Political Smokeout

Don’t tell senators to vote yes ‘if you want to end up dead’

A Piedmont man is facing charges for allegedly threatening Sen. Tim Johnson.

According to the FBI, Jonathan Constantine wrote on the senator’s Facebook page:

“I’m giving you a last warning tim. Stop supporting gun control. It will be the last thing you ever do. If you want to end up dead somewhere just keep supporting it.” 

He’s also accused of showing up at Johnson’s Rapid City office and yelling at staffers. According to the affidavit, Constantine declined an interview with the FBI but told them the post “was not intended to be a threat.”

On Saturday the FBI arrested Constantine, and charged him with “using interstate communications to make a threat to injure.”

Read the story from Josh Verges here.

Johnson voted for expanded background checks and limits on magazine size in recent Senate votes, but voted against a ban on assault weapons.

Daugaard signs ‘school sentinels’ bill

Gov. Dennis Daugaard has signed the “school sentinels” bill letting schools arm volunteer defenders.

Hotly debated this legislative session, it was pitched as a way for small schools without nearby law enforcement to protect themselves against shooters or other dangers.

They also emphasized the local choice — no school would be forced to implement a sentinels program.

Opponents said adding more guns to schools was dangerous and unnecessary, and called for a delay to study the broader issue of school security.

School sentinels bill headed to Daugaard’s desk

The proposal to let South Dakota schools arm volunteer “sentinels” is headed to Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s desk.

Rejecting a final attempt by Democrats to defeat it, the House agreed with Senate amendments to the school sentinels bill and passed is 40-19.

The bill gives school districts the option of arming teachers, staff or other volunteers to defend against shooters and other attacks, though it does not require any school district to implement such a program.

The Senate had changed the sentinels bill in several ways, including requiring the decision to adopt a sentinels program be made in public by a school board. The House had to either accept those changes, reject the bill, or appoint a conference committee to negotiate a final version.

Rep. Scott Parsley, D-Madison, said his hope in supporting a conference committee was to defeat the sentinels bill and replace it with a summer study of school security.

A majority of legislators disagreed, saying the local control in the bill will let only schools that want armed volunteers adopt the program.

They rejected Parsley’s motion to send the bill back to the drawing board and instead approved the Senate amendments.

It now heads to Daugaard, who hasn’t said whether he’ll sign it. The governor has said he likes the concept of the school sentinels proposal and is studying the specifics before making a final decision.

Rhoden’s gun ‘finding’ killed by House committee

House Majority Leader David Lust’s skepticism proved fatal for a gun rights bill Monday morning.

Sen. Larry Rhoden had brought forward Senate Bill 207, which included a statement of the Legislature’s opinion about Second Amendment rights and directed the state attorney general to “be vigilant and proactive in protecting” those rights.

Rhoden and Attorney General Marty Jackley said the bill would be helpful by making the Legislature’s position on gun rights clear and providing straightforward direction to future attorneys general on the subject.

Democrats had generally opposed SB 207 as it moved its way through the Legislature, but the measure drew a more powerful opponent Monday in the person of Lust.

The first part of the bill, Lust said, should be in the form of a resolution, not a bill. He also objected to the directive to the attorney general, saying the state constitution already obligated the attorney general to defend people’s rights and that the Legislature shouldn’t pass bills telling constitutional officers how to do their jobs in “subjective” terms.

“I don’t view this as a Second Amendment issue at all,” Lust said. “I view this as a legislative issue.”

On an 8-4 vote, the House State Affairs Committee chaired by Lust agreed and killed SB 207. Lust was joined by three other Republicans and the committee’s four Democrats.

Gun rights supporters rally in Pierre

Around 50 South Dakotans gathered in the state Capitol building for a rally in favor of gun rights, arguing for the importance of guns for personal protection and to ward off tyranny.

It was the second such rally in the South Dakota Capitol this year, after one held in January.

“The Founding Fathers were talking about a God-given right, our basic human right of self-defense,” said Nancy First, a Rapid City activist. “Responsible, law-abiding gun-owners stop approximately 2,500,000 crimes per year.”

Speakers called gun-free zones counter-productive and dangerous, saying armed citizens are the best defense against mass shooters.

Attendees also heard from activist Kitty Werthmann talking about her experience growing up under Adolf Hitler’s rule in Austria. Werthmann argued that the German people might have resisted Hitler had they not been first disarmed.

State lawmakers Lance Russell and Jeff Monroe both spoke at the rally, while several other sent letters to be read out loud.

