Guns, schools snacks, voting and pot; Tri-City lawmakers talk to voters

Tri-City Republican lawmakers defended their records on gun control and other topics in a wide-ranging town hall session Saturday at The ARC of the Tri-Cities in Richland.

The crowd of about 200 peppered the Eighth Legislative District team on a variety of subjects, but the conversation turned frequently to reigning in gun violence following the latest mass-casualty event, in Parkland, Fla.

Sen. Sharon Brown and Reps. Larry Haler and Brad Klippert all agreed that the violence has to end, but said the solution lies in rebuilding American’s mental health infrastructure and not in curbing the rights of gun owners, including the right to use bump-stocks to fire weapons.

Brown voted against a bump-stock bill. SB 5992 passed the senate and is pending in the House Judiciary committee.

Klippert describes bump-stocks as a tool developed to assist the disabled, including those with arthritis, in firing weapons.

“I will forever protect even the disabled’s Second Amendment rights,” he said, adding that semi-automatic weapons such as the AR-15 reportedly used in Florida are harmless without human intervention.

Haler acknowledged the mental health system is broken and called on federal and local law enforcement to pay closer attention to the threats that appear on social media.

“I’m all in favor of having more money go to those problems,” he said.

Brown too called it a difficult conversation but agreed taking away firearms doesn’t make mental issues disappear.

“There are still people out there who will have these problems,” she said. “We have got to talk about it.

School breakfast

An uncontroversial bill to expand school breakfast service to provide an in-class snack after school starts generated a thoughtful debate on the roles and responsibilities of schools and parents.

Brown and Haler both voted to support Breakfast After the Bell, legislation to provide an apple or other snack to children who arrive too late to participate in school breakfast. The bill was widely supported by education groups, apple growers and the state PTA.

Klippert voted “no”. When challenged, he said he wanted to preserve teaching time.

“We feed hungry children before the bell,” he said, calling it the responsibility of students and parents to get to school in time for breakfast before the bell.

Brown said she shared Klippert’s view but supported the After the Bell bill because children shouldn’t go hungry if their parents cant get them to school in time for school breakfast.

Automatic voter registration

Haler and Klippert said they voted against a stripped-down version of a bill to automatically register citizens to vote when they apply for an enhanced driver’s license, which requires they provide poof of citizenship.

Haler said he’s concerned the state’s computer systems aren’t secure enough, raising the specter that 15- and 16-year-olds getting driver’s licenses will get ballots in the mail.

“We have no perfect computer systems,” he said.

Klippert said he remains opposed to voting by mail and prefers to see voters take the initiative. Vote-by-mail, he said, has done little to boost participation rates.

“Your idea of making it easier is not getting results,” he said.

Brown said she too has concerns about computer systems talking to one another, noting that many state agencies remain disconnected.

Legal marijuana

All three said they’re trying to reverse some of the unintended consequences of Initiative 502, the 2012 ballot measure that legalized recreational marijuana.

Brown said she shares the frustration of those who don’t want to see a cannabis store open on Arena Road next to a West Richland neighborhood.

She acknowledged it’s been difficult to get her west side peers to pay attention to Tri-City issues, but encouraged West Richlanders to keep writing, calling and testifying because it builds a record.

“We are doing everything we can,” she said, describing the implementation of I-502 “one huge buggered-up mess.”

Klippert, who has sponsored a handful of bills aimed at ending legal cannabis sales where children might congregate, said it remains his top priority.

“I hate legalization of marijuana and I will keep fighting legalization until it is no longer legal,” he said.

The 2018 Legislature’s short session ends on March 8.

This story was originally published February 17, 2018 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Guns, schools snacks, voting and pot; Tri-City lawmakers talk to voters."