Said in CommitteeBeta

Exactly as spoken.

City, County & Local Affairs Committee - Senate

March 20, 2025 ·10:00 AM ·Room 272 ·2:21:11
Video Transcript 1 document

Bills discussed (12)

Bill Title Sponsor Status
HB1591 Act 455 · 6 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “HB1591 J. Moore TO COMBINE THE OFFICES OF TREASURER AND TAX COLLEC…”
TO COMBINE THE OFFICES OF TREASURER AND TAX COLLECTOR IN ARKANSAS COUNTY. J. Moore Notification that HB1591 is now Act 455
SB399 · 5 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “SB399 G. Stubblefield TO CREATE THE ANTI-ATF COMMANDEERING ACT; A…”
TO CREATE THE ANTI-ATF COMMANDEERING ACT; AND TO PROHIBIT THE PROVISION OF MATERIAL AID AND … G. Stubblefield Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment.
HB1590 Act 454 · 3 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “…if you would please sign in. Our first up on the agenda is HB 1590, and Senator Stubblefield is going to be presenting. So if…”
TO COMBINE THE OFFICES OF TREASURER AND TAX COLLECTOR IN WOODRUFF COUNTY. J. Moore Notification that HB1590 is now Act 454
HB1555 Act 995 · 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…L AID AND SUPPORT FOR ENFORCEMENT OF FEDERAL FIREARMS LAWS. HB1555 Painter TO ESTABLISH UNIFORM PROCEDURES FOR FILLING A VACAN…”
TO ESTABLISH UNIFORM PROCEDURES FOR FILLING A VACANCY IN A MUNICIPAL OFFICE. Painter Notification that HB1555 is now Act 995
HB1686 · 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ING ADVERTISING BY A MICROBREWERY- RESTAURANT PRIVATE CLUB. HB1686 Childress TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING LICENSES TO CARRY CON…”
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING LICENSES TO CARRY CONCEALED HANDGUNS. Childress Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment.
SB448 Act 579 · 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB448 J. Petty TO AUTHORIZE THE FINANCING OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY IM…”
TO AUTHORIZE THE FINANCING OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS, ALTERNATIVE ENERGY IMPROVEMENTS, BUILDING RESILIENCY IMPROVEMENTS, AND … J. Petty Notification that SB448 is now Act 579
SB505 Act 595 · 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB505 J. Bryant TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING MUNICIPAL PLANNING; A…”
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING MUNICIPAL PLANNING; AND TO REQUIRE AN ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE FOR CHANGES … J. Bryant Notification that SB505 is now Act 595
HB1618 Act 523 · 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…SILIENCY IMPROVEMENTS, AND WATER CONSERVATION IMPROVEMENTS. HB1618 Hawk TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ELECTION, APPOINTMENT,…”
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ELECTION, APPOINTMENT, AND CONTRACTING OF A MUNICIPAL ATTORNEY. Hawk Notification that HB1618 is now Act 523
HB1645 Act 601 · 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TION, APPOINTMENT, AND CONTRACTING OF A MUNICIPAL ATTORNEY. HB1645 M. Brown TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING ADVERTISING BY A MICROB…”
TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING ADVERTISING BY A MICROBREWERY-RESTAURANT PRIVATE CLUB. M. Brown Notification that HB1645 is now Act 601
SB10 · 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…designating areas as 'Members and Staff Only'. EMERGENCY. SB10 B. King TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS DATA CENTERS ACT OF 2023; AND…”
TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS DATA CENTERS ACT OF 2023; AND TO REGULATE THE IMPACT ON … B. King Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment.
SB60 · 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…THAT CONVEYS REAL PROPERTY OR AN INTEREST IN REAL PROPERTY. SB60 Hill TO PROHIBIT A DIGITAL ASSET MINING BUSINESS FROM BEING…”
TO PROHIBIT A DIGITAL ASSET MINING BUSINESS FROM BEING LOCATED WITHIN A THIRTY-MILE RADIUS OF … Hill Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment.
SB69 · 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…N CERTAIN INSTANCES. DEFERRED BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle SB69 A. Clark CONCERNING THE RECORDATION AND FILING OF A DEED OR…”
CONCERNING THE RECORDATION AND FILING OF A DEED OR OTHER INSTRUMENT THAT CONVEYS REAL PROPERTY … A. Clark Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment.

