Good evening. I am writing you to ask that you OPPOSE SB 249. Please remind your fellow legislators of the following key points:
- The scope of the bill affects every citizen, whether or not they are in their immediate voting district.
- Criminals, by definition, do not obey laws.
- The use of weapons to commit crimes is already covered by dozens of existing laws.
- The state’s economy is in shambles. Several cities are insolvent with many more on the way. The legislative body has no excuse for focusing on a non-issue like this.
- The proposed bill has no provision for mens rea or criminal intent; it merely criminalizes the actions of ordinary, law-abiding citizens that they were elected to represent, regardless of the fact that they would never commit a “real” crime.
- The proposed bill turns a paperwork violation into a felony.
- Inventing new crimes by criminalizing the existing, legal behavior of good, tax-paying citizens will cost the state untold millions of dollars in defending this unconstitutional bill, millions more will be spent in prosecuting innocent civilians, with yet more millions being spent on housing them in prisons.
- If you want to help, create jobs, not crimes. Get the government out of the way and off the backs of the people so that the economy can grow.
- The more you try to exercise absolute control over everything and everyone, the more you strangle the people, and by extension, the economy.
