Senate Bill 1158, the “child device protection” bill from Sen. Kevin Cook (R—Idaho Falls), died in the Senate State Affairs Committee on a 5 to 4 vote.
Last night, gun owners flooded the capitol with opposition to SB 1158, with serious concerns about the bill laying the groundwork for future lawsuits against firearm and firearm component manufacturers. The ISAA also made our opposition to the legislation known to the committee.
The legislation dealt with cell phone manufacturers and pornography. Inside the bill was a clause that allowed the government to sue the manufacturers if they didn’t comply with the state’s filter requirements.
The ISAA’s primary concern with the legislation is that we were laying the legal groundwork for suing firearms manufacturers.
If the legislature agreed that cell phone manufacturers were responsible for the misuse of their products, how are we not setting a precedent that the state believes manufacturers can be held accountable for other product misuse? It seems like a really dangerous slope for us to go down.
Ironically, Sen. Cook, in his closing statement, brought up gun owners’ concerns about the legislation and said he didn’t see why it would impact firearm manufacturers. He went on to say that “guns don’t kill people; people kill people.”
That is correct, Sen. Cook. It’s not the guns or the gun manufacturers’ fault if someone misuses a product, and the same would be valid for the cell phone, correct? Cell phone manufacturers don’t create pornography; pornography creators create pornography.
We aren’t sure he saw the irony of his statement.
Testifier after testified used the exact words and phrases we have heard from gun control advocates who are suing our firearm and firearm component manufacturers.
Numerous states are suing firearm manufacturers, and even other countries, such as Mexico, are trying to sue them. Our firearm manufacturers don’t need another target on their backs in one of the most pro-2nd Amendment states in the country.
Maybe someone doesn’t use this legislation for a year, ten years, or fifty years from now. Who knows. But letting this door open was a terrible idea.
We are grateful that the committee chose to kill the bill rather than let it proceed.
Senators voting to kill the legislation were:
Sen. Ben Toews (R – Coeur d’Alene)
Sen. Lori Den Hartog (R – Meridian)
Sen. Ben Adams (R – Nampa)
Sen. Brandon Shippy (R – New Plymouth)
Sen. James Ruchti (D – Pocatello)
Senators voting to move the legislation forward were:
Sen. Jim Guthrie (R – McCammon)
Sen. Kelly Anthon (R – Rupert)
Sen. Mark Harris (R – Soda Springs)
Sen. Treg Bernt (R – Meridian)
We will have a video of Sen. Cook’s comments on our Rumble channel and ISAA President Greg Pruett’s video discussing the committee hearing later today at the end of the article. Please follow our Rumble channel to be alerted to all our new video content.
Rumble channel is here: rumble.com/c/IdahoSecondAmendmentAlliance
3 replies on “Breaking: SB 1158 is Dead in Committee!”
I believe that this bill was clandestinely created primarily as a vehicle to precede a legal weapon to follow up with and use against firearm manufacturers, exactly as described by ISAA!
Excellent job everyone!
Thank you Common Sense decosions. YET, More should be done to Keep porn out of reach of children by doing what it takes to restrict, penalize and close down creators. The filth is every where.
How about parents not giving them cell phones or making sure they are locked down. We don’t want government in the parent child relationship, then parents have to do their job. Just my 2 cents…