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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 0:19
1590 and Senator Stubblefield is going to be presenting so if you would, Senator Stubblefield, do you know the routine? 6. Could, could you turn on your
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 0:45
mic? Yeah 1590. 1590 is like a lot of these fields where we've combined sheriffs and collectors are separating them. This bill, uh, 559 is that to command the officers, treasure, and tax collector in Woods County. That's all it does. And they do these things for efficiency and, you know, the sheriff's got more duties than he can do. Sometimes that treasure, but that's the reason they, they combine these officers, so that's what the bill does. I would appreciate a good vote.
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:21
Any members of the committee have any questions? If not, anybody's in the audience wishing to speak for or against this bill. If not, I would entertain a motion, motion by Senator English, second by Senator Wallace. All those in favor, but let it be known by I. Any opposed? Congratulations. Next up is HB 1591
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:54
House Bill 1591, same type of bill that's enact combine the offices of treasure, tax collector in Arkansas
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 2:03
County. All right. Any questions of the committee? Any, anyone in the audience wish to speak for or against the bill. If not, sure would entertain a motion. Motion by Senator English 2 by Senator Stubblefield. All those in favor say aye. Any opposed? Congratulations.
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Speaker 18 2:30
Your bill passes. Next is uh SB 399.
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 2:35
SB 399. Committee, I appreciate you being here today. This is a, uh, I know it's gonna be a little controversial bill, but it, it came about as a result of I followed the ATF organization for years and years along with the FBI and other federal law enforcement. But this one particular organization, the ATF, uh, I, well, I'll get into it in a minute. I want to explain to most of the committee members here because I asked a Supreme Court judge the other day, if he knew anything about the anti-commandeering Act, and he said, no, I never heard of it. So I want to explain to you first and define what the anti-commandeering Act
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 3:19
is. So I, I forgot we have an amendment and so we would need to take action on the amendment, uh, first. We have a motion by Senator Rice. We have a second Espe Senator Stubblefield, all those in favor of adopting the amendment as presented, let it be known by eye. Any opposed?
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Speaker 26 3:40
Uh, the amendment has passed. All right, thank you.
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 3:44
But the question was asked back when our founders wrote the Constitution. How do we hold the federal government in check? How do we stop it from exercising powers that were never delegated to the federal government and the the anti-commandeering Act does that. And let me, let me tell you just a little bit of how it started. It was James Madison that, that come up with the anti-commandeering Act and Federals 46, uh, in his blueprint for resisting federal. power. Madison offered a number of action, but he said the best of all is the anti-commandeering Act was an action that does not let you cooperate. We cannot keep federal authorities from coming into the state, but that does not mean we have to cooperate with those federal authorities. Uh, and that's a good definition of the 10th Amendment because 10th Amendment is, we are a sovereign state, the federal government does not control the. Anti-commandeering has a long Supreme Court doctrine. There's 4 or 5 Supreme Court cases. I'm just going to read you one, which it really is the hitch pin of, of the anti commandeering Act. And it's a New York, it's a Prince versus United States in 1997. It uh it served, like I said is, is the glue for the anti-commandeering Act. At issue was a provision of the Brady gun bill that required county law enforcement officers to administer part of a background check program. Sheriff Jay Prince and Richard Mack sued organ that these provisions were unconstitutional and forced them to administer a federal program, Justice Anton Scalia agreed, riding in a majority opinion, it is apparent that the Brady Act proportion to direct statement. Law enforcement officers to a participate, albeit only temporarily in the administration of federally enacted regulatory schemes, citing the New York case, the court majority declared that this provision of the Brady gun bill was unconstitutional. Further expanding the reach of the anti-commandeering, uh, doctrine. So this is a doctrine that has been around a long time since the 1800s and uh States use it, they use it a lot of times when it comes to federal overreach, um, of powers that were never delegated to the federal government by the Constitution. Why, if, if you don't mind, Mr. Chairman, I have uh some witnesses to come up. Yes, sir, if you would call
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 6:35
them and uh go ahead and come up. When you get to the table, would you use the microphone and introduce yourself and
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Speaker 41 6:55
who you're with. Yeah Hi, I'm Lea Heron. I reside in Rogers. I'm on the board with Gun Owners of Arkansas, but more importantly, I'm a citizen of this state. I am a firearms instructor and I'm a gun enthusiast. I have several guns in my home and knowing what happened to Mr. Malinowski, that could happen to me. Um, I believe that this act is very important to protect citizens in Arkansas from these unwarranted Unnecessary actions such as we witnessed with Brian Malinowski. There was absolutely no reason to burst into his home before daylight, um, with cameras off, uh, looking for evidence. He wasn't charged with the crime. They were looking for evidence, and that could happen to any of us, so I believe that in order to protect the citizens of Arkansas. This is crucial, um, this is a crucial bit of legislation that I think would protect us all, and I would appreciate your support
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Speaker 44 8:01
for this bill. Thank you. And by the, by the way, uh, yesterday was
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 8:06
the anniversary of Brian Malinowski's Death that happened a year ago yesterday. And I'll get into the details of
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 8:15
that just a little later. I want to give you the, uh, I'm sorry, before, would it be OK to ask if any of the committee members have any questions of of this witness. Sure. Any any questions?
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 8:30
OK. Thank you. I want to give you, I wanna give you the uh general observations of a 27 year veteran of the FBI. Uh, and let me tell you just a little bit about his background. He was a career public servant, 27 year public servant, naval officer, FBI agent, inspector general executive US Navy from 1988 to 1994. Nuclear engineering officer. He was assigned to the submarines, but reassigned to surface warfare officer due to Cold War victory in 1990, the US, uh, Naval Research and tell us, tell us this officer. From 1994 to 2003, Federal Bureau of Investigations, 1995 to 2015, he investigated drugs, organized crimes, cybercrimes. He was a supervisor and field executive for DOE and uh He investigated, supervised, and served as program managing director of 100. investigation including criminal cybercrimes, counterterrorism, this guy graduated from the FBI Academy in 1995 with degrees and numerous cyber counterintelligence cyber investigation, ILEA International Law enforcement, uh, Inspector in place did over 100 search warrants. This is his, let me read to his general observation of what happened that morning when Brimanowski was killed. The early timing of the search was unnecessary. And by the way, committee, I want you to know that I looked up search warrants. And under search warrants, government search warrants, they advise those search warrants to be used during daylight hours. But they said in an emergency, which this was not an emergency. But in an emergency, they can do them between 6 and 10. Well, we know now that daylight saving time is 6 o'clock, it's still dark. So there's still issuing a search warrant. This was not an arrest warrant. This was a search warrant. And I made it a point last week and this week to stop by and talk to as many Little Rock police officers who were coerced into working with the ATF on this Malinowski uh search warrant case and I talked to each one of them individually, and I ask them, they were all aware of this case. They knew they knew everything that I know, and I asked them, do you think that case was handled properly. Every single one of them, said no. Every single Little Rock police officer said no. This wasn't the hierarchy. These were the men and women that work out in the field. The early timing of the search was unnecessary. There's not nest was a forcible entry was unnecessary. The ATF reinterpreted the statue of criminal, uh, the subject productive to the subject who's a productive, law-abiding citizen. This reinterpretation was the result of an executive decision to ignore the clear, clear will of the US Congress. Congress had repeatedly chosen not to provide greaterivity to the statute. Yeah, I would give anything if Ron Malinowski had survived and could be sitting here with me today to explain and, and here's the thing. And you're gonna hear this from. From the people who are going to be Uh, testifying later. They're gonna say this guy was a bad, bad dude. He was a criminal. Let's just say he was. Let's say he had, he had broken some crimes. He would still be alive today. He would still be alive, though he might even be in jail. He would still have a family. He would still have a life. But he's not. He's killed. And I wanted to tell you about how that happened. Let me tell you a little bit about the ATF first of all. Have you ever heard about the ATF entrapping mentally disabled teenagers. And coercing them into getting neck tattoos. That's right. That's what they did. The ATF opened up a fake head shot that it used for what else entrapment. In this case, a 19 year old mentally disabled drug addict was manipulated by agents into getting the logo for a shield business tattooed on his neck. This was allegedly to keep him from finding out that he was unwittingly informing for the government, a defense so stupid that the federal judge repeatedly pointed and asked the ATF to explain how suggesting that someone else get a neck tattoo was the method of preventing agents from blowing their cover. The ATF was ordered by a judge to pay for the removal of the tattoo. That this was apparently not only the example of the ATF used, uh, When they were picking out low IQ informants. Now let's jump to Ruby Ridge. Dave, you remember those, those days when Ruby Ridge and Waco happened. I was alive. I remember every detail when Randy Weaver had moved to Idaho because he didn't want to live in the city and he took his family. He was approached and, and he had had some neighbors, Aryan neighbors, move in. He was approached by the ATF. To be a snitch. And go over and be a snitch and he, he, uh, refused. So they They prosecute they threatened him with prosecution because he had a shotgun that was just a little too short. They cut the barrel off and it was a little too short. They, the court date got all screwed up and messed up. He didn't show up for the court date. So they went to, to uh Ruby Ridge. They show up. His son in the back. They shot a dog and they shot his wife while she was holding their baby through the wall, through the door. And Uh, Mr. Weaver was arrested and taken, and you know what the judge charged him with? Failure to appear. Because of that initial charge, that's all he was charged with. He lost his entire family. And then we go to, to Waco. I will never forget this because sit and watched it for days, it lasted for 51 days. When David Koresh, who would travel frequently from the compound to town where the ATF could have picked him up at any point and arrested him. And more than likely, his followers would obeyed what he said, but no, they didn't arrest him. They waited till he got in the compound. And they use flash grenades. The fire was started 81 people were shot and burned to death in Waco. That was under the direction of Janet Reno, who was the Attorney general then. And, and President Clinton. You all remember that that was all ATF. One of the, one of the more horrid things that I've learned about, uh, the ATF. was when they uh baited a group of Hong Hong refugees. who are supposed to be communists and they they gave them weapons. And they turned out to be old men. I mean, they, they weren't even young soldiers. And when they saw the deteriorating health throughout the case. It was like, imagine your father, your grandfather, having to go and defend himself against something like this that they were talked into. Um This is a story the New York Times uncovered. This operation in February, this was just a few years ago. At the time it first looked like a few bad apples in the office of the ATL. However, what the Times found was that there was a nationwide operation based out of Bristol, Virginia office. Any time an agent wanted money for the operation, they didn't go through the office channels of power. They simply called the Bristol office, which had tons of money, thanks to the partnership with cigarette wholesalers. Unsurprisingly, the slush fund was not only spent on investigative expenses to informants were paid a whopping $6 billion each out of this fund. It's pretty good work if you can get one of those jobs. One agent, a particular, uh, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on real estate, electronics, donations to his church and children's sports teams, other purchases, including a $21,000 NASCAR, NASCAR suite and a trip to Las Vegas. This was a slush fund that they had worked out with a tobacco company. And they were taking this money. And the last time I The last time I, I, uh He that you do not mix private and public funds together. That is a big no no, and yes, that's exactly what they were doing. Charlie Let me talk just a second about the harassment of gun show buyers and sellers. Starting in May of 2004 and ending as far as we know on August 5th, the ATF worked with local police in Richmond, Virginia to harass, intimidate otherwise legal gun buyers. People at 8 different gun shows were approached by officers and discouraged from buying guns. Gun salesmen were targeted, interrogated, and accused of doing business without a license. Buyers were detained without charge, had their homes listed by ATF agents, all for exercising a constitutionally protected right. And ATF letter demanded the appearance of home uh a bar from a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Gun Show, demanding to see their papers for purchases and arresting those who refuse to comply. All of this, all of this we just lead up to the operation gun runner, better known as Fast and Furious and official policy of allowing certain illegal weapon purchase to go through between 2006, 2011, and it led to the deaths of Border Patrol agents, some of the weapons, uh, and question were even used in the terrorist attack. You're gonna hear testimony from them. That, uh That's going to portray Mr. Malinowski as selling to felons. In a gun show, if you're a lobbyist, you're not required to run a background check. On any individual that buys a gun. Brian Malinowski was a coin collector. He was a collector of other things. And his dad left him his gun collection, and he was just I've been a kid. I've been to sale barns where they've set up tables and people would put their guns on those tables and they would trade them and sell them. I've seen this all my life. But Mr. Malinowski's father when he gave him the gun, he immediately became a target. The others. Well, the ATF had a bad reputation long before the uh advance of Ruby Ridge and Waco. They were subject to congressional hearings in the late 70s and 80s because their methods. But securing a case were considered overzealous, evidence that the hearings were presented. Uh, but our American citizens who had been charged, experts who had closely studied the bureau and internal officials from the bureau. The Senate subcommittee investigated, investigating declared based upon these hearings, it is apparent that ATF enforcement tactics made possible by the current federal firearm laws are constitutionally, legally, and practically reprehensible. The ATF was considered especially harmful because they often targeted people who were not only didn't know they were doing anything wrong, but it absolutely no malicious intent at all. Their efforts focused on gun collectors rather than stopping street crime. In, indeed, the same investigation found that 75% of all ATF prosecutions were targeted at the people who had uh who had no knowledge that they were breaking any law and no intent to do anything criminal. Whenever the officers came to Brian Malinowski's house. On March 19th. In their policy book and I read their policy book. There's supposed to be wearing body cameras. No one in the neighborhood testified they heard any sirens or anything, but they're supposed to be wearing body cameras, and yet the first thing they do is take over Mr. Malinowski's security. Can And the reasoning was, according to the state police investigation in case anything went wrong. What could possibly go wrong when you knock somebody's door in in Arkansas at 6 o'clock in
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Speaker 67 23:34
the morning. 99% of us sitting in this room would do exactly what Ron Malinowski did. We would reach for a weapon.
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 23:53
To protect our family. He wasn't given that chance. And by the way, when, when he did finally show up and, and It talks about a reasonable amount of time. How long does it take you to get ready to, to make yourself presentable to go to the front door when you hear, and the next thing you hear is a loud banging they knocked your door in. And, and they're gonna tell you that he shot at, he shot at the feet. He was trying to get them out of his house. If he wouldn't want to kill me with a shot a lot higher than their feet. Uh, he was shot in the head. While standing next to him, his brains in school matter were all over the wall. They grabbed Mr. Malinowski. They took her to a in her night robe, in her nightgown, put her in a police car. For hours. When she asked to go to the restroom, they would not allow her to go, even if the neighbor's house. And finally, when they did take her on the way the police station, they stopped at a fire station and paraded her in front of a group of firemen and took her, took the wife, Miss Bowski. To a bathroom or a female officer kept the stall door open watching her. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna tell you something. This is just, all of this is wrong. This is wrong. When these men When these officers, and I'm a big I'm a big proponent of of law officers have been all my life. But when you, when you uh break into somebody's house like they did. And and and shoot a man without any due process. There were a dozen different ways they could have served this search warrant. A dozen He worked at the airport. He was head of the Little Rock Airport. All they had to do was take the search warrant, put it in his hands, take him back to his house, get his computer, get his cellphones, and run Malinowski would be alive today. He was never given that opportunity. So I'm asking you today to look at this very carefully because then we have a new president now, and he's making some big changes, especially concerning the ATF, uh, and the FBI with Cash Patel. But I think it was still send a strong signal to the citizens of Arkansas that We're here to protect them. Because what happened to Ryan Malinowski could happen to you, Senator Petty. Are you Hester? It could happen to any of us. No accountability. So I'm asking you to uh listen to the rest of this testimony and hopefully, uh, You'll understand what this thing is all about. We're ready to take questions. I'm sorry, just
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 27:01
a clarification, were you going to have this witness uh help you with that, or did you want to have questions at this point and then let him help you with the presentation. Well, if we could
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 27:15
both Mr. Efferson is a uh a little more knowledgeable about a lot of this than I am, so I'll
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 27:21
let him answer the questions. OK, OK, so he's, he's here to assist with questions. OK. Uh, are there any questions of the committee? You recognized sorry. So you mentioned.
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 27:48
In reference, I don't know exactly how you said it, but talking about somebody might. They call Mr. Malinowski that they call Terry Rice a criminal. If I've not been convicted, am I a criminal? No. So any assumption they would have had that there was criminality. I have not heard of anything in his background that did that. Well, the FBI
