Phoenix, AZ – The legislation said the only way a government building could be made legally off limits to weapons would be to have no-gun signs, storage lockers, security guards and metal detectors. Proponents said existing laws, which require only the first two, really are ineffective as criminals ignore those signs, leaving law-abiding citizens defenseless. Brewer said she believes in the right to bear arm. But she said the provisions in this measure, and another she vetoed to allow guns on public rights of way through college and university campuses, were poorly crafted.
(I thought they were not written properly. They certainly, in my opinion, some of them, of course, conflicted with federal law. And they were so ambiguous that people would actually never really, really know where they could and couldn't carry weapons.)
But Sen. Ron Gould who sponsored both bills, said the governor is just coming up with excuses.
(On the guns on campus bill she sided with education bureaucrats and their irrational fear of guns. And on 1201 she sided with government over the people. She can try to spin it any way she wants to spin it. And she can claim that she's a conservative and she can claim that she supports gun rights. But she didn't support gun rights this week.
Brewer was non-committal about whether she would sign a more basic -- and less confusing -- bill which would permit guns in public buildings absent metal detectors, saying she does not answer hypothetical questions.
(I will comment on bills when they arrive on my desk. You know, I'm a big proponent of Second Amendment. But certainly we want to be sure that people can understand them and that they can be enforceable and that they're not in conflict with the federal laws.)
For Arizona Public Radio this is Howard Fischer.