“Not only is the government 2,000 miles away in Washington, D.C., potentially harmful to your freedoms and liberties protected by the Constitution, but so is the government right here in Pierre,” said Russell.

Sentinels bill passes Senate, close to becoming law

A proposal to let schools arm volunteer “sentinels” for defense passed the South Dakota Senate Wednesday and could be headed to Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s desk.

The school sentinels bill gives every school district the option to arm teachers, staff or community volunteers, but doesn’t require any district to bring guns into schools.

That permissiveness was the key selling point of the proposal’s supporters.

“The sentinel bill will not put one single gun in any school in South Dakota,” said Sen. Craig Tieszen, R-Rapid City and the former Rapid City police chief. “Only a local school board can make that decision.”

Sen. Larry Rhoden, R-Union Center, agreed.

“This is very much about local control, and us trusting the people that are at the helm on those local school districts to make appropriate decisions based on the very unique circumstances that surrounds each one of our 151 school districts,” Rhoden said.

Officially numbered House Bill 1087, the sentinels bill enflamed passions around the state in the aftermath of last year’s mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., school. “If you have not heard about the sentinels bill, it’s probably time to come out of hibernation,” Tieszen quipped.

Many school districts, organizations and officials opposed the bill as it worked its way through the Legislature, saying it would do more harm than good and was flexibility schools didn’t want.

Several senators echoed those arguments in the Senate’s debate Wednesday.

“I think House Bill 1087 is premature,” said Sen. Mark Johnston, R-Sioux Falls. “I think it is our obligation, as we serve the people of South Dakota, to not jump to the conclusion that we need to have an armed sentinel in our schools, but to encourage our school districts, those locally elected officials, to do the analysis.”

Sen. Angie Buhl, D-Sioux Falls, worried that volunteer sentinels wouldn’t be as effective as police in a shooting situation.

“I worry about what happens if we go down the road of confusing lay personnel… with trained law enforcement officers,” Buhl said.

But the Senate voted 21-14 to approve the sentinels bill, agreeing that it gave schools an option for their own protection.

The House previously approved a different version of the bill 42-27. 

Now the bill heads back to the House, which has to address Senate amendments. The House version required decision on school sentinels to be made in secret, while the Senate removed that secrecy provision. The Senate also passed an amendment letting voters refer a decision to adopt a sentinels program to a public vote.

The House could accept the Senate changes, kill the bill, or appoint a conference committee to negotiate a compromise version.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard has not said whether he will sign the sentinels bill, but has said he likes the concept.

No consensus on key subjects at Sioux Falls forum

There was little consensus on many of the highest profile issues of the 2013 Legislature at Saturday’s final Sioux Falls legislative coffee of the year.

On questions about Medicaid expansion, guns in schools, abortion and texting while driving, the 11 local lawmakers present demonstrated why those issues have been so controversial with collegial but consistent disagreement.

“This is an opportunity for us as a state to be in a leadership position and say, ‘We want to help these people who can’t help themselves,’” said Rep. Paula Hawks, D-Hartford, about expanding Medicaid eligibility to people with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty limit.

Sen. Ernie Otten, R-Tea, took a different tack.

“This has got absolutely nothing to do with not wanting people to have health care,” Otten said. “It does have to do with affordability and making sure we keep our budget within our means.”

The “school sentinels” bill to give districts the option of arming volunteer defenders was praised as common-sense and permissive — and blasted as a step in the wrong direction.

“We’re not talking about giving everyone guns,” said Rep. Steve Hickey, R-Sioux Falls. “The conversation is what about the districts that can’t have a law enforcement officer. Is there another person that could be qualified to get in there? I’m in favor of giving the school district that option.”

Rep. Marc Feinstein, D-Sioux Falls, worried that putting more guns in schools would lead to innocent students being shot if there were ever an incident, citing an incident in New York City last year where trained police officers shot bystanders while trying to take down a shooter.

A ban on texting while driving also drew both advocates and skeptics. Rep. Anne Hajek, R-Sioux Falls, said the ban could create “a culture of kids who start driving, who realize you don’t text and drive.” Rep. Mark Mickelson, R-Sioux Falls, said he was having a hard time coming up with arguments “about why someone should text and drive.”

But Otten said the ban would be impossible to enforce, and Rep. Isaac Latterell, R-Tea, suggested it was an example of government trying “to be everyone’s parents.”