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 28:14
just testified that he was a productive citizen. He had no criminal background, no charges
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 28:25
against him. That that was my question. Yeah. Uh, Mr. Epperson, because I know you've some Information I think. Can you tell us this because this was a joint Raid With local law enforcement. Does Any Arkansas law enforcement that you're aware of or been able to find out. Uh, derive any funding from
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 29:00
ATF. Before you answer that, I, I was going to ask him to introduce himself. I don't think
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Speaker 86 29:07
that happened. I'm here and I was in Arkansas. And in response, Senator Rice's question and we could you turn on
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Speaker 88 29:15
your mic? Could you turn on your mic
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Speaker 86 29:20
up to you. It's got a cord there. Yeah Uh, in
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Speaker 92 29:29
response to. Question. We said that FOIs across the state requested this information and
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Speaker 95 29:37
we were aware already. Uh OK. Thank you. Uh, uh, a dual payment system for overtime and
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Speaker 96 29:43
things of that nature, uh, and it ranges uh varies give or take around $20,000 that they are paid. We can't serve two
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Speaker 95 29:54
masters, the Bible says that, and that is a huge concern of uh these municipal officers being employed by the ATM. Uh, but A lot of those FOIAs we didn't get back. They were never were answered. We didn't pursue them. Because we had the information that we needed to justify in
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Speaker 96 30:21
testimony that in fact it was happening. But the concerning part of that is With the lack of information that's being put out by the ATF and I'm sure it's out of concern for a civil lawsuit. Uh We're not aware of an actual ATF officer being in the entry team on that, it was all municipal, uh or county officers that went in. So it gives the appearance which I cannot substantiate this, but it gives the appearance of the federal ATF is using the local officers to do their dirty work, and that is very concerning. When that happens,
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 31:11
Just to clarify and and Senator Stubblefield said this if he wants to chime in too. There were many other options that that could have been done. Again, it's not just one case. This can be, this can happen anywhere. from previous Inquiries and, and some testimony given in a uh meeting of legislators. It was set up, in fact, it's, it's, there's some video on it that that there was a raid scheduled like 2 weeks before this. And they found out Mr. Malikowski was out of town, I think I heard Washington DC on airport business. And they stood down and didn't do it. That would have been a perfect time for somebody that's never been charged, but yet they've got a search warrant for his house, his wife may have been home, but they could have gone ahead and go in. Is that your recollection of some of
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Speaker 96 32:18
the testimony we'd heard about. From the information available, that is correct. Now I can somewhat understand that they were wanting Malinowski to get his cell phone. I can understand that, but that and we can always armchair and second guess actions that happened and I've been there and I understand that in my law enforcement career. But this This was so It was so, I mean anybody can see the outrageousness of their planned action. Uh,
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Speaker 95 32:51
and it gives the appearance that the planning of the operation was to produce
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 33:04
a probable result. Well, I, I'll go back and echo. Uh, what Senator Stubenfield said, I, I, I've tried to be a Elio LEO supporter. All my life I've got a tough job, you know, when, when We see things like this happen and again my Enhanced concern is that local law enforcement were drawn into this. One, if they're taking money, you said it. You can't serve two masters. You took their money, you got to do the business. And they go to a deal. Pre-dawn. Bust in a door, first tape the doorbell camera. But then I won't go through the deal since Stubblefield did, did well on it. This is a great concern to anybody in Arkansas, but yet I've talked to people on my side, and west side of the state. That's never heard about this. It's just almost like it's been covered up and it's not something to be covered up. I met with Mrs. Malikowski and talked to her and her A little more aware of it and it's very concerning that this can happen in this day and time. And nothing's been done about it. Do you know of anybody that's answered? Do any, any of this?
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Speaker 96 34:35
Serra's the only information that we've got is just uh Talking, uh, trying to reach consensus for this bill. And I'm not aware of any action that's being taken, uh, I've worked with
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Speaker 95 34:51
several agencies that are in this room, uh, trying to reach consensus for this bill. And uh because we are pro law enforcement. I'm prior law enforcement on the federal side. But it is a huge concern when actions like this happen.
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Speaker 96 35:13
With And fortunately for law enforcement, it was obviously Mr. Malinowski was the target of, he was not trained. Anybody trained is not going to have their wife. With them and behind them when there's an entry into that point. The last thing, and I'm over the hill. My health and everything else, but I can rest assured there's a
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Speaker 95 35:39
couple of those officers would not have left that scene if it would have been my door, and I do not want to live with that. That is it for the rest of my life. It's a dangerous operation for the officers. It's dangerous for the people. And anybody in their right mind is going to respond to crashing of the door with a firearm regardless of anybody can yell law enforcement. And there was no need for it at 6 o'clock. There was nothing in that house. It wasn't drugs that could be flushed down the commode and in my past, I've even crawled under hounds and cut the sewer pipes and put trash bags over them and collected evidence. Well, it wasn't drugs. It couldn't, uh, so why the rush, uh. Are you afraid to go to watch the computer clean. Well, at least give him a minute or two, but this is very concerning that this would happen in the ATF has had a history of inconsistencies and lack of leadership going back to the 1970s that has been pointed out in the uh. Inspector Generals and the GAO office. And Mr. chair,
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 36:53
that's all I've got this time. I just will say that, you know, I take it very serious that a bill like this is even necessary to run, but I've just come to the conclusion that We've just stated the seriousness. Thank you. All
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 37:09
right. Are there any others, uh, Members that would like to ask
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 37:14
any questions. I would like to have it. Turn your mic on. It's not hard to understand that the Little Rock Police Department, and I'm not blaming them because they were, they were coerced in this by uh alphabet agency that basically described by the, and they don't even get along with the FBI or the DEA. You can ask any FBI agent or DEA, they barely, they don't even be associated with ATF because of their background. But they have to federal agency execute a warrant. In a questionable investigation. And the alleged violation is so level process crime that it is vaguely defined. Uh, and it's almost impossible to prosecute. The target was a person with no criminal history. He had no criminal history. And now he's dead.
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Speaker 48 38:17
And like I said before, that could
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Speaker 94 38:28
happen to anyone sitting in this room. Mr. Epperson, you have a follow up on that. Yes, sir,
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Speaker 95 38:33
if I may, uh, I anticipate some of the opposing testimony. talk about he's selling guns to felons. Uh, how would he know that they were felons, he didn't have access to the system. I've heard the, I don't know what the number is, but the number from those sides says around 20 handguns. And Mr. Malinowski got the death sentence for selling. 20 handguns. What about the 400 and some on uh the two operations going into Mexico in the 2000s, there's two different ones, operations. One had over 2000 guns. One had almost 500 that were shipped to cartels and criminal elements in one of those firearms was used to kill the Agent Brian Terry. So I just want to put that in perspective. Who is
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 39:33
really the criminal in this case. Thanks, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, there's an old saying that says, who's watching the guardians. And, and sometimes I wonder who's watching the gardens for us because like Mr. Epperson said, out of those 2000 weapons that were put in, in, in a place where the cartels, access to them. They also found 150 civilians killed and trace those numbers back to those guns that were put there by the ATF. This is, this is outrageous in a country like this. Uh We'll take
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 40:12
further questions. Any further questions from the members of the committee. If not, then I believe there are some signed up to speak, uh. Are the remaining speaking for All right. uh, Mr. McMahon. If you would, and I'm going to, we, we gave up, uh, actually what I'd like to do, Senator Stubble Hill, before you leave, just I meant to do this a minute ago. I didn't make myself a note. I, I know you've been a supporter of our local law enforcement, our state law, this, and I know you've met with them and discussed with them, but they may not have had the benefit of the amendment that we introduced this morning, and would you mind just kind of because it's a fairly large one, would you mind just kind of covering the high points of what your amendment. did. OK. this amendment Senator Stubblefield, would you turn your back on? You and
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 41:34
I are guilty on that all the time. Well, my papers covering it up my chair. I'm sorry. Uh, on page one, this deletes line 11 through 14 and substitutes the following foreign enforcement of federal firearms regulations, rules, executive orders, treaties and administrative orders and for other purposes. It deletes the subtitle. Uh, And substitute the following to create the anti-ATF commandeering Act and to prohibit the provisions of the material aid and support and enforcement of federal firearms regulations, rules, executive orders, treaties and executive orders. Page 2. It deletes lines 4 and 5 and substitutes the following. Assistant or material aid for enforcing federal firearms regulations, rifles, rules. Uh, executive orders, treaties or administrative orders. Deletes lines, also deletes lines 34 through 36, substitutes the following, provides material aid and support for enforcing any federal regulation rule, executive order, treaty or administrative orders regarding firearms, firearm accessories or ammunition. Page 3 delete slide 2 through 7. And substitutes falling in force or attempt to enforce any federal regulation, rule, experience, uh, executive order, treaty or administrative order regarding firearms, farm accessories and ammunition refer to the United States government of violation of federal reg uh of federal regulation rule executive order, treaty or administrative order. regarding firearms, firearm accessories and ammunition. Page 3, section does not delete lines 12 to 13. The section does not prevent law enforcement from accepting aid or using information obtained from the United States government. Agencies to enforce state laws. It is not a violation of this section for the state or political subdivision of the state to provide material aid or support to federal officials that are not in pursuit of a suspect when there is a demonstrable criminal nexus with another state or country and the suspect is either not a citizen of the state are not. Prison in the state. And number 2, for federal prosecution of a felony offense against a person when the prosecution includes a weapons violation similar to a felony offense under Section 573101 includes a uh If the weapon, if the weapon violation is merely auxiliary to the prosecution. Or a Class A or Class B felony offense substantially similar to the felony offense under 564101. 5641303. When the prosecution includes a weapons violation if the weapons violation is merely, uh, merely an auxiliary to the prosecution. This section does not apply to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission are employees of
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 45:17
the Arkansas State Game and Fish. OK, thank you. I just, I didn't know who may or may not have, and I knew there was some, some changes and you've been meeting, so I wanted to make that available. So, uh, Mr. McMahon, uh, you are here to speak against yes, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Introduce yourself and you may proceed. Bob McMahon, I'm representing the Arkansas prosecuting Attorneys Association, and I'm also the director of the Arkansas
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Speaker 133 45:41
Prosecutor Coordinator's Office, which is a state agency. We appreciate the opportunity to address our opposition to SB 39. 9. We don't usually appear in this committee, so we may be new to to some of you here, but uh again, as I said, I represent all the prosecuting attorneys in the association and we are as as a whole opposed to Senate Bill 399. Before I get into specific comments about why we have that opposition. I'm also authorized today to speak for the Attorney General's office. They could not be here. General Griffin, communicated with his office yesterday and was asked to let you all know that they have opposition to this bill as well for the same reasons that I'm getting ready to talk about. Um, I have another elected prosecutor with me here today, Chris Walton, and we're going to try to divide our presentation here
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 46:24
a little bit. Um, I don't know if you want him at the table with me at the same time, or you like to divide us up? Sure, he can, he can come to the table at this point is his presentation, uh, you, you said divide and conquer. We'll, we'll divide it up a little bit. I don't think we have anything that's the same both of you guys do it instead of the for and against alternating. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And a quick reference of Of the
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Speaker 133 46:46
amendment. I know there's that's a changed a little bit. I, I don't see that that amendment is going to change our opposition to the bill at all. And Chris, I don't know if you've had a chance to look at that, but um, basically our opposition with regard to this bill is it, it, it pretty much prohibits, and I'm going to speak on the basis of prosecuting attorneys. I'm going to focus on that. I have plenty of law enforcement colleagues I know that are going to cover the law enforcement stuff. But again, our opposition and the AG's opposition would be that it would prohibit us from working with the federal government and the United States Attorney's office on prosecuting a handful of cases. Um, the way it's written, it really doesn't, I know it deals with firearms and accessories and ammunition and things of that nature. However, it isn't just working with the ATF that that would affect, you know, we also work with the DEA, the FBI, Homeland Security, and, and a host of other federal agencies um with regard to that. I mean, it may be a drug case, it may be a gang case, it could be a human trafficking case, all those, as we all know, involve firearms in many situations. So we believe that that that would Prohibit us from working with that. The the bill talks about um uh no aid or support from us, you know, as a, as a prosecutor, it also talks about not allowing to enforce things or assist in the enforcement or refer things to to the federal government or to agencies. So, and, and now I'd like to give a couple of real examples of how that affects prosecuting attorneys. Back in 2019, um, Project Guardian initiative was created by the Department of Justice. Again, that was started in 2019 and the goal there was to reduce gun violence. and enforce federal firearm laws throughout the country. Um, they emphasize using all technologies available to law enforcement and to prosecutors to help us do that. In that initiative, there were 5 different principles of implementation. I won't read you all five of those. I just want to focus on one so that you can see where I'm coming from here. One of the principles of implementation was to allow federal prosecutions and law enforcement to coordinate with state law enforcement and state prosecuting attorneys to continue to consider potential federal prosecution, that would be defendants arrested with firearms using a firearm in crimes of violence, drug trafficking cases, things of that nature, all specified in the initiative. Um, so how that actually worked out here in the state of Arkansas, um, let me, let me say one other thing. The success of that initiative depends in large part on the state and local officials, both prosecutors and my law enforcement colleagues to share ballistic evidence, ballistic information, firearm recovery data, all those things. are used to help us prosecute cases. You may remember when Cody Highland, our former US Attorney was involved. He was very, very involved in, in, in this initiative, he actually deputized about a dozen of our deputy prosecuting attorneys throughout the state to assist his office as special assistant US attorneys to handle these type of gun cases that were so prevalent in the state of Arkansas and and at the time and you all have done a great job of making some of our laws tougher on those violent criminals that use firearms, but, but we still rely on, on our communication and working with the federal government. There are many situations where they have a better option for us. So so we would work with them to make that decision. Um, a few years after Mr. Holand did that, the Trump administration and the Department of Justice gave the state of Arkansas an additional position toward the end of President Trump's first term in office, and that additional position, one of the catch-alls and the requirements in that position was that it had to be run through a state agency. And so my state agency. Had an employee funded by the federal government that you all approved all the appropriation in the, in the position for um to again assist the federal government as a state agency state employee, that individual was placed in my office in successfully helped prosecute along with the other individuals, Mr. Highland deputized serious gun cases in the state of Arkansas. Both those programs were successful. The deputizing of of our, our deputies as US attorneys and the specific person that was put in my office to do that. This bill would prohibit both of those things from helping. Both of those were a success. They made a significant difference in the prosecution of gun crimes and individuals that were committing violent crimes in our community for, for those reasons, we oppose the bill.
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Speaker 134 51:01
It would, it would infringe on our ability to do those things. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll be
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 51:07
happy to answer any questions. Any questions for this speaker, this witness, OK.
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 51:13
Mike. Hey, OK, I'm sorry, Bob, uh, Right after Malinowski case, a number of AGs joined together. against the ATF. AG Griffin was one of them. So, you said that he's against it now? And yet he joined in a case against
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Speaker 133 51:37
their activity. Sinner, I can't speak. I'm not disputing that. I, I believe you are correct that he did join that activity. Um, I, I don't have any personal knowledge of of his involvement in in that joining. I just know for this particular piece of legislation because of the reasons I articulated, and I'm authorized to say they are opposed for those specific reasons. I don't know if that necessarily is a contradiction to to being involved with what you're talking about the ATF unfortunately, uh, you know, I I can't, I would be guessing if I tried to do that and I don't want to be in the position
