would be applied equally to people regardless of their race. Sen. Ballinger said research and statistics are skewed and that 80% of the time the victim and shooter are of the same race.

Sen. Hendren is asking prosecutor's association now if there has been a single case where someone has been convicted due to their lack of retreat. The prosecutor said he isn't aware of one.

Sen. Flowers is up now:
We have 8 committee members, 5 of which are either the sponsor or co-sponsor of this bill. I can count and I know it only takes 5 votes to get out of the committee. So I’m not gonna hold you long.

Sen Flowers: Sen. Ballinger said our job is to find the best policy, good and better policy. I believe that too. However, I don’t think this is the best policy. I don’t think it’s a good policy, a better policy than what we have in our law right now.

Sen. Flowers: Our law right now says a person can defend himself from deadly force, particularly at their dwelling place. That’s been our law. It’s settled in Arkansas. People have always been able to defend their homes without any possibility of prosecution for defending...

Sen. Flower's cont'd: ... themselves at their dwelling place against deadly physical force. That’s well established in our law.

Sen. Flowers: This bill represents a solution that is grounded in fear, that will cause unintended consequences because you don’t know enough about the person whose behavior you believe is threatening imminent deadly force to you.

Sen. Flowers: It becomes a solution that allows a private citizen to become the judge, jury and executioner of somebody’s behavior that you may not even know.

Sen. Flowers: My solution would be to engage law enforcement immediately when situations arise. Give law enforcement the training and tools they need to protect and to serve and to keep people alive as opposed to be killed by deadly force.

Sen. Flowers: But we’re letting the private citizen, without training, go out there and become judge, jury, and executioner. We don’t need no courts. We don’t need no law enforcement. We’ve got stand your ground.

Well, that got real weird real quick.
Sen. Clark asked Sen. Flowers what state her son lives in.
Sen. Flowers said she didn't feel comfortable disclosing that and doesn't know why he would ask.
Sen. Clark said he already knows where he lives.

Sen. Flowers advised Sen. Clark not to mess with her son.
Sen. Clark said Sen Flowers' son lives in a stand your ground state.

Not sure how that was appropriate or relevant at all.

Apparently, no Arkansans have signed up to speak in favor of the bill. But there are many Arkansas waiting for their chance to speak against the bill.

Teacher speaking now and asking legislators to bring people to the table who are impacted by those laws during the process of creating these bills. "It affects communities of color, of black and brown, the most."

Sen. Clark is asking the teacher if she has an facts or studies to back up her claim that this law could be harmful to people of color. Interesting that he didn't ask Sen. Ballinger if he had any facts or studies to show that this law would be beneficial.

Sen. Clark seems to think the burden of proof is higher for individual Arkansas citizens than it is for legislators creating the bills. He's interrogating and bullying this Arkansas teacher who was brave enough to speak up for what she thinks is right.

Man, Sen. Clark keeps interrupting the teacher. But when she tries to speak, he says, "You don't get to cut me off." Wow.

.@MomsDemand is up now. The representative said she hasn't been out because of Covid, but this was too important to stay silent. Sen. Clark said he can't hear her with her mask on, so she takes it off.

.@MomsDemand came armed with facts and statistics. Sen. Clark is asking her to cite sources for individual statistics about race disparities and is about to argue with her about it.

Are @ArkansasSenate committees always like this? Where citizens come to voice their thoughts on proposed legislation, and the chairman just argues with them and tries to dispute their facts and invalidate their feelings?

Sen. Clark said that he doesn't think being like Florida is the worst thing Arkansas can do.

I'll raise my hand and vote against being like Florida.

Sen. Hendren is asking Sen. Clark to keep the statistics he's throwing out limited to numbers that are relevant to the bill at hand.

Despite Sen. Clark asking a women to take off her mask because he couldn't hear her (she was perfectly well understood), the person I can't understand is Sen. Garner because he's blowing out his mic by yelling into it.

.@MomsDemand: I don’t think people should approach each other in fear. We have a lifestyle of fear that is being worsened and fomented by certain groups and people who want to pass laws we don’t need. If you’ve got is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

Jan Morgan up now citing her litany of NRA achievement badges. She wants the bill to be "tweaked" so to take out the language that someone has to be "lawfully present" in the place where they shoot someone. She cites an "unprecedented attack" from federal government.

Basically Jan Morgan is asking that the bill allow people who are trespassing into locations be able to shoot the people there and not be prosecuted. #arpx

The next argument is by Jan Morgan's pal, who wants people to have the legal right to carry their guns into locations that don't allow weapons and then be covered under this bill if they shoot someone.

We're merging "defend an unborn child" and 2nd Amendment rights in an argument. We have now entered a magical area of the Venn diagram for conservatives.

Gun guy says his rights never change. His rights come from God. This is in reference to the desire to have the ability to be covered by Stand Your Ground if trespassing and shooting someone.

So, what we're learning is that this bill isn't far right enough for the far right. And it's too far right for the moderates. I mean, it's clearly going to pass this committee, but there are some clear issues with it moving into the House.

SB24 as amended has passed the Senate Judiciary with a vote of 5-2. Here are the votes:

No: Sens. Hendren and Flowers
Yes: Sens. Stubblefield, Rice, Johnson, Garner, Ballinger

Meeting is adjourned.

One thing to note: This is the first non-procedural piece of legislation that the 93rd General Assembly has taken up.

In the middle of a pandemic in which more than 4,000 Arkansans have died and our vaccination program is struggling, Stand Your Ground was priority #1.
#arpx