Oklahoma
Pro-gun group grows into potent political force in Oklahoma – KTAR.com
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Wayne Shaw appeared to have all of the conservative credentials wanted to win reelection to his state Senate seat in Oklahoma two years in the past. The mild-mannered pastor with deep ties to the neighborhood had a solidly conservative voting report throughout his eight years in workplace.
However when Shaw, as chair of the Senate Public Security Committee, declined to listen to a invoice to permit folks to hold weapons into bars, he drew the ire of an unemployed truck driver who was keen about gun rights.
The offended gun advocate, Don Spencer, belonged to an area pro-firearms group. Briefly order, he and his associates recruited a Republican challenger for Shaw, held a fundraiser in his district and helped defeat the incumbent within the major.
“I’m not against weapons,” mentioned Shaw, who was surprised by the event. “However that (weapons in bars) is an efficient manner of throwing gasoline on a hearth.”
Spencer’s feat is an instance of a phenomenon in pink states the place the Republican Social gathering is shifting farther and farther to the suitable: Probably the most potent political forces aren’t all the time the long-established organizations which have groomed candidates and superior laws for many years. Within the present local weather, little-known outsiders, even with out pedigree or cash, can turn into powerbrokers rapidly if related to incendiary points like weapons or abortion. And nearly any officeholder can turn into susceptible.
Few on the Oklahoma State Capitol had even heard of Spencer when he began advocating for pro-gun legal guidelines, however now he’s a formidable presence within the constructing. The 62-year-old from Meridian, a small city about 40 miles from Oklahoma Metropolis, is warmly welcomed by senior Republicans, and he typically units up camp in legislators’ places of work and helps draft laws.
At invoice signing ceremonies, Spencer can typically be seen flashing a smile among the many lawmakers flanking the governor. Political hopefuls search him out, and he provides them a seven-page questionnaire to fill out to find out whether or not they may obtain an endorsement.
Within the 5 years since Spencer took over the group, the Oklahoma 2nd Modification Affiliation has grown from a handful of chapters to greater than 50, arrange its personal political motion committee and begun branching out into different right-wing causes, like stopping vaccine mandates and limiting discussions of race in colleges.
Spencer sees the alternatives as boundless. “Individuals on this state are involved about their rights, they usually understand now it’s extra necessary what’s happening of their yard than what these crazies are doing in Washington, D.C.,” Spencer mentioned in an interview.
The push to increase gun rights comes amid a surge in gun violence in communities throughout the nation, together with a number of mass shootings in latest weeks. Between 2019 and 2020, the final yr for which federal knowledge is offered, capturing deaths elevated 35%. But requires more durable firearms limits have been blocked by GOP opposition, with leaders as an alternative citing a fair larger want for residents to guard themselves.
Concern that authorities will threaten conservative values is working sturdy in pink states proper now, mentioned Michael Crespin, a political science professor on the College of Oklahoma who’s accustomed to the OK2A group.
“There’s this entire concept that Democrats are going to return and take their weapons away,” Crespin mentioned. “That’s not occurring,” however “that concern is an efficient motivator for politics.”
OK2A racked up its broadest achievement in 2018 when lawmakers handed constitutional carry laws which permits adults to brazenly carry firearms in public with no license or coaching. The invoice had beforehand been vetoed by a Republican governor, Mary Fallin, however it was the primary one signed into regulation by new Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt.
This yr the group is pushing to permit folks to hold weapons on school campuses, at sporting occasions and at county and state festivals, regardless of opposition from pro-business teams like chambers of commerce.
Whereas Republican politics had been shifting rightward already, the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the function of conservative curiosity teams, buoyed by resistance to well being restrictions. Even conferences in thinly populated rural counties can draw greater than 50 folks, with a whole bunch extra tuned into livestreams on-line.
Fundraising is rising sharply. OK2A raised almost $40,000 in 2019, $83,000 in 2020 and greater than $122,000 final yr, in line with state marketing campaign finance knowledge. A lot of the cash is spent on on-line adverts and for cubicles at gun exhibits. Information present Spencer has began drawing a wage, about $30,000 every of the final two years.
“They do have affect on the market, particularly in Republican primaries,” mentioned Gary Jones, former chair of the Oklahoma Republican Social gathering. “The place they’ve their biggest success is low-turnout races the place they’ll mobilize and prove a much bigger share of their supporters.”