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Speaker 134 52:07
to guess for the for the attorney General. I know he could speak on that. Himself or
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 52:12
have a member of his staff. They're just not here today. Well, I'm not guessing because I read this from the AG's uh I get his, uh, emails. He joined in with AGs all over the state. Because of this one case. Of ATF and the way they carried it out. So he was, he was really part of this. And by the way, President Trump during his first presidential term. He cut the budget of ATF. Is that not correct? So I don't know for sure. I'm not disputing that the budget of ATF. And that's, that's one of the reasons some of these slush funds were set up is because President Trump saw that this group was out of control and he started cutting the budgets. And now, and then they went to uh Bristol, Virginia, set up with one of the large tobacco companies and creating this fund where they can draw from it and nobody even knew about it. That's a history. You can find that just about anywhere, even
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 53:16
online. OK. All right, any other questions, members? Senator, do you recognized? Thank you.
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 53:27
Bob, I don't know. I'm just asking. I don't know if you call it a preamble or what, what. But is a statement That prosecutors take as regarding service. To the citizens of Arkansas. Can you give me a oath of office oath of office,
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Speaker 134 53:45
yes sir. Yes, sir, when, when prosecutors sworn in, uh, many deputy prosecuting carney similar to to the United States attorneys, they, they swear to uphold the constitution of the state of Arkansas and of the United States. OK. Do you, do you think that
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 53:58
Constitution was followed. In this one particular case I'm not talking about all the others. I'm talking about the Malinowski case. Senator,
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Speaker 133 54:06
I know there are people here today that have more experience and involvement with the Malinowski case from from my perspective, the only role the prosecuting attorneys had in this particular case was to review the the case file and make a decision on whether the officers acted appropriately pursuant to the warrant and whether they had the authority to be there and enter the residence, and I believe the prosecuting attorney here in town made that decision. He had the necessary information to know whether we like it or we agree with whatever happened, he had a warrant, you know, signed by a judge and a
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Speaker 150 54:37
proper. followed what was in the war and followed the procedures that were allowed to them under reason
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 54:45
for asking what Statement is is Who speaks for the citizens of Arkansas that this could happen to and who speaks for Brian Malikowski. So one person, one prosecutor made determination Again, I remember Senator Stubblefield has talked about there was more people signed on and concerned at the time. But all quieted down. Who speaks for the
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Speaker 150 55:07
citizens of Arkansas. Senator, I believe that we all do. I mean, we're all
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Speaker 133 55:12
but the prosecuting attorneys, the oath that they take and the job that they have to do, it's to exercise that discretion every day in and again I just want to point out that discretion was exercised on the validity of the warrant and the and whether the procedures were followed, so that that's the only decision the prosecuting attorney made in this particular case. I'm not, you know, anything else that happened, any kind of a civil issue that are out there,
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Speaker 134 55:36
anything like that, that's not going to involve the prosecuting attorney. Chris, I don't know, you know, as an elected, you may, you may want
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 55:44
to add to that, but I think I'm, I'm correct on how that would work. Before, I'm
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Speaker 154 55:49
sorry, before you speak, would you introduce yourself and who you're with. Chris
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Speaker 155 55:56
Walton, prosecuting attorney's Office Saline County. And we, we frequently review charge we review incidents to see if there would be any criminal charges that any officer would face.
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Speaker 154 56:04
I do not know about that particular case other than what I've heard from individuals that are sitting out here, but that's what, that's what we review when we review those types of cases.
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 56:14
OK, thank you and I'll follow up and I'm through is. Just with my question. That's the reason I'm asking questions for the citizens of Arkansas elected me. They've got concerns what can happen to them and their families. Thank you.
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 56:33
Fed up the field, you had a follow-up question. Yes, well, it's a question of a statement. I helped a committee committee meeting uh this past summer. And we, we talked to the FBI agents we talked to some other individuals about the Maowski case and when it came to the city of Little Rock, they sent their attorney and pleaded the fifth, they answered no questions, no questions, and there were a lot of unanswered questions because I read the police report from the Arkansas State Police. There were still some unanswered questions about this case. So why would, why would the city of Little Rock not participate in answering questions to committee to find out the details of just what happened. That they were a part of that, that, uh, right. OK. Any
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 57:26
other questions from the committee? Would you have pre prepared remarks
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Speaker 155 57:34
you'd like to present, and, and thank you. A couple of things. We want to use as prosecutors whatever resources we can to keep bad guys off the streets. Of
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Speaker 162 57:50
Arkansas. That's what we want to do. And what I am concerned about is that this bill will limit our opportunities to put bad guys in jail by prohibiting us from working with federal authorities when we have done so successfully in the past, whether it was the power ultra lounge shooting here in Little Rock. Whether it was a murderer who had a witness recant and the gun charges were allowed to stick and able to put that person In custody, uh, for a period of time or whether we have had a valid person that was out on bond and uh found with the gun later. That is only federal charges that allowed us to put that person in jail and got a six-year sentence, federal sentences because there was a law that the feds have that the state doesn't, that allowed us to keep that person locked up. We are choosy when we work with the feds. Sometimes we fight the feds. That happens, but to cut us off to completely prohibit us from working with the feds would really take a great tool from our kit that I think would be ill advised. And I will say one final thing. The only thing there, there are reasons to be scared sometimes of the federal government. Absolutely. But us not working with them at all, us not knowing what they're doing, to me, that is the scariest thing. That could happen if we don't have the ability to talk to them and work with them, and we don't know what they're doing. That's the scariest
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 59:49
thing, and that would be what I would have to say. So follow up on that statement, um, just a question. Are there situations where they come in, you're willing to work with them, but they don't, they don't notify you they're working in the state or are they required to notify you anytime they
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Speaker 154 1:00:03
come in. There are times where I feel like there has been a federal operation that we don't know, and we do, I,
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Speaker 164 1:00:11
I, I do not like that, but that, that, that has happened. All right, thank
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:00:19
you. Senator, I would just say that this bill does not prevent ATF from coming into the state. There's nothing in this bill that would prevent ATF from coming in and doing something that they see is wrong in the state. This bill simply says that we don't have to go along with him. We don't have to be there. Carriers in this and, you know, the ATF, it's not just the people that uh they're they're a unique group. They've had, they've had 400, uh, from what I've discovered, They, uh The complaints about the ATF are not by any means limited to civilians. As an example, ATF received 400 employee complaints within one year. That is an astounding number of complaints for an organization that only has 5000 employees. What's more, internal agents who complain are often subject to punitive measures within the agency, meaning that what resources aren't being spent on a trapping citizen and being used to persecute. persecute what uh slim opposition to corruption exists within the government. So how much of their time and money are they use, using. For, for locking up bad guys. All right. Would you like to respond to
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Speaker 153 1:01:44
that briefly if I understood the Senator correct, I mean, it doesn't just say that we shouldn't work with the feds. It says we cannot work with the feds, and
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Speaker 162 1:01:52
that's, that's, that's a big distinction in my opinion. And if we can't work with them, we don't know what they're doing. And, and that is a that is a problem. And again, going back, we use them to get cases and
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Speaker 154 1:02:05
and prosecute bad individuals when their law helps us out and it can make my community safer. All right, Senator Stubblefield, you know,
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Speaker 67 1:02:15
I just don't understand this because if they know something that,
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:02:19
that Bob and the and the others don't know. They can inform them. We have state police, we have little uh Little Rock Police Department. We have police departments all across the state. If the ATF knows something. They can, there's nothing in this bill that would prevent him from telling them and let them handle it. OK. Instead of allowing a rogue agency to come in here and kill an innocent or innocent citizens, which we are sworn to uphold. You know, the, we took an oath too to protect the Constitution against all enemies, including foreign and domestic. All right, any other
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:03:00
questions of the committee? If not, thank you for your testimony. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. I believe we have one signed up to speak for remaining signed up to speak for the bill. Jessica B. is Jessica, Jessica. Jessica, if you would be seated and turn the mic on and introduce yourself
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Jessica Rhee Unverified 1:03:28
and who you're with. Uh, my name is Jessica Ree
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Speaker 177 1:03:36
or E. OK, sorry, I can't read. Thank you. I appreciate this opportunity to speak to you, um, in support of the anti-ATF commandeering Act. Um, I'm here to show my support from a few different perspectives. Uh, first and foremost and most importantly as a wife and a mother, uh, secondly, I'm a firearms instructor with a passion for training women. My husband and I both have solid interest in firearms and keep a moderate collection for our own interests and for my students. There are some nights after all of my mom duties are done for the day. My kids are tucked in bed and I've laid down that I find myself considering the possibility of the ATF unexpectedly coming through my door at 6 a.m. unannounced, possibly in plain clothing and weapon trained on myself or my husband. Well, you haven't committed any crimes and what are you afraid of, you might ask, and you would be correct. I haven't, and neither has my husband, but Mr. Malinowski was targeted and a raid was conducted merely for the suspicion of selling a few firearms. We have enough facts now to know that what the ATF did to Mr. and Ms. Malinowski was entirely unnecessary. I live in a country where I have the right to do process, should I be accused of a crime, but that right was taken from Mr. Malinowski for acting in the exact manner any Arkansan would with no prior criminal history should someone enter their home at 6 a.m. unannounced and uninvited. Who is to say that myself or my husband won't be targeted for something the ATF might be suspicious of. Um I feel the need to reiterate that this bill doesn't prevent the ATF from enforcing laws. Mr. Malinowski wasn't targeted for breaking laws, and if he was, there would have been an arrest warrant and that wasn't the case. He was targeted for breaking regulations. Does my husband, who works hard to provide for his family deserve to die at the hands of the people that take an oath to protect us, for simply protecting his own family from what he believes at the time to be a threat in our own home. What is the protocol for a raid if there are children in the home? Would it have been handled any differently than the Malinowski raid. Would they come in my home and endanger my children, or would they choose to exercise other avenues of serving a warrant to ensure the safety of my children. I teach my students as an instructor that they can use lethal force should an armed attacker come through the threshold and they are unfair for their life. I'm now conflicted on how to teach them. Should I start telling them to first check the intruder's clothing for the ATF insignia before engaging. I need to make it very clear that my testimony today is in no way intended to be anti-law enforcement. In fact, I had the honor of watching my dad serve our community as a police officer for 2 years. For 20 years, I prayed he would return home after each shift, and I believe it is the duty of the leadership in the department to do their due diligence in ensuring the safety of their officers and making sure they return home to their families. Whoever sent the orders to those officers, and in this case, it would have been the ATF, um, I don't believe that they took their safety into consideration, um, they sent the orders, had the local law enforcement do their dirty work and they put those officers in danger by doing so. My dad spent the second half of his career investigating, interrogating, and arresting some of the most vile predators you can imagine. Predators that you and I would likely have a difficult time maintaining our composure around. But he did so without ever violating their rights, and that alone tells me it can be done, it should be done, and when it isn't, we need to have the ability to hold those responsible accountable. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Reed. Any questions from the committee.
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:07:33
If not, thank you for your testimony. Um, OK, so next up is Stacy Rhodes, I believe. Now, we've, we've had a lot of latitude in the discussion the purpose and the and the motivation behind this bill and the situation, unfortunate situation with Mr. Malinowski. I would like to remind the witnesses to keep it on the bill and keep it focused on that since he does not have representation here other than the motivation behind the bill. So if you would introduce
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Speaker 189 1:08:13
yourself and you're free to begin. Um, good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, um, a Major Stacey Rhodes. Um, I oversee the criminal investigation division of the Arkansas State Police. Um, I've been with the state police for just celebrated
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Speaker 191 1:08:27
my twenty-seventh anniversary with the state police and prior to that I was um in the United States Marine Corps. Um, I'm here, um, representing the state police to share our opposition to this bill. Um, for a variety of reasons. Um, first, let me say that there is nothing more important to, to us at the state police than the protection of our 2nd Amendment rights, um, and in no way um here or are we trying to to diminish that, um, as I said in the audience, I heard um Senator Stubblefield, uh, referenced several cases involving ATF investigations um that did not fare well for citizens. Um, but I have some personal experiences that I would like to share with the committee on some investigations that we handled within the state police that I, I can say with without a doubt that would not have been successful without the aid of our ATF, um, Partners. One such investigation that I was involved with involved with was the um bombing of Doctor Trent Pierce that happened in West Memphis. Doctor Pierce was the uh head of the medical board who who oversees um medical licensings for doctors, and one morning he walked out to his car, removed a tire that was leaned up against his car in a grenade exploded on his car, um, Through that investigation, that that we assisted the ATF with um they were able to Determined that a doctor in Russville was likely responsible, um, we at the state police didn't have the, the, the resources to be able to backtrack a lot of the, the um evidence collected in that case and, uh, you know, ATF were able to, to determine where the grenades came for and make an arrest of the doctor there in Russville. Um, other cases, uh, they mentioned Cody Highland and um his ability to help us with our interstate shootings that occurred back in 2019. We, uh, we were being overrun with with gang violence and shootings on the interstate and without access to the national um integrated ballistics information um system, we would not be able to connect weapons to to gang members and to uh other uh homicides, you know, in Little Rock so far we've had 17. Homicide just in Little Rock this year. But I could sit here and I could name countless other investigations of tractor trailer thefts involving um a cargo of, of rifles that were stolen at the ATF helped us track down two other state, uh, venues. Right now across the state, there are hundreds if not thousands of, of, of weapons in the hands of of some bad actors. There is, there's no doubt about that, and our ability to help
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Speaker 189 1:11:44
find those in confiscate those from bad actors, we rely heavily on on the ATF to
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Speaker 188 1:11:53
help us do that. The other thing that that we noticed in
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Speaker 191 1:11:59
reading this bill is, is in regard to. domestic violence perpetrators, um, as it stands now, I'm not aware of any law in the state of Arkansas that would prohibit someone convicted of domestic violence, um, being prohibited from having a firearm and we we heavily rely on that federal oversight, so when a um someone is convicted of domestic violence, um, that they not be allowed to, to, to
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Speaker 189 1:12:29
possess firearms, um, and the other thing, and know that um Mr. uh, Uh McMahan mentioned
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Speaker 191 1:12:38
was what was with respect to discretion. Right now we have the discretion if we don't want to include the ATF we certainly don't have to, but there are certainly going to be times um over the the course of however many years that we, we may need to rely on them and, and we don't want that discretion stripped away, um. You know, because right now we have the ability to if they come to us and say, hey, we're working on this case, we'd like to help you with this case. We have the discretion to, you know, just to frankly say no. Um, I'll tell you about some, some violence down in West Helena where we simply don't get the jury convictions because the jury pool in West Helena just doesn't have the same uh impact that a federal jury would get on a lot of those gun charges that that we are seeing in folks like West Helena in West Memphis and some of our more violent um parts of the state. Um So that kind of wraps up Um,
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Speaker 189 1:13:40
you know, everything that that I had intended to talk to
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:13:47
today, and I would entertain any questions members you've heard the testimony. Do we have any questions? Senator Stubblefield. Yes
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Speaker 194 1:13:54
