The ALC Game and Fish/State Police subcommittee met this week to approve their interim study recommendations to Arkansas’s firearm laws. Attendance also included members of the public who are part of the Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America advocacy group. Advocates are well organized and are easy to spot in their bright red t-shirts, especially in the drab, dungeonesque committee room.
Lawmakers breezed through agenda items, presumably in the hope to finish the meeting quickly. The problem, though, was that the committee had to let members of the public speak regarding agenda items. Cue the red t-shirt folks.
But before commentary was turned over to the public, Senator Missy Irvin felt compelled to chime in. Always one to bring bluster, Irvin pontificated that legislators were simply doing their jobs and that the public — had they cared to pay attention sooner — could have attended committee to give comment ahead of their final recommendations. But they hadn’t, said Irvin, implying the day’s public input would go unheard and unappreciated by committee members.
But here’s the thing, which to some may seem like a small thing but in reality, is a great example of our supermajority speaking out of both sides of their mouths: at the previous subcommittee meeting, Arkansas lawmakers changed agenda item descriptions to obscure discussions about their recommendation to loosen gun laws. The Game and Fish/State Police Subcommittee had originally published an agenda that included the firearm study and recommendations. However, we caught wind of the meeting, the agenda descriptions magically changed; it no longer mentioned firearms. Weird!
These low-key shenanigans are part and parcel for the AR GOP. The change appears to have been a deliberate attempt to deter public input and shield the committee’s actions from scrutiny. You see, they want to keep us, the public, in the dark while they lecture about transparency and an open legislative process. The reality is that our supermajority does not want to hear from concerned citizens and gun-safety advocates. This tactic should offend every Arkansan; it’s a casual yet calculated disregard for the democratic processes where public engagement is essential to shaping responsible legislation.
The committee’s obfuscation is part of a larger strategy to avoid backlash from concerned parents, educators, and gun-safety groups. In this instance, concerned citizens shared that firearms near school grounds and bus stops is a highly charged issue that touches the safety of Arkansas’s most vulnerable citizens — our children. Lawmakers knew that a fully informed public would show up to oppose these changes, so they manipulated the agenda to avoid an influx of dissenting voices.
The larger strategy also includes shutting down public input of any kind when lawmakers know their proposals are controversial, unhelpful, or just plain wrong. A few years ago, Representative Jack Ladyman had a member of the public, Chris Attig, forcibly removed from committee by Capitol Police because Attig went a few seconds over Ladyman’s 2 minute limit for commentary. Chris Attig was attending to speak in defense of trans kids, including his son.
Other examples include: House Education committee members yelling at members of the public, including a public school superintendent who shared his thoughts on education policy; Senate Education chair Jane English silencing students from Central High during a committee meeting on LEARNS; and Sen. Missy Irvin cancelling a committee meeting minutes after gaveling in because she did not want to face a member of the public.
So despite Sen. Irvin’s claim that the public had “chosen” not to participate in earlier discussions on the firearms study, it’s clear that the sudden agenda shift was designed to exclude public input. If lawmakers truly believed in the merits of loosening gun restrictions near schools, why would they feel the need to hide their actions from the people they represent? We could ask similar questions of all their bad, culture-war driven policies that neither help Arkansans nor solve any substantive problems.
When you head to the ballot box in a few weeks, remember the lengths some lawmakers go to push through policies that are out of step with everyday Arkansans. It’s up to all of us to remain vigilant and demand that these discussions be held openly, with full public participation.