A proposal to exclude weekends and holidays from South Dakota’s 72-hour pre-abortion waiting period inspired some of the morning’s sharpest language, with Feinstein quipping that “you don’t get pregnant just between 8 to 5 on weekdays” and Latterell concluding “unequivocally” that “Planned Parenthood does not care about women.”

Saturday’s legislative forum was sponsored by a range of groups including the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce. It was the fourth and final of four Chamber-sponsored legislative forums this session, which has two more weeks remaining.

School sentinels bill passes committee 5-4

A proposal to let schools arm volunteer “sentinels” to protect against threats is on its way to the South Dakota Senate.

The school sentinels bill, House Bill 1087, passed a key Senate committee 5-4 Friday, and needs only approval from the Senate to head to Gov. Dennis Daugaard to be signed into law.

Under the proposal, school boards could vote to arm sentinels provided local law enforcement approved and the sentinels underwent training with the state.

Rural schools, located far from local law enforcement and without police resource officers, want the proposal’s flexibility, advocates said.

“If we think we’re immune in South Dakota from school violence, we should probably think again,” said Sen. Craig Tieszen, R-Rapid City. “Our local school officials and local school boards need to be making a decision about the security of their schools.”

Rep. Scott Craig, R-Rapid City, and other supporters emphasized the local control.

“For the schools that do not want ever to have anybody armed… they should want this bill,” Craig said. “It is this bill that guarantees that they make the decision to never have anyone armed.”

But what Sen. Larry Lucas called “the (key) issue of the 2013 legislative session” has plenty of opponents. Most major school groups testified in opposition, saying the sentinels program was risky and unwanted.

Jeff Marlette, a general in the South Dakota National Guard and the superintendent of the New Underwood School District, lamented that South Dakotans would now ask if “our state has gotten so bad and so dangerous and so unsafe that we must now attend school in an armed fortress.”

Lobbyists for the state’s school boards and school administrators proposed an alternative, to set up a task force studying school security. If that task force recommended school sentinels, they said, they could support it, but saw the current proposal as too rushed.

“This amendment would give you another option to talk about school safety,” said Wade Pogany, executive director of the Associated School Boards of South Dakota. “Let’s put a task force together that’s made up of these stakeholders and bring recommendations so school boards could have options to look at.”

But the committee rejected that amendment, with members questioning whether such a task force would produce new mandates and objecting to the last-minute nature of the proposal.

The Senate committee did make several changes to the proposal, notably removing a section added in the House that kept decisions about the sentinels program secret.

Tieszen, the prime sponsor of the bill, endorsed that change.

“This must be a publicly made decision,” Tieszen said.

Rep. Hal Wick, R-Sioux Falls, supports keeping the decision private. He said it would keep would-be attackers in the dark about which schools were and were not defended, and thus provide more protection to everyone.

Once a district has adopted a sentinels program, decisions about it — such as which people were armed — could be made behind closed doors.

Another change might be coming in the full Senate. Sen. Larry Rhoden, R-Union Center, said he’s interested in specifying that voters can refer a decision to create a sentinels program to a public election.

Senate passage isn’t assured, with many lawmakers skeptical. Sen. Jason Frerichs, D-Wilmot, suggested the sentinels bill wasn’t necessary because volunteers could be deputized by their local sheriff to defend the school.

Sen. Corey Brown, R-Gettysburg, said he likes the concept but has too many unanswered questions.

“If we’re going to do something like this, I need to feel more than reasonably confident that we’ve covered all our bases,” Brown said.

But supporters said the sentinels program is both needed and well-thought-out.

“I don’t think anyone has promoted this as the ultimate solution to the problem we face,” said Rhoden. “But it is a step.”

Sen. Dan Lederman, R-Dakota Dunes, said it was a good proposal that keeps decisions with local government.

“What I like about this bill is its permissive nature,” Lederman said. “This bill will maximize local control.”

Sen. Russell Olson, R-Wentworth, lambasted schools for opposing the local option.

“Do you just want the softballs? Do you just want the easy decisions?” he asked school representatives. “When it gets tough should it come back to the Legislature? Make up your mind.”

The Senate must take action on the sentinels bill by March 5, though it has yet to be scheduled for debate. Because the Senate has amended the version passed by the House earlier this month, the House would then get another vote, to either approve the Senate version or try to negotiate a compromise.

Craig said House members will likely be divided on whether removing the secrecy provision is a good move.

If the Legislature approves the sentinels bill, it will head to Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who likes the concept and is studying the proposal’s specific details.