ma'am, I would like to ask you, sir. How many, how
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:13:58
many no-knock marks were issued last year in the in the country. I don't believe there shouldn't have been any. There shouldn't have
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Speaker 189 1:14:08
been any. There shouldn't have any. I'm not aware. I know that we in the state police have not did, we, we
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:14:12
don't do no knock. Do you keep up with any statistics on no no knock warrants of how many innocent people have been killed? No, sir. OK. Would, is it against federal law to sell marijuana? Yes. How many arrests do you make? So, I mean, do you deal in any of that in selling marijuana arresting people who are transporting or Carrying marijuana. Yes sir, we do. OK, how
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Speaker 191 1:14:41
many do those you do? Oh, so our interstate Criminal patrol, you
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Speaker 189 1:14:44
know, we, you know, just within the last 6 months, I know of at least, you
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:14:49
know, 2000 pounds that we got off the interstate. Well, I pulled this up last night and it said 99% of all the marijuana resist, uh, risk or state, not federal. OK. And it's against federal law. And yet we're doing all the arrests. Would you
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Speaker 198 1:15:08
agree to that? Um, I'm not going to contest it. All right,
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:15:13
Senator Rois, did you have a question? Yeah, I.
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 1:15:21
Thank you. Thank you for being here, and I appreciate. State police and the work you do and, and you name some cases there that that are are. I feel probably very justified. I remember the The doctor that was injured over there, I got to meet him. I happen to be over. Medical Association or something and met him after that. Very serious things. If the state police, which were not involved in the case we were talking about. I don't get all back on that. How can something go from so needed and so justified in these violent things you're talking about to somebody that It's never been convicted. May be suspicion. But doesn't have an arrest warrant. How, how can it go that wrong? state police just smart enough to stay out of that.
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Speaker 189 1:16:25
So I don't want to confuse the difference between an investigation in a tactical um approach to a to a home, and I think that the the ATF was in the middle of an investigation which happens at the state police. We we don't always have enough information or enough evidence to support an arrest warrant, but we do have enough to support a search warrant. And so to say that we were smart enough to stay out of it, you know, obviously. we, we weren't invited, um, we, you know, currently don't have any um task force members as part of the ATF, um, but I do know that in terms of the ATF we know most of the things that we can
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Speaker 191 1:17:08
handle in-house, but we, we certainly know when we need to ask for help from those federal agencies when it goes
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Speaker 189 1:17:16
outside of what I would call our level of expertise. An ATF do more than just firearms. I can talk to you about, you know. Teachers vehicle that had a, you know, pipe bomb put on it and in Adkins um that her boyfriend put on there. You know, we, we employed the assistance of ATF to help us understand how that mechanism worked so that we could secure a conviction on that as well. I just hope you
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 1:17:44
continue to use What I call common sense and knowing not to go over the line and that's,
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Speaker 189 1:17:50
and that's what we use. We like to think that we, we do use common sense and have the ability we we just want to be able to continue to have the ability to use them when necessary, not always, we're not always going to call them, we're not always going to let them know what our business is, but when it goes outside the scope of what we What we can do, we have to be able to reach out to somebody and say, can you come help us with this. Thank you for being here. Yes, sir. All
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:18:22
right. any other questions of this witness? I have one more.
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:18:32
What was the enforcement of federal law being investigated, was it consistent with congressional conte consent. Sir, I don't know the answer to that. OK, well, it's, it's a definition is unconstitutionally vague. Uh, the subject matter is more political than criminal. That came from ATF did not have any sufficient evidence to charge much less convict Brian Malinowski for violation of this regulation,
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Speaker 188 1:19:03
you know, I can just say that that wasn't the scope of our investigation. All right,
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:19:09
thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Any, any other questions from the committee. If not, thank you, Ms. Rose. Next, to speak against it, David Ewing, I believe. All right. So if you both would, it looks like it's going to be a tag team if you both would introduce yourselves so we don't have to
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Speaker 216 1:19:34
back up and do that again. Not a problem. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is David Young. I'm chief of police of
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Speaker 218 1:19:43
Russellville and also the president of the Arkansas Association Chiefs of Police. I'm Gary Sykes, the director of the Arkansas Association of Chiefs of Police. OK. all the I'm here to advise you guys, uh, centers that the Arkansas Association of Chiefspace, all the chiefs across the Arkansas, which consists of over 300 chiefs are adamantly opposed to this for obvious reasons. And this is kind of difficult to sit here because I have all the respect in the world for Senator Stubblefield, but this is so important, this bill is so important that we need to be here to testify and tried to reason. Our beliefs on this, it's it's really going to affect law enforcement. You heard the major discuss how it's going to affect them. It's going to affect the uh locals as well. As a police officer at North Rock PD, I was, uh, I went through the ranks. I started as a kid of 18 years old. I was assigned to be undercover for several years and during that period I was assigned to the DEA task force, uh, during that time, I heard someone say something about ITF paying the municipality. Well, they do, they, they do pay part of the salary of the task force officer. And they had at that time they were low and personnel and that helped them and it helped us because we had the resources we have the tools. And we're all In the business of fighting crime to make society better, to protect our citizens. Um I just, I just want to say that this is not going to affect ATF, and I know this is the main purpose, but it's going to affect all of the federal agencies as it's written. Nobody's mentioned the marshals Service, and I mention it because uh I have a son that works for the marshal. Um They make so many arrests that the locals can't make because they have the tools to reach out across the United States, but and you can read in the papers here on the in the news about the US Marshals making arrest here and there. I, I mean, you got other testimony coming up, so I'm not going to say anything else, but I hope we have to set my respect for for the center side because of this, and I hope you guys can do the same. Thank
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:22:24
you. Thank you for your testimony. Any questions of this witness from the committee. Carrie,
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:22:32
how many, how many farm laws and regulations are on the books at the state, federal level. There is a multitude. How many I have 20,000. 20,000 and many of them contradict each other. Uh, so it's, it's really a matter of how you interpret those laws but some of these federal law enforcement agencies. They interpret it one way, you may interpret them different. And the citizen may interpreting totally different because they all contradict each other. Uh, and they're written with a lot of room for interpretation. It was just last year that uh President Biden gave a uh a speech. Right after Ryan Malinowski was killed about closing the loopholes at these gun shows. People en Fort Smiths where we have the old 4 Days gun show. People in Conway were scared to death. Because that's what our president had got up and said, we've got to close the loopholes. These guys have been doing this for very, they have no criminal intent. They're not trying to sell to some other country. They're simply doing what they've been doing for the last 100 years. They trade and they sell antique firearms. And yet we have 20,000 laws that state and federal level. And nobody knows exactly what they mean. Nobody. Because I've asked congressman about this, and they don't know. It depends on who you're asking, how they interpret these laws.
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Speaker 166 1:24:13
I see. Thank you, Senator Stubenfeld. Any,
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:24:17
any questions follow up? If not, then Mr. Ewing, if you would, yes, just from the perspective
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Speaker 216 1:24:23
of the Chiefs Association we are against this and you know, some, most of the agencies in Arkansas are not your larger agencies like, you know, Central Arkansas has or Northwest has a lot of them have limited resources. I mean, you heard Major Rhodes was the state police, talk about the limited resources they have, you know, even things get outside their scope, you can imagine for a painfully mid-sized agencies or small rural agencies in the state, sometimes we do depend on Our federal law enforcement partners to help us deal with the crime in our area. You know, even in Rosseville, you know, we, a couple of years ago, and we didn't you know really deal much with the federal government law enforcement, uh, till about 2017, 2018, and when we started sharing information with them and we actually had an operation into the dirt that we worked with our federal partners and the US attorneys on that we got rid of about 60 to 70 of our worst criminals in our area that we, there's no way we could have done that on our own, not even with the states. You know, that was very difficult for law for an agency of our size and we saw our crime rates go down tremendously for a couple of years after that. And I think you heard Major road talk about other cases that just happened to be in the area we were from, and you know, I think for those agencies, you know, you're the way the law is written, it's just the bill that you know, it's before us, you know, we need to have that access, that discretion to contact our federal law enforcement partners to handle the issues we have in our communities so we can best address them when it's outside of our resources to do so. All right, any questions or I believe Senator Ross has
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:26:02
a question. Oh, he got me first. Yes, sir. I for either one of you, uh. And, and the.
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Speaker 223 1:26:07
But didn't address it. Do your officers take funding from ATF.
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 1:26:20
We have in the past. We don't currently. You have in the past we had what they call task force officers in the past. Are you familiar with how many firearms, uh, there's an individual. at the sale before he's required to have a dealer's I don't have an answer for that, Senator. No. Do you arrest anybody for selling
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Speaker 226 1:26:42
firearms. No, not the best of my knowledge, unless it's
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 1:26:45
under state law violations, so that, that's not in y'all's purview. No, sir. But yet When the ATF came to Little Rock. Supposedly with that determination of their own determining this individual that we've been discussing should have been a dealer rather than just An individual selling firearms when when it's a Undetermined amount of Pieces They use local Law enforcement. If you had been in your city, they probably would have used you. Well, that would have been my discretion whether to participate or not, they're in. I appreciate you saying that and I hope you would have. Determine what the law was, what the Constitution says before you agree to do it. Thank you all for being
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:27:47
here. Senator Stubblefield, to contradict my good friends at the law enforcement but just last week I heard that uh crime was up. In Northwest Arkansas. The problems actually up in Northwest Arkansas. So that's and let me ask you a question. What happens If the new director who appointed himself Kash Patel. does away with the ATF. What are you going to do then? Well, we have other law enforcement partners we depend on.
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Speaker 230 1:28:14
I mean, they can enforce federal firearm. They could, they could handle it. I believe they can, they're
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Speaker 216 1:28:22
federal officers, they can enforce any federal laws on the books.
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Speaker 218 1:28:25
They would have to be trained, of course, in the job that ATF does. Um I mean that. They'd have
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:28:41
to be trained. All right, any other questions of the committee? Senator Hester, I want to see how many more people are there to testify on this bill. There are 3 more. Mr. Gibbons, Mr. Miller, and Mr. Jones. How, how many are for, how many are against? All against. Thank you. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna remind the, the, uh, witnesses to keep the testimony on the bill, and there's been a lot of stories that probably are from different organizations are going to be the same types of stories and uh against it and, and so I'm going to remind you to kind of keep it specifically to uh the, the, the bill. So with that, thank you for your testimony. Thank you. Appreciate it. Next is uh Michael Gibbons, if I've got that right. If you would recognize yourself and who you're with and proceed with your testimony. My name is Michael Gibbons.
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Speaker 237 1:29:42
I'm the vice president of the Arkansas State Fraternal Order of Police. Uh, first, Mr. Chairman, Vice Chairman, members of the committee, thank you for allowing me
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Michael Gibbons Unverified 1:29:50
to speak here today. Again, my name is Michael Gibbons. I'm the vice president of the Arkansas Fraternal Police. The representative body of over 3500 men and women in blue who proudly served the state of Arkansas. They also serve as the president of the North Rocko Police, where I'm a proud member of the Orthodox Police Department. I've been with North Rock for 31 years. The last 26 years of my service, I've been assigned to the homicide Division. In the last 15 years I've also served simultaneously as a task force officer to the ATF out of Little Rock. I come for you today to speak against Senate Bill 399, the anti-ATF Commeering Act. There are many reasons why we're against the passage of the act, but the second time I've covered just some of the major issues, but by eliminating the ability for law enforcement to work with ATF on farm-related crimes by both enforcement and material aid. This bill will have lasting effects on local law enforcement that will carry on for decades. To cover some of the points. One, I want to speak about the national integrated Ballistic Network, the NIN system. If you're not familiar with Niin, Niin is a system that is utilized by law enforcement across the country to basically connect crimes together. When expanded shell casings were covered from crime scenes such as robberies, homicides, violent crimes. Those casings are entered by the local agency into Niin, which is owned and operated by the ATF. What that machine does is it basically takes the fingerprint of those shell casings. And it compares it to all the shell casings that have been submitted to the yin system and it links crimes. I can count thousands of cases over the past decade that local authorities have been able to connect together the rot and North Rola County and so on to each other's cases. What that does for us is if I have a homicide in North Rock. And I have no information, but that is tied to a case that happened in Little Rock the week before. We can now reach out to our counterparts to find out what leads they have and that just keeps trickling down. That provides Tons of information to us and it's assisted us in many ways to solve cases. Again, that is owned and operated by by the Department of Justice, ATF, um, I'll also add in that Senator Bozeman. has had a liaison ATF officer in his office for over a decade now, and he has been a strong supporter of the Nain system, and the machines, and it's helped us get those in here and extra ones here in the state, especially a new one up towards Northwest Arkansas. But again, We lose Act 399 will cause us not to have the ability to utilize the yin system. Firearms such as machine guns, I'm pretty sure everyone here is familiar with Glock switches and not drop in auto sears. These are small little mechanisms that come for less than $150 or can be made for 5 cents in your home with a 3D printer. Those little mechanisms make a fire a semi-automatic pistol shoot as a machine gun. That puts over 100 rounds in less than 10 seconds down range. Arkansas, especially the central Arkansas area has seen over a 300% increase in the use of these weapons. Arkansas does have a machine gun law on on the books. Um, except the punishment for it so far to the county circuit courts have pretty much been probation, whereas we take those cases federal with our joint federal partners and the federal system who is sending a very strong message that these types of guns in the hands of illegal individuals will not be allowed and are starting the minimum sentence at 2 years, and that's for somebody with no criminal record. Arkansas law also does not address the simple possession of the switches themselves. The switches again on the market are sold between $250 and $1000 apiece and an individual stopped by local law enforcement on the side of the road. That's a possession, say, a dozen of these has no jurisdiction, cannot charge that as a machine gun. We have to partner with the ATF who has that ability because under federal law that mechanism is considered a machine gun and has statutory regulations on it that allows us to prosecute individuals who are using these guns in violent crimes. Again, Act. 99 will prevent us from joining our partnerships with the
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Speaker 241 1:34:08
federal agencies to do that. It was touched on earlier, a little bit about bombings and arsons
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Michael Gibbons Unverified 1:34:14
