SB 231, the Amanda Collins Law, would have allowed vulnerable young women such as Collins, who was brutally raped in the parking garage at UNR in Reno, to carry a concealed weapon for protection on college campuses in Nevada.
The bill passed overwhelmingly in the Senate, 15-6. And I’m told it would have passed overwhelmingly in the Assembly, as well…except for one man: Judiciary Committee Chairman William Horne (D-Rapists & Murderers).
Horne unilaterally chose not to bring the bill up for a vote before the Legislature came to a close (sine die) Tuesday morning, thus single-handedly killing a bill that would help prevent potential victims from being raped and murdered on our college campuses.
This is, however, partially Assembly Republicans fault. By agreeing to and voting for the budget bill – the only significant bill which they had the numbers to block, thanks to the 2/3 supermajority required to approve tax hikes – on Sunday night, they gave up the only leverage they had to force Democrats like Horne to hear and vote on bills of interest and concern to conservatives and Republicans (certainly not necessarily the same thing!).
Horne certainly deserves a high level of scorn for not allowing the full Assembly an opportunity to vote on this important piece of legislation, but Assembly Republican “leadership” deserves even more for completely, totally and thoroughly botching management of this entire session.
SpongeBob and Patrick could have done a better job than Pete Goicoechea and Lynn Stewart.