Latest news with #Voita
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawmakers might legalize concealed pistols in bars
UPDATE: The House on Wednesday afternoon voted 56-14 to accept the Senate version that calls for allowing concealed pistols in bars and other establishments. The bill's prime sponsor Republican Rep. Aaron Aylward said that the change wouldn't stop bars from individually choosing to ban concealed weapons from their premises. PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — A proposal is moving through the South Dakota Legislature that would permit concealed pistols to be carried in any bar or other establishment that earns more than half of its total income from the sale of malt or alcoholic beverages. The change would repeal a state law prohibiting concealed pistols in those establishments that's been in effect since 2019 when state lawmakers legalized concealed carry. Concern, intense rhetoric accompany HB 1239 in Pierre Republican Sen. Mykala Voita added the repeal wording earlier this week when the Senate debated . The House version of the bill called for allowing concealed firearms and ammunition in most areas of county, municipal and township buildings and spaces. Senators on Monday added the Voita amendment allowing concealed pistols in bars and then voted 30-4 to pass the bill. HB 1218 then returned to the House of Representatives for a decision whether to accept the Voita change. The House voted 35-34 on Tuesday in favor of the motion from Republican Rep. Jeff Bathke to disagree with the Voita amendment and appointed a conference committee to negotiate differences between the two versions. The conference committee met on Wednesday morning. Five of the six members showed up. The sixth, Bathke, didn't attend. The group listened to nine minutes of testimony favoring the Voita amendment from Brian Gosch, a Rapid City lawyer and former House member, who now represents the National Rifle Association. Gosch argued several points. He said people can open-carry firearms in South Dakota bars now, and neighboring states of Minnesota and Montana allow concealed-carry in alcohol establishments. He referred to mass shootings at a variety of locations in other states where guns weren't allowed. 'Gun-free zones don't work,' Gosch said. One opponent testified against the Voita amendment: Nathan Sanderson, executive director of the South Dakota Retailers. He said the Senate decision on the Voita amendment was a surprise. He suggested the committee slow down, so that he could offer another amendment that might be acceptable. One of the conference panel's legislators, Republican Rep. Kevin Jensen, has served as a concealed-carry instructor for 11 years. He pointed out the vagueness of the ban. '50 percent when?' he said. 'It's really hard to know, even as an instructor.' He added, 'I think we have to be very specific.' Jensen also raised the example of someone who can legally carry a concealed pistol into an establishment that makes less than half of its income from alcohol sales but can't carry a concealed pistol in an establishment that makes more than half of its income from alcohol sales. 'Why is one restricted and the other not?' Jensen asked 'To me it's just common sense that we pass it as amended.' There were many county and municipal lobbyists in the audience. So was Ryan Brunner, a senior aide to Gov. Larry Rhoden. The conference committee voted 5-0 to recommend passage of the Senate version. The House voted 56-14 on Wednesday afternoon to accept the Senate version. Republican Rep. Aaron Aylward said that the change wouldn't stop bars from individually choosing to ban concealed weapons from their premises. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Guns-on-campus bill surrenders collective safety to the feelings of a few
Sen. Mykala Voita, R-Bonesteel, listens to a speaker during a meeting of the South Dakota Legislature's Joint Committee on Appropriations on Jan. 21, 2025. Voita is the sponsor of a bill that would allow concealed handguns on college campuses. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) The 33 state senators who voted Feb. 12 to allow concealed-carry handguns on South Dakota's college campuses sounded positively giddy with themselves as they passed Senate Bill 100 and sent it on to the House of Representatives. Listening to the chamber congratulate itself on passing this bill, which Sen. Jim Mehlhaff, R-Pierre, described as possibly the 'finest piece of legislation we will deal with all year,' was galling to many South Dakotans. It certainly was to me, and others like me, who simply don't believe that the Second Amendment is so sacred and sacrosanct that it takes precedence over public safety, common sense and the collective good. Mehlaff absurdly went on to suggest that Senate Bill 100 might just be the best bill he's ever seen in the Legislature. Really? The best bill ever? I can only imagine governors from Peter Norbeck to Dick Kneip to Bill Janklow rolling over in their graves. Hyperbole like that is proof that our Legislature truly has become a far-right echo chamber that speaks to a very narrow base of voters — those who