and sna devices such as pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails. NFL, and federal law, these types of devices are classified as firearms. By refusing local law enforcement the ability to share information with ATF. We cannot use the ATF to help investigate those. The problem comes as the Arkansas State Crime lab does not identify like pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails as explosives. That's not in their preview. It requires the ATF to do that. ATF is the leading investigating federal entity with the federal government as ordered by the Department of Justice on these type of cases. Uh, to give you an example of how that affects us here if you go back to 2020 during the riots that rocked the state of Arkansas, especially here in the capital city. Lick, North Rock, and Arkansas State police vehicles were targeted and were bombed by protesters, specifically certain leaders that I'm sure many of you are familiar with, without the ATF, the North Rock State of police, and the citizens of Arkansas would have received no justice. Against those individuals who caused almost a million dollars in damage to police equipment. For possession by violent criminals. Much too often many cases, law enforcement investigations involving the possession, trafficking, and use of firearms by violent criminals. That the state cannot properly deal with due to the great partnership we have with the ATF, we're allowed to put those violent criminals and federal custody, um, and I know we want to keep it short, just give you a quick example of two individuals are meeting to sell large amounts of quantities of drugs. They both possess firearms. One ends up getting shot and killed. I've had several cases like that where the state cannot prosecute because you cannot determine who is the instigator in the instant we take those cases federal to the ATF or even the. IDA and file it as possession of a farm in furtherance of a drug crime, which carries mandatory federal sentences. In the state, those martyrs would have never been prosecuted if it wasn't for a joint partnerships with ATF. The ATF has routinely responds to active scenes such as officer involved shootings when an officer was shot. Shootings or an active shooter situation at schools, hospitals, shopping malls, and even escaped prisoners. Their involvement and ability to assist in these situations is critical. Senate Bill 399 will no longer allow Arkansas law enforcement to provide information to ATF personnel who are there to insist and further the investigation. I understand that there is an exception to the bill that allows for cooperation to assist in helping individuals escape a serious imminent risk of life-threatening injury. However, who decides when that imminent risk is over. Do I, as a local law enforcement officer, stand losing my career and being fined under this statute because we, we didn't deem that the the emergency was over at the time, say someone else does. Therefore, when I release information to ATF personnel to assist. in the capture or assist an investigation of a violent criminal who just shot up a school. Am I gonna be held accountable because I declared when the emergency was over. Again, Bill 399. severely cripples Arkansas law enforcement. Senate Bill 399 will also prohibit probation parole, the prisons, and the jails from providing extremely information, extremely important information to assist law enforcement and the ATF and their activity, by its wording, it also bars law enforcement working with ATF and maintaining or sharing information from ACIC. If an ATF agent is on the side of the road wanting to run a warrant on an individual who I have capital murder warrants on, by statute, that information cannot be released to the ATF. that person has a warrant and they will be released. Again, Act 399, Bill 399 does law enforcement no good. The bill also recently conflicts
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Speaker 237 1:38:14
with Senate Bill 426426, which was proposed this week
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Michael Gibbons Unverified 1:38:16
and endorsed by the governor to demand local law enforcement will cooperate with ICE. It's odd to see a bill saying we will cooperate with this agency and not cooperate with another. And to add on that, if ice comes across an individual who has a firearm. They pull in the ATF, so does the DEA, so does the FBI. So does the US Attorney's Office. Why? Because ATF is the one who can advise who manufactures a firearm and that it affected interstate nexus and that's what gives it jurisdiction. By Act 399, we can no longer provide information to ATF or ICE or DEA or FBI on a local investigation if the ATS is involved. Again, hampering our partnership with the feds. I hear a lot of testimony over basically this bill is being proposed in protest of the Malinowski case. Full disclosure. I am one of the task officers that was involved in that shooting. I'm also the agent task force officer who first opened that case. This was not a federal case. This was a case that was initiated out of North Iraq. Based on information received from an FFL who felt it was not right that an individual was commonly selling guns without a license when they have to pay the taxes when they have to do the right thing. This case did not again, not initiate with ATF. It was an or the Rock case. ATF started receiving information a couple of weeks after we did about What was going on. There are emails between myself and the chief of police of Northop that can verify this. Um, so I'm not, I'm not sure where anybody's getting that this originated ATF and this was ATF coming into The state. Um, I can tell you as a task force officer for 15 years, I have never been ordered or directed to do anything by the ATF that is in direct violation of my oath of office, and my rules and regulations, I must follow with Moor rock. Matter of fact, ATF at every briefing quickly points out. If you're, if anything that we're talking about is in direct violation of your department, let's discuss it. They will not put you in a position to do it. I can opt in or I can opt out of any operation. Um It was mentioned earlier about receiving the policy of the ATF and the Department of Justice on body cameras. Um, to clarify that, there is a policy in place. That policy was put in place in anticipation of getting cameras. There again, there are emails if anyone ever goes down that path to look where those cameras were being rolled out. ATF and the rock was set to get them in the first part of 2027. You are rolling out 4000 body cremmas across the country. They can't be done at once. Those policies are put in place before the cameras are put out, so everybody knows the rules and we can begin training. This is standard in law enforcement in general.
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Speaker 237 1:41:27
My department puts policies and regulations out ahead of anything changing, so people can become familiar with it. Can we get back on the
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Michael Gibbons Unverified 1:41:36
bill more specifically, uh, based on those facts, again, on behalf of the 3500 men and women that I proudly represent. We're speaking against Bill 399. stand for any questions. Thank
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Speaker 245 1:41:46
you. First we have Senator Rice. Thanks for being here Mr.
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 1:41:54
Gibbon. You're, you're well prepared and I would call you gun ho, uh, nothing wrong with that. What you do a lot of work is dangerous and does protect citizens, but I've got a couple of questions. And I'm going to go back to the case that has brought this bill. A prominent citizen who best of my recollection made over a quarter million dollars a year for his job. He did a good job, worked his way up. had a routine most days, I'm guessing he left his house, I don't know, but I 7 a.m. maybe. I bet he left his house within a few minutes at the same time every day to get out to the airport to work. Why When somebody's not been charged, you're just looking for evidence. Why would somebody in law enforcement. Not take a common sense option. To walk up to him while he's walking out to his car to get in. And say we need to go back in your house. I've got a warrant to go in there. Why Did this have to all come about. Did somebody not have common sense and a man is dead and his wife is a widow, and it's not the first time it's happened and I don't want to see law enforcement in Arkansas hampered. Why did this happen? You're saying you were there in, on the task force. Why did it happen?
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Speaker 237 1:43:30
Senator, I think, um, The only person that can answer that question is Brian Malinowski himself. He chose
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Michael Gibbons Unverified 1:43:36
to pick up that gun and fire upon law enforcement officers who were doing their legal duties and following the law. So I think only Mr. Manow Maowski can answer that question. Um, in regards to the, the, the steps we took. This is not a one minute decision on how we're going to execute a search warrant, how we're going to carry it out or the things we're gonna do. It goes, there's discussion for weeks leading up to it. There is pre what's called pre-surveillance. We can't just take, we take Mr. Mount Aski and his family
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Speaker 241 1:44:05
into account. On when and how we're going to do certain things. But we also have to take into account patterns of life. Mr. Malinowsky did not leave the work at 7
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Michael Gibbons Unverified 1:44:15
a.m. He was not your standard person. He was far from the standard person. And I think that when all the facts of this case come out that people see that it's, it's shocking that people make so many judgments without having all the facts, and, and I get it. I mean, it's, it is
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Speaker 241 1:44:32
alarming, um, and, and, and I understand that, um, a gentleman was killed. An agent was shot. Three of us were almost, or 4 of us were almost killed at the same time by Mr. Maliowski. So I think you can only ask Mr. Ma
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Michael Gibbons Unverified 1:44:49
Malinowski, who was performing criminal acts prior to this. That's what led law enforcement there. It wasn't ATF targeting even or
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Speaker 241 1:44:54
targeting. It was the public who were to protect, to reach out to us saying, this isn't right. We want this investigated. You don't always have an arrest warrant or someone you don't have all the facts during the investigation. That's why it's called an investigation and sometimes execution of search warrants, um, is what helps what more evidence over something we have. You have to have a good amount of probable cause to obtained a search warrant. On a local level, search warrants are obtained. Resorts retained daily on the federal level, not so much. There are lots of hurdles to jump on a federal level to get a search warrant. There's a lot of people involved. A lot of people review it. Not counting at the end of the day, a federal judge. Deems If we are got enough facts to enter someone's home. In this case, and and I believe, and I'm sorry, I can't remember the name, I believe it's Miss Miss Miss Reed had testified, what's to protect her and her children and family from this. Well, there's a lot of things. Miss Reed's not out breaking the law. Uh, 2, We look at the fact, are there kids present in the home. We look at anyone that's present. We look at animals. That's the number one thing we look at. What's the pattern of life? Who's in the house? Who's likely, you know, something, if something was to go wrong, we have contingency plans. Who, who would be affected? Then we go outside the house and we look at the houses immediately in the area. We look at when people are leaving to go to work, when kids are getting out on and off a bus. We're looking when people are out jogging, exercising. We look at a laundry list of things to do everything we can to protect everyone
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 1:46:34
involved. Uh, I would just go back to my statement and I believe it more now after listening to you than before. I believe you are a gung ho. I believe you're overly gun ho. And I know what you do is dangerous. But what, what happened? And what can happen again is dangerous to citizens. With the amount of information you had, and I hope it comes out. But there were other options and what you, you've said here, I believe and I've gotten out of your statement. You weren't willing to listen to those options. You weren't willing to, to take in consideration, there's other ways. To do this, and you keep saying only one that can answer that is Brian Malikowski. He can't answer that. The man's dead. He's been dead a year and the only reason he shot at you is because you busted in his door and didn't even give him time to get to the door. And in this city, if somebody comes busting in my door, I'd be firing too because it, it's a more dangerous city than a little place I live in, and I hate to have to be this way. Against law enforcement, but you, you seared in my mind. That you need somebody with a more rational Thought on this. I'm sorry, but that That's what I had gotten out of this conversation. Senator, I mean, I, I
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:48:01
apologize I'm sorry he was making a statement and didn't have a question, so we've got a few others that want to have some questions if you don't mind, Senator Wallace, do you still have
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Speaker 239 1:48:16
a question? Thank you, Mr. Chair. You use the term FFL and I was not familiar with that term.
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:48:23
Federal firearm licensee. All right, Senator Stubblefield, you had a question. OK. All right. Any other questions of the committee? If not, thank you for your testimony. Thank you, sir. Thank you for your time.
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Speaker 256 1:48:39
Next up is Philip Miller, if I've got that right. Sheriff in White County. I respect for time. Law enforcement's partnership.
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Speaker 258 1:48:47
We've seen that our partnership is opposed to this bill. I waive
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:48:51
my opportunity. All right, thank you. Last on the list is a Shane Jones, I've got that right. Alright, thank you. I'm sure the committee appreciates that. So. Uh, with, with that, uh, you are
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:49:11
uh open to close. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, that's, by the way, let me say this about law enforcement, not all sheriffs were against this bill because they called me and said, we, we support the bill. So there are sheriffs in Arkansas that do support this bill, but it all boils down to this. Senator Rice, hit the nail on the head. There were dozens of ways. To initiate a search warrant without killing an individual. They could have stopped him. Just down the road they could have, they had a tracker on his car. They could have stopped him, took him back, got his uh computer, his phone, got everything they needed without killing it. an individual. That's what it boils down to. when an HC has that kind of control. Then we're all in uh there's none of us safe. None of us safe where they can do that because like I said, 99.9% of the individuals in Arkansas sleep with a weapon. And if somebody busts their door down, the first thing he introduced Senator Wallace, you're going to pick up your weapon. I know you. Because We believe that protecting our families. And then the way Mr. Malinowski was treated. But sitting here in a police car for hours and are nightgown. And not lettering or use the restroom. This is just, it's just bizarre. So I,
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Speaker 137 1:50:51
I uh move, make a motion we do pass. As amended. All right. We heard
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:51:04
a motion. Do we have a second? All right. Discussion. Uh, I'd, I'd like to say on on behalf of myself and I think probably all the committee that we support law enforcement and and and irregardless of how the vote ends up. We support law enforcement, but a lot of the, well, I will say all of the bills that are introduced down here are a direct result of a problem or problems, and they're all introduced to uh to to to address an issue that that we see for our citizens and So, uh, this is an unfortunate situation. And I just want you guys all the, the, the, the witnesses and all the associations that we do support you. This is a result of that. So with that said, any other discussion? Please, please let you let your voice be known loud enough for the chair to hear, so all those in favor, let it be known by I All those opposed. Your bill fails. Mr. Chair, I know you're going to be gathering to come up here, but I think there's a couple other bills that are here with presenters. I don't think they're going to be too lengthy, um, So, If the rest of the committee before we lose the quorum, if you could hang around for a few more minutes on a couple of,
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Speaker 122 1:52:37
I think, smaller bills. here Uh, yeah, we. You got to remember it's got a
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Chair Unverified 1:52:46
short meal? Yeah, I think. He's a short me. OK. Why don't you go ahead. Representative, you have a short
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Representative Paul Childress Unverified 1:53:07
bill. You want to go ahead uh and recognize yourself. Yes sir, Paul Childers, State Representative, District 83, and with permission from the chair, I would like to ask Lieutenant Dykes with the Arkansas State Police to join me at the table. OK. It'll be House Bill 1686 House Bill 1686. Just about yourself. Ma'am, if you'll identify
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Speaker 275 1:53:37
yourself who you're with and your name. My name is Tiffany Dykes.
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Speaker 211 1:53:41
I'm a lieutenant assigned to the regulatory division of the state police. OK, you were.
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Representative Paul Childress Unverified 1:53:52
All right. Thank you, Chairman Stubenfield and committee members. House Bill 1686, all it's doing is taking concealed handgun license electronic. Doing away with the paper form and making them all electronic. Uh, this is a bill, uh, for the Arkansas State Police and as a society we're moving towards a digital world as it is, um, This, this bill passed the House unanimously and I'm here today and I'm gonna let uh Lieutenant Dyke just tell you a little bit about a few things that Bill does savings for taxpayers and for the Arkansas State Police. So with your permission,
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Speaker 280 1:54:28
I'll let her explain some savings there. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today, Mr. Chairman. We were just looking for ways to streamline the process for the public to find some cost savings because it's very expensive to print and to mail these licenses out since fiscal year 2021, we had spent approximately $105,000 just mailing licenses, um. The electronic license would save us that money. We could change our current system and just modify it to allow us to do this, um. We had a cost estimate approximately $5000 to do that, but recent conversations to keep us in compliance with our permanent Brady status indicate that we may have to spend just a little bit more money on that. We're not sure how much, but that would help preserve the use of the CHCL and its electronic form as an alternative to a background check for CHCL holders, but again, it would be significant cost savings that would streamline the process and get licenses to our applicants much quicker than mailing them out after we print
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:55:30
them. Have you made accommodations for those who don't use electronic, you know, there's older people that Yes, sir. Um, we have,
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Speaker 280 1:55:39
that's one of the things we're discussing with the ATF as far as will they accept it because they don't accept photographs of things as an actual license, so we're talking to them about actually this will be provided in a PDF in the current uh format that we want to present this in and the um applicant would receive a link to download the PDF and they could hold it in an electronic file on their phone or their iPad or whatever or if they don't have those devices, they could print it out and have a paper copy. So that way they would still have a copy of the license because it wouldn't be a photograph of the license, it would be a paper printout of the actual license. So we're trying to work through that right now with the
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:56:20
ATF to make it acceptable. OK, thank you, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. Any other questions,
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 1:56:26
Senator Ross? Like you along the lines was talking about, but I find so much in state government, different agencies that I talked to. State government is looking forward to seeing what other states are doing and they're getting cost savings, not just state it can be a city and, and county governments do it. It's a good ideas. But everybody doesn't switch it one time. And, and I've got a 80 year old barber, 83-year-old barber that they were going to have make do. Computer test. He doesn't do computer. He's still 83 and cutting hair, and they passed a bill yesterday. I didn't know about it, but they've got an exemption where they, they, they get grandfather anybody an 80 year old I guess that's because I was fussing at that agency quite a bit, so I You've got to accommodate people that are still out here and you're saying you don't have an accommodation yet, correct? We are working with the ATF to
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Speaker 211 1:57:23
make sure what we come up with will be accepted as a Brady alternative. What's accepted to the citizens that I've got
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 1:57:32
several emails here from that said we don't want this. If, if you talk to any
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Representative Paul Childress Unverified 1:57:37
of them? Yes sir, I've had several have issues with it also
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 1:57:41
tell them that you told me. Do what? What can I tell them that you've told them they would
