House Bill 1383 passed the North Dakota House today on a vote of 59-34. While that was good enough for passage, it wasn’t enough to kick in the emergency clause if it becomes law. Every advocate of gun rights in our state should be furious about that. After all, this is a Super Majority Republican body we’re talking about here.
As you may already be aware, HB 1383 would prohibit law enforcement in North Dakota from enforcing federal law in relation to firearms, firearm accessories, and ammunition. With Joe Biden inhabiting the White House and Democrats controlling both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, it’s essential that this bill become law as a means of the state protecting our gun rights.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t just Democrats that voted against HB 1383. A number of Republicans joined them too. Here’s the list of No votes:
Rep. Mary Adams (D – District 43)
Rep. Pamela Anderson (D – District 41)
Rep. Tracy Boe (D – District 9)
Rep. Glenn Bosch (R – District 30) *Majority Caucus Leader
Rep. Joshua Boschee (D – District 44) *Minority Leader
Rep. Ruth Buffalo (D – District 27)
Rep. Bill Devlin (R – District 23)
Rep. Gretchen Dobervich (D – District 11) *Minority Caucus Leader
Rep. Ron Guggisberg (D – District 11)
Rep. Jared Hagert (R – District 20)
Rep. Karla Rose Hanson (D – District 44)
Rep. Pat Heinert (R – District 32)
Rep. Zachary Ista (D – District 43)
Rep. Dennis Johnson (R – District 15)
Rep. George Keiser (R – District 47)
Rep. Lawrence Klemin (R – District 47)
Rep. Bob Martinson (R – District 35)
Rep. Lisa Meier (R – District 32)
Rep. Alisa Mitskog (D – District 25) *Assistant Minority Leader
Rep. Corey Mock (D – District 18)
Rep. Mike Nathe (R – District 30)
Rep. Jon Nelson (R – District 14)
Rep. Marvin Nelson (D – District 9)
Rep. Emily O’Brien (R – District 42)
Rep. Chet Pollert (R – District 29) *Majority Leader
Rep. Todd Porter (R – District 34)
Rep. David Richter (R – District 1)
Rep. Shannon Roers Jones (R – District 46)
Rep. Austen Schauer (R – District 13)
Rep. Mary Schneider (R – District 21)
Rep. Cynthia Schreiber-Beck (R – District 25)
Rep. Greg Stemen (R – District 27)
Rep. Don Vigesaa (R – District 23)
Rep. Denton Zubke (R – District 39)
22 – Republicans
12 – Democrats
That’s a lot of red. To paraphrase an old saying, who needs Democrats when you have Republicans like this?
The fact that both the Republican Majority Leader and Republican Caucus Leader sided with the Democrats makes this extremely troubling. Their votes — along with the 20 other Republicans — are unacceptable. There’s simply no excuse for it. And they should be held accountable.
We’ll have more on this at a later time. But if one of these No votes are from your district, I hope you’ll let them know how disappointed you are that they didn’t vote to protect your gun rights.
The bill will now head to the Senate. We’ll need a major push from the electorate to get it passed there.
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Sources:
- https://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/67-2021/bill-index/bi1383.html
