We need your phone calls NOW! Two pro-gun bills are at stake.

For weeks, we have been asking you to contact your Representatives asking for support for SB239 and SB247. Your calls have made a difference. We now move to the next step and time is short.

CLICK HERE AND CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW!

There is no time for the two bills to go through the normal three committee hearings and committee vote prior to the end of session. There is, however, a powerful but rarely used procedure called a "discharge petition," which pulls the bill out of committee, and places it before the full House for a vote. The rules for this procedure makes timing a real issue for us. We need 50 Representatives to sign each petition by Tuesday morning.

Representative Danny Bubp (R) is circulating the petitions. Your Representative might be able to sign them in the next few days, but should be in Bubp's office at 10AM on Tuesday, December 7 if they have not already signed them before that time.

[UPDATE December 7, 2010 12:45PM: 50 signatures have been received and the discharge petitions will be filed!]

Please call your Representative immediately and ask that they sign the discharge petitions for Senate Bill 239 and Senate Bill 247, being circulated by State Rep. Danny Bubp's office. Ask your representative to make the extra effort to get together with Rep. Bubp in person to sign the petition. By House rule, the petition circulator must witness the signatures, so your representative will need to make the extra effort to get together with Rep. Bubp in person to sign these petitions.

We know we have asked for your phone calls over the last three weeks, and those calls have opened a door, but it will close quickly. You must act now.

This need is new, critical and urgent. Even if you have called before urging the bills to be voted upon, we need you to stop what you are doing, call now and ask your state representative to sign on to the two discharge petitions being circulated by Rep. Bubp.

For a better understanding on why this is so time critical, let me explain that the normal process of passing legislation requires a bill to be introduced, assigned to committee, have at least three hearings, be voted out of committee, scheduled for a vote and passed by the full body. Then a bill moves to the other chamber and goes through the same process, which is almost always followed by a return to the chamber where it originated for a concurrence vote, and possibly a conference committee and a revote in both chambers. The process takes time. Any bills not passed before the end of session (effectively next week) will die and the entire process will have to be repeated starting next year.

We were in the same situation with some of the issues addressed in these bills two years ago, and even with strong bi-partisan support, legislators still have not finished the process after two years. To prevent another delay, possibly for another two more years, we need to pass these bills next week.

Please call your Representative immediately and ask that they sign the discharge petitions for Senate Bill 239 and Senate Bill 247, being circulated by State Rep. Danny Bubp's office.