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Representative Paul Childress Unverified 1:57:46
satisfy them. Marcustituents that have called, I explained to them that they could go to a county library, print it off or they could even go to the state police headquarters. I'm sure they would accommodate them there, and everybody I've talked
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 1:57:57
to has been satisfied with. I'm 125, 120 mile round trip for some of my constituents and state police headquarter. Maybe there's a troop K or a troop D in your area I'm talking about. OK. There may be
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Speaker 286 1:58:11
some right now, can they get them through the mail?
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Speaker 211 1:58:14
Right now they can't get him through the mail, but not with the electronic process, um, this may be something we can
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Speaker 280 1:58:20
work out when we promulgate rules for this, for exceptions to that for people who don't have access
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 1:58:26
or something like that. I'm, I'm looking at a number of people that's that's being left out here of this discussion. Yes sir. Is there any questions in the House committee? I'm sorry, I didn't get a chance to watch a video. I watch a lot of videos. I, I'm a proponent of, of our videos because I'm, I at midnight I can tell what a bill is. I just didn't get on
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Representative Paul Childress Unverified 1:58:48
this one in time. Yes sir, it passed out of state agencies unanimously
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 1:58:52
out of the, you know, asking questions for these people left out out here that I'm outside. Thank you. Petty, you're breaking that
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 1:59:05
following up on the same line of questioning. So, um, I'm kind of old school, but I, I do the digital thing too, but there's a I carry a wallet, uh, and we've all fumbled through the glove compartment trying to find our, you know, registration and proof of insurance and that kind of, but we also now have digital, uh, and so we're, as Senator Ross said, we're transitioning. Can we have a commitment and I'm not asking you. necessarily, but I'd like to have some form of comfort to know that if somebody wants the old school card to put in their wallet when you promulgate your rules, we can, we can ask for that. Because I believe, I do believe there's a lot and and I wouldn't think it would be 105,000. It may be 1000 or, you know, there, there's, I just think it's a good idea. I like it, but I do believe there are those that are, that are, you know, not in the digital age, and they're never going to get in the digital age. And so if we could have some sort of comfort to know that we're going to have some, you know, real promulgation that will allow that. I think I'm comfortable with it. Yes sir, I'm
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Speaker 211 2:00:11
not authorized to make that commitment, but I can tell you that our intent is certainly not to leave anyone out. We're just trying to make
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Speaker 280 2:00:16
this a more efficient process for the for the citizens who wish to have a CHCO. Any questions from
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 2:00:27
committee. Anyone in the audience that would like to speak for or against the bill. So no
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Representative Paul Childress Unverified 2:00:40
You are recognized closely. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to, I use my hunting license, it comes in a digital format, but I print it off and have it in my wallet just in case I'm in the woods and I, I, I can't get access, so I do keep it and I will probably at this passes, I will probably do the same thing as a concealed handgun permit holder. I would print it off and have a safety valve with me at all times, but that's just me personally. But with that, I, I think it's a good bill and I think the state police is committed to protecting citizens and doing what they can to accommodate the one, the one-off or two offs that fall into this with that a close
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 2:01:15
for my bill. OK. Uh We motion. We have discussions, says
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Senator Dave Wallace Unverified 2:01:26
Wallace. I have to be against this bill and I I understand what you're trying to do. I appreciate it. There's folks even younger than me that have asked me. And they told me they want their, their card, and they want their card mailed to them. Um, There's no getting around that. There's still, there's still people left in this older generation that I'm a part of that are not comfortable and some don't even know how to, to do what. what you're talking about. Any,
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 2:01:59
any other discussion. Alright, we have a motion. We have a motion to pass your 2nd? We have a second. All right. Any discussion? All those favor of the motion, say aye. All pose. Motion your bill fails. Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee. Senator Petty, are you a Yeah. So a quick one. And you got your on board, OK.
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Speaker 298 2:02:47
House Bill 1555, and I have an amendment, you want to, uh,
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Senator Bart Hester Unverified 2:02:54
do you want to explain the amendment? Yeah, um, what the amendment does, it, it It says should the should the city council should the city council choose to uh Go with the route of picking, uh, filling the mayor vacancy, uh, instead of going to an election, uh, they can't pick a member of the city council. Basically what that that's what the amendment is. It's eliminating Someone that's a member of that governing body from being a
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 2:03:29
potential candidate. OK. Or if you want to explain the will, uh, we need this amendment. Uh, we have a motion, we have a motion to adopt the amendment. 2, a discussion. All those in
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Chair Unverified 2:03:40
favor say aye. All opposed. Ours has been adopted you recognize some members,
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Senator Bart Hester Unverified 2:03:45
uh, what this bill says if there's a if there's a mayor vacancy for any reason, the city council can elect to have a special election, or they can elect within their body to fill that position for the amount of time left on that, on that, on that term, uh, and, uh, except uh for somebody that, uh, other than with, with amongst their own body. Should they choose to go that way and uh we know elections. expensive and sometimes in a in a poor time and we just let the elected body decide what's appropriate for their city. I'm happy to answer any questions.
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 2:04:20
All right. Any questions? And he won the audience wished to speak.
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Chair Unverified 2:04:29
4 guests Saying no, you recognize it's close in Chester. I'm, I'm closed with a motion to pass. We have a motion to pass. We have a second. As
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 2:04:40
amended, uh, All those 5 say ah all the pills. Bill passes.
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Unknown speaker 2:04:58
Just another To me, we have another amendment to hand out.
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Chair Unverified 2:05:30
Right. Senator Petty, you're not to explain the amendment. Thank
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 2:05:36
you, sir. Uh, we, uh, we worked with the uh with the counties and with the collectors to get language that helped us modernize this act that was passed back in 2014 or 2015, uh, we have an agreement with them and the counties and the collectors and this amendment incorporates there, they being the county and the collectors language into The, uh, the original bill and so I would appreciate a consideration and approval
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Speaker 268 2:06:21
of these amendments. For this amendment. In. that. Aye.
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 2:06:33
All right. So again, this, uh, this bill is attempting to modernize, I'll call it a bill or an act that has been in place since 2014 or 2015 around commercial property improvements, commercial property assessment improvements and so again we worked closely with the Bankers Association in the original bill. To ensure that they were OK with the program. And incorporated their language in the original bill, we also worked again with the Association of Counties and the existing pace districts that exist from the original, uh, uh, act, and we incorporated their changes and proposed changes in there. Again, we worked with the Association of Counties and the collectors and so we were in 14 or 15, we were one of the uh 12, we were one of the first to have this financing, and since then, Many states have done this. 42 states, as a matter of fact, have enacted similar programs and in Texas and Oklahoma both have incorporated these uh changes or, or acts with this, and since that time they've been made about $900 million in investments and so what I, what I would like to do since she has waited here patiently for 3 days, Ms. Gabby Gilbo from uh Newveen is here. She works in the industry and just get her very, very brief comments about this and and and the impact that it
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Speaker 312 2:08:13
could have for Arkansas. Gaby, you reckon that's thank you Mr. Chair and members Committee. Um, as Senator Penny mentioned, Arkansas was one of the first adopters of this program over a decade ago. Um, we've seen that this program has evolved over the last decade to include industry best practices and um this statue or this legislation that we're running would help modernize the Arkansas program to bring it in line with the 42 other states that have had almost $10 billion in private investment in their communities. This relies Fully on private financing, there's no public dollars used in this program and no uh risk to local communities. Um, I'm happy to answer any questions about the program or the amendment that we are proposing today. All right, any questions from the
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 2:08:57
committee? See done, uh, uh, I am closed, Mr. Chair, and I would make a motion that we do pass as amended. All right, we
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 2:09:04
have a motion. Wait a minute, we have someone in the audience speak
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 2:09:08
See done, uh, uh, I am closed, Mr. Chair, and I would make a motion that we do pass as amended. All right, we have a motion. Wait a minute, we have someone in the audience to speak for the bill. I just say Adam Adam worked with us uh and uh on the association of County side
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Speaker 316 2:09:25
and with the collectors, so since he read patiently and worked diligently, we'll let him speak real quick as well. I very, very brief, and you're not going to get that from a log very often. My name is Adam Fogelman. I'm the Pulaski County civil attorney. I've worked in pace in Pulaski County for the last decade and the counties, the collectors uh are, are good with the amendments and Alaska County is in full support. All
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 2:09:48
right. Thank you. Thank you. OK, thank you. Uh, we have, we have a motion to pass as amended as amended. We have a 2nd and a 2nd in discussion. I
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Speaker 137 2:09:58
want to say all opposed. You build cars. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes.
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Speaker 320 2:10:10
centers across the hall over here and run this. He, he wants to run it. You mean now there's somebody else, they can go I don't think
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 2:10:21
there's Yeah, I don't think there's anyone else we'll wait on him. If
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Speaker 321 2:10:25
it's not a long time. rather than text. OK.
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Speaker 92 2:10:42
OK. Yeah Yeah. Yeah
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Speaker 330 2:11:20
there You Yeah. OK. OK. I'll let you speak.
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Unknown speaker 2:11:52
I don't. Yeah Uh I. That
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Speaker 329 2:13:26
Just say a step.
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Senator Joshua Bryant Unverified 2:13:30
that the executive branch just wants the torpedo just
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Speaker 320 2:13:42
fuck with me. Are you? To OK, OK, I got. OK, OK.
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Senator Joshua Bryant Unverified 2:13:58
Well, I, I pulled it and I put the people against it in a
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Speaker 265 2:14:04
room. And the right. And you want to go and introduce yourself
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Senator Joshua Bryant Unverified 2:14:08
for the. Record. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you committee. Joshua Bryant, state Senate District 32 permission of the chair, I'd like to bring up uh. couple of members to help me out with this testimony. Alright, and after they
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 2:14:20
do, after they do, you can explain the amendment. Yes, I have amendment should be
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Senator Joshua Bryant Unverified 2:14:28
already passed out. The amendment just adds a section at the advice of the engineer so we can read it just to make sure that there is an appeal process for the body of the bill. that. All right, we
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 2:14:43
have a motion to adopt the amendment. In a second, all those in favor, say ah, all opposed. Our chairman's been adopted, you recognize, present
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Speaker 127 2:14:50
the bill. Thank you members. Thank you committee. Senate Bill 505 was
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Senator Joshua Bryant Unverified 2:14:59
actually brought on behalf of the missal League, and they're garter engineering. I will, I will say that uh most of the stuff that we, we discussed, so we want to move in the same direction, we just might agree that it's we want to get there differently. When I saw this bill and the struggles that and the time it takes to where a city adopts a new lamp, a land use map that is, and you want to comply, there's just a lot of administrative steps to get to the end product with this bill to do, and I'll I'll be glad to let them expand on it is allow and again a less Administrative process to get to the final goal, which is putting a shovel in the ground, so I'll let
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Speaker 344 2:15:40
you. I'll let James explain more of the details of the bill, but I just want to make sure that, you know, from the municipal league standpoint, we understand, oh, I'm sorry, John Wilkerson with the Arkansas Municipal League. We've heard a lot about development issues. We've heard a lot about the affordable housing issues, and we want to be part of the solution and as we're going through this session, which we knew was going to be focused on this, at least to some degree. We have been in conversations internally for a while and then when James brought this idea. to the just like Senator Bryant said, we're looking for ways that we can speed up the process and this bill, it's permissive, it allows the city to do this if they choose to, and I think it gives us some time to figure out, does this work, how we can make it better, how we can speed up the processes because we're we're very much interested in in helping with the issues that are facing not just what the entire state of Arkansas when it comes to housing and development. So I'll let James explain exactly what the bill does, but again, we, we want to be part of the solution and we appreciate Senator Brown's willingness. To work with
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Speaker 345 2:16:38
us and and try this one out. Yes, uh, James Walden, president of the Arkansas chapter of the American Planning Association. Normally when someone is changing the zoning on their property, uh, they have to go through a gauntlet of that. They file an application, uh, that application gets reviewed by staff. They have to notify all the adjoining property owners. There's a public hearing. You have to go to the planning commission, uh. At that time, it might go, it might not go, uh, and then after that it goes to city council and so this is a process that at its best can take 30 days at its worst, 4 to 6 months. Uh, what this is intended to to deal with are those, those circumstances where the city has already identified that we think this property should be developed in this way. We've expressed it as policy in our land use plan, and there's alignment, uh, and so it simply makes those, it's it's permissive to allow cities to change their ordinance to allow it to where if there's alignment between the plan and the property owners making that request that it can be an administrative action to change the zoning for that particular. Property, and so it's something that helps streamline the process, help reduce delay and get us closer to getting shovels in the ground and development. Zoning reform is, is a really big issue right now, housing supplies is a really big issue right now, uh, and, uh, certainly I think there's a lot of discussion that we need to have on this, that this is, this is a start and this is modest, and we need to have a much bigger discussion
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Speaker 73 2:18:14
about that that particular issue. Senator Walsh, you have
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Senator Dave Wallace Unverified 2:18:18
a question. And I apologize because I missed just the first start of this. One, is there anybody opposed to this? And 2, I have almost all small towns, my largest towns, 13,000 people. Or small towns OK with this?
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Speaker 344 2:18:37
It's entirely permissive, so it doesn't mandate anything on any side, city or town, and I think from what we're looking at as far as opposition, we had some issues with that's the reason the amendments in there now is to clean up that issue about the appeal process to make sure that it's following the same track of appeal, but as far as opposition, no, as far as small towns, again, it's permissive, and we will make sure that we train folks on how to, how to handle this. So it does not mandate anything. It's just an idea, a modest idea to get out there and get started, so no. Our cities should not have salt state should have a problem.
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Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified 2:19:10
All right, Senator Betty, you reckon. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Unless you were not in this room, then you know kind of how I, you don't know how I feel about the zoning reforms, and I'm, I'm just glad to hear that we have some consensus around starting the zoning reforms which again contributes to this housing affordability, and I appreciate your testimony today, and I am fully supportive of this. Any other members
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Senator Joshua Bryant Unverified 2:19:34
have questions? And something just maybe as a as a member still presenting um and maybe these gentlemen can bring clarity, this doesn't mean, because the concern would be, you're just automatically, if, if the new land use plan says it's C1 and inside C1 is, um, a car lot. It doesn't mean automatically defaults to, you're gonna get that car lot. It just says you came and the rezon process that you would have to go through to get to the point where you can ask to put a car lot in there is shortened. You're still going to have to ask and get approval and have public debate about a car lot in that spot. So I think this is a great medium. I'm actually going through this process right now and one of One of our local cities or I have passed that process and this would have obviously expedited that process for them and that marriage was very supportive of this action. All right Any
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Senator Bart Hester Unverified 2:20:27
other questions from the committee? See none
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Chair Unverified 2:20:31
since right close committee, I'd make a motion to pass. All right, we have a
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 2:20:37
motion to pass. We have a second in discussion. Favor, say ah. I opposed Bill passes right. Me, I'll see you.
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Agenda

