Restaurants, bars, nightclubs, saloons and other public meeting spots certainly aren’t clamoring to pass Arizona’s Senate Bill 1159, which would make it less costly for them if someone shoots up the place. In the past, the state’s eating and drinking establishments have rejected efforts to force guns into their businesses, but perhaps a little bribery might bring them around.
Seriously, the crux of this bill, which is being pushed by the gun lobby and their political flunkies, not restaurants, would absolve business owners of responsibility if they do not restrict patrons with guns and something tragic happens. But if the establishment posts a sign saying “No Guns,” as many do, then they can be sued if a shooter injures or kills someone. Got that? The bill is a financial incentive for bars and restaurants not to restrict weaponized patrons.
Specifically, [SB1159] exempts businesses that allow guns from most civil lawsuits in instances where someone fires a gun in the business.
So, if a bar allows guns and someone shoots another person, the business is not responsible, but if the establishment restricts guns and a shooting occurs, it’s the business owner’s fault. Alrighty then. SB1159 passed the Senate and a House vote remains.
They’re not stopping there, sadly. Ed Montini reports today that another bill, HB2287, will dilute what’s known as “Shannon’s Law,” which passed in 2000 after 14-year-old Shannon Smith was killed in her own backyard, from a bullet that was fired into the air and fell onto her head. Shannon’s Law made it a felony to discharge weapons randomly into the air. Who, one wonders, really needs to repeal this law? Are gunners just aching to shoot indiscriminately into the sky?
The backers of HB 2287, which would make it easier for an accused person to weasel out of responsibility, have not been able to produce a single instance of a person being prosecuted under the law for what was an accidental discharge of a weapon.
Arizona’s gun lobby: making it safer and cheaper to shoot people. For the rest of us … not so much.