put individual gun rights over the public good. What SB 100 will do, if and when it is passed by the House and becomes law, is prevent the South Dakota Board of Regents from having a policy prohibiting concealed carry of handguns on campuses at state universities and technical schools, as all currently do with most guns. Today, it's still against the rules for students to carry a handgun to class or other college events, although individual schools have created some limited exceptions for other guns on campus. Bill to allow concealed pistols on college campuses clears state Senate Mehlhaff was far from the only senator tripping over himself to praise the bill and its prime sponsor, Sen. Mykala Voita. She's a young freshman legislator from the Bonesteel area who got kudos from many of her fellow legislators for crafting an amendment to her original bill that addressed some of the Board of Regents' concerns. Instead of letting any student keep a handgun in their dorm room and carry it to class if they wish (as the original bill, unbelievably, would have done and as Voita made clear she still prefers), SB 100 now allows only gun owners who have qualified for an enhanced concealed carry permit to have a pistol on campus. Also, guns will still be prohibited in a few sensitive areas. Only in today's political climate, and its guns-are-good-everywhere culture, would this concession to common sense seem worthy of high praise. But that's where we're at in South Dakota now, a place where I once encountered a man carrying an AR-15 rifle at a summer festival. Voita said she carries a firearm much of the time. As a female who has lived in South Dakota for most of my 66 years, I don't share Voita's apparent fear of our fellow residents. I can, however, see that a pistol in their purse may give some female students a sense of security as they walk across campus in the dark. Good for them, and any potential crime they deter. But what SB 100 won't do is make any South Dakota college campus a better, safer place for all students — 'all' being the operative word here. It's important for Voita and every other legislator who votes for this bill to be clear about the exact cost of that pistol in the purse. The individual right to carry it, and the peace of mind it affords, comes at the expense of every other student, all of whom are now at a greater risk of gun violence simply due to the very presence of more guns on campus. Many of them will now add to their list of college worries the stress of wondering who in their classrooms or cafeterias is carrying a loaded handgun. Voita naively believes that is not true, but all the data on gun violence prevention proves otherwise. More guns — in any environment, for any reason — increases the risk that one of them will injure or kill someone. It is, sadly, inescapable and inevitable that if we allow guns in places and at an age when alcohol overconsumption, impulsivity and poor choices are still commonplace, some of those guns will be misused. Often by the gun owner themselves. Easy access to a gun is the common denominator in so many gun violence injuries and tragic deaths, whether it be a suicide, an unintentional shooting or an act of simple negligence. And there is absolutely no evidence that more guns on campus can prevent a mass shooting event. The belief that a good guy with a gun trumps a bad guy with a gun is mostly a marketing ploy created by a gun industry that only wants to sell more guns. I will grant you that SB 100 may make some students feel safer. But in reality, it will make all students less so. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SD Senate considering campus concealed carry bill
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — South Dakota colleges could soon be limited in restricting gun owners with an enhanced concealed carry permit from bringing a firearm onto campus. Along with its requested amendments, Senate Bill 100 would limit restrictions on carrying a concealed gun on a public university or technical college campus in South Dakota. Republican Sen. Mykala Voita of the Bonesteel area introduced the legislation and is one of the bill's prime sponsors. 'I just really feel that as a constitutional carry state, it's very wrong of us to tell 18-year-old kids, 18-year-old adults, that just because you step foot on a state university or a technical school, your second amendment right is null and void,' Voita said Tuesday. Bill that grants property tax credit for school payments passes committee Like Democratic Sen. Liz Larson of Sioux Falls, Voita is a gun owner. However, Larson opposed SB 100 when it was in front of the Senate State Affairs committee. The committee advanced the legislation on Monday with a 7-2 vote. 'The Board of Regents and the university presidents know their campuses better than anyone, so why should the legislature be forcing our hand upon them to put rules in that might not be appropriate for them,' Larson said Tuesday. The entire Senate is set to consider the bill Wednesday. The legislation covers the carry of stun guns, mace and pepper spray as well. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