CALL TO ORDER

0:11

HB1590 J. Moore TO COMBINE THE OFFICES OF TREASURER AND TAX COLLECTOR IN WOODRUFF COUNTY.

HB1591 J. Moore TO COMBINE THE OFFICES OF TREASURER AND TAX COLLECTOR IN ARKANSAS COUNTY.

1:56

SB399 G. Stubblefield TO CREATE THE ANTI-ATF COMMANDEERING ACT; AND TO PROHIBIT THE PROVISION OF MATERIAL AID AND SUPPORT FOR ENFORCEMENT OF FEDERAL FIREARMS LAWS.

2:31

HB1555 Painter TO ESTABLISH UNIFORM PROCEDURES FOR FILLING A VACANCY IN A MUNICIPAL OFFICE.

2:02:48

SB448 J. Petty TO AUTHORIZE THE FINANCING OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS, ALTERNATIVE ENERGY IMPROVEMENTS, BUILDING RESILIENCY IMPROVEMENTS, AND WATER CONSERVATION IMPROVEMENTS.

2:05:54

HB1686 Childress TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING LICENSES TO CARRY CONCEALED HANDGUNS.

1:53:31

SB505 J. Bryant TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING MUNICIPAL PLANNING; AND TO REQUIRE AN ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE FOR CHANGES TO THE ZONING OR DISTRICT DESIGNATION OF PROPERTY IN CERTAIN INSTANCES.

2:14:12

INSTRUMENT THAT CONVEYS REAL PROPERTY OR AN INTEREST IN REAL

PROPERTY.

WITHIN A THIRTY-MILE RADIUS OF A MILITARY FACILITY; AND TO DECLARE AN

EMERGENCY.

THE IMPACT ON WATER USAGE AND THE ELECTRIC GRID BY BLOCKCHAIN NETWORKS AND DIGITAL ASSET MINING.

ADJOURNED

2:20:30

Speakers

Senator Jim Petty Chair Unverified
80 segments
Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified
147 segments
Speaker 18
1 segment
Speaker 26
1 segment
Speaker 41
3 segments
Speaker 44
1 segment
Speaker 67
2 segments
Senator Terry Rice Unverified
62 segments
Speaker 86
2 segments
Speaker 88
1 segment
Speaker 92
2 segments
Speaker 95
12 segments
Speaker 96
8 segments
Speaker 48
1 segment
Speaker 94
1 segment
Speaker 133
17 segments
Speaker 134
4 segments
Speaker 150
2 segments
Speaker 154
5 segments
Speaker 155
3 segments
Speaker 162
6 segments
Speaker 164
1 segment
Speaker 153
1 segment
Jessica Rhee Unverified
1 segment
Speaker 177
8 segments
Speaker 189
12 segments
Speaker 191
14 segments
Speaker 188
2 segments
Speaker 194
1 segment
Speaker 198
1 segment
Speaker 216
6 segments
Speaker 218
7 segments
Speaker 166
1 segment
Speaker 223
1 segment
Speaker 226
1 segment
Speaker 230
1 segment
Speaker 237
4 segments
Michael Gibbons Unverified
33 segments
Speaker 241
7 segments
Speaker 245
1 segment
Speaker 239
1 segment
Speaker 256
1 segment
Speaker 258
1 segment
Speaker 137
2 segments
Speaker 122
1 segment
Chair Unverified
5 segments
Representative Paul Childress Unverified
10 segments
Speaker 275
1 segment
Speaker 211
4 segments
Speaker 280
7 segments
Speaker 286
1 segment
Senator Dave Wallace Unverified
4 segments
Speaker 298
1 segment
Senator Bart Hester Unverified
6 segments
Speaker 268
1 segment
Speaker 312
2 segments
Speaker 316
2 segments
Speaker 320
2 segments
Speaker 321
1 segment
Speaker 330
1 segment
Speaker 329
1 segment
Senator Joshua Bryant Unverified
10 segments
Speaker 265
1 segment
Speaker 127
1 segment
Speaker 344
4 segments
Speaker 345
4 segments
Speaker 73
1 segment