Bills are up for hearing in Senator Rhoad's JDC committee. I thought it would be unlikely that the bills would come up since the legislature is focused on COVID, budget, and sun-setting bills but it was an unusual year where legislators went above and beyond in pushing for these gun control bills with joint committees, early hearings, press conference, and appearance by the HPD leadership club.
HB2292 Electric guns is the first time this committee will see a electric gun bill. Rhoad's refused to pass it in the past even with it's overbearing restrictions however he's under pressure to pass it with the expected upcoming win in the Roberts vs Conners lawsuit which would result people being able to buy tasers without no restrictions.
HB1902 Mag ban. This is the big bill they want to pass this year. There is no grandfathering clause in it so we have to convince 3 members of the committee (Keohokalole, Gabbard, Fevella) to include it. Rhoads kept the grandfathering clause in the Senate bill SB2519 back in February so it may be possible. Grandfathering is an insurance policy in the event SCOTUS doesn't take up a magazine ban or other substantial 2nd Amendment case or if we lose a SCOTUS case which is a tight vote now. This also includes the family court background check which may be unpopular to some Senators.
HB2744 Ghost guns. This is the first time this committee will see a Ghost Gun bill. It has been combined with the Gun Violence Prevention Center which I think may be stripped out due to lack of funding.
Written testimony will be needed, and we need people to call the committee and Senate President and try to leave a message or speak with them directly. One strategy is to complain that the committees should be focusing on the budget and COVID. There are only a handful of bills in the legislature right now with most of them on COVID, emergency measures, budgeting, and sunsetting bills. There are a few others on environmental stuff and sex/domestic abuse type bills. Everything else is dead.
Another thing that may or may not work is getting changes made to the bills which could run out the clock. Like adding grandfathering to the magazine ban or dropping the gun violence center from the bill. This would result in delays for the final vote, requiring the House to vote on it again, and conference committee. The clock could run out or legislators may not want to allocate resources into it.