House Bill 219 - State Firearm Designation - Honor, Show Boat or Waste

Rep. Carl Wimmer is preparing his House Bill 219 which will make the Browning M1911 Handgun Utah’s State Gun.  The Standard Examiner featured the handgun and Browning’s accomplishments in their front page article. (See Here)  Though I have no problem in honoring Mr. Browning for the amazing things he has done, nor do I discount the affect the M1911 has had on America.  But to create a piece of legislation to honor the gun in my mind is a waste of time and Mr. Wimmer’s attempt to show off and get his name in the news.

Rep. Wimmer states in the article he knows there are concerns when he said:

 “Some people don’t like this bill because they say it’s glorifying a symbol of death. We are glorifying a symbol of freedom.” 

However he is wrong, that is not why people are worried about this bill.  We are worried about this bill because of a $313 Million deficit we are facing and the “waste of time” this bill represents.  How are we going to spend quality time cutting budgets by 7 percent if you are wasting it with new state guns? Though no one will really stand up against this bill because it is not worth ruining a relationship with Rep. Wimmer, His constituents and Utahans a like should know what a waste House Bill 219 is. During the House Political Subdivision Committee Meeting, House Bill 219 received few opposition.  In fact Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem gushed over the bill and paid homage to Mr. Wimmer when he said, “I think John M. Browning has single-handedly saved more American lives on the battlefield than any other American.” Our very own Rep, Dixon Pitcher, did call out Mr. Wimmer and questioned what this bill would do for us.  Mr. Wimmer admitted this would do “NOTHING” for Utah.  Yes that is right, he said it would do “NOTHING” for Utah.

Mr. Wimmer says this won’t cost a thing and it is simply a little notation to code.  But don’t forget he spent nearly 40 minutes discussing this bill just in the first meeting.  That time in itself cost us all money.  There’s 40 minutes we could have been discussing something of real value.  The fiscal note to the bill states the enactment of this bill likely will not result in direct, measurable expenditures by Utah residents or businesses, state budget or the government.  But are we looking at the missed opportunities to work on real pieces of legislation.  This bill represents the real waste of the legislature. 

I applaud Democratic Reps. Jennifer Seelig and Marie Poulson for opposing this bill, but they have no favors to earn with Mr. Wimmer so it was easy for them to vote no.

See My Posts Here for more info

Let’s get to the real issues Mr. Wimmer. – PLEASE!