Tensions generally flare between OK2A and the celebration’s established leaders. When the chief of the Senate expressed issues final yr over a invoice designed to guard Oklahoma from “federal overreach,” Spencer known as for him to step down and rapidly summoned nearly 1,000 folks to the Capitol to protest.
Earlier this yr, a Senate Republican, Lonnie Paxton, complained that Spencer went too far when he declared at a rally, “We win on the poll field so we don’t must go to the ammo field.”
Noting the 1995 Oklahoma Metropolis bombing was fueled by anti-government rhetoric, Paxton mentioned the comment “crossed each conceivable line of decency.”
Spencer dismissed the criticism, saying it solely helped his fundraising.
Republican candidates and officeholders recurrently ask to talk to the group’s chapter conferences, with speeches sometimes together with a wholesome dose of fiery anti-government rhetoric.
At a latest assembly at an Oklahoma Metropolis firearms retailer, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Tulsa preacher Jackson Lahmeyer, derided Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s prime infectious-disease professional, as a “mass assassin.” One other Republican candidate supplied raffle entries beginning at $25 for 4 custom-built AR-15s and a .50-caliber rifle.
On the Capitol, members ask Spencer about new payments to introduce.
“On a firearms concern, he’d be the primary cease to go to,” mentioned Rep. Eric Roberts, a Republican from Oklahoma Metropolis.
A number one Democrat, Rep. Emily Virgin, mentioned she’s involved the group’s energy is turning into harmful.
“This actually has simply changed into a far-right extremist group, and the truth that so many Republicans within the Home and Senate appear to take their cues from that group is what’s most regarding,” she mentioned.
However Winona Heltzel, a bunch member from the Oklahoma Metropolis suburb of Edmond, mentioned she joined as a result of she thinks the group might help stop gun confiscation.
“I do know everyone talks in regards to the authorities, however I’m fearful about criminals,” Heltzel mentioned.
___
Comply with Sean Murphy at www.twitter.com/apseanmurphy
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Oklahoma
OKC uses Ward 4 as a dumping ground. Here’s a 180° mitigation concept for the new Oklahoma County jail
As a resident of Ward 4 in Oklahoma City and as a professional land planner, I am offering a site-planning solution that can be part of mitigating the impact of the proposed detention center (jail) on Del City, on neighborhoods in Oklahoma City, and on Ward 4 in general. The SP-588 will be heard by the city council on May 21.
Gist: My proposed “180° Mitigation Treatment” first and foremost controls where detainees can be released by having a key part of the detention center campus turned 180°, having a buffer area along Grand Boulevard, and Oklahoma City closing/fencing SE 22 Street near the SP-588 southern jail entrance.
I have prepared and attached an unpolished handmade concept graphic of the “180° Mitigation Treatment” that modifies exactly what was shown at the Oklahoma City Planning Commission.
The proposed SP-588 jail location and design are just the latest example of the city of Oklahoma City’s pattern and practice of dumping unwanted and undesirable land uses into the edge area of Ward 4, where I have resided over 40 years. Some examples are an asphalt batch plant, car crushing plant, the huge Bryant landfill and more. SP-588 also unacceptably left the western 1/3 of the site vacant for future jail large-scale expansion. There appears to be no legal way to guarantee that detainees would be transported downtown for release, so an urban planning design solution can be the answer.
The proposed design mitigation solution is the “180° Mitigation Treatment” I developed and first transmitted in April to elected officials with Oklahoma City, Del City and the county commissioners.
Opinion: Mid-Del School Board member: There aren’t resources to support the jail at the proposed site.
Del Cityans have a valid set of realistic security, property value and other concerns about the county jail/detention facility being a block from Del City. My preference would be to have the new jail somehow be in the downtown OKC area or part downtown, part outside. However it seems destined to be entirely located at Grand Boulevard.
The rotating of the public parking area, public access and offices/staff-areas by 180° to the west of the jail cell “pods” means the east area is proposed to be replaced by more than a 200-foot-deep green buffer space and an attractively designed concrete wall like those along some highways, both visible along Grand Boulevard. This site plan solution would hide the planned 12-foot-tall Grand Boulevard side’s ugly chain link fence (topped by looping razor wire) behind a wall.
That way, when looked at from the east, the buffer green space and wall keep the jail out of sight, out of mind to youth of all ages. This “180° plan” makes it to where any person released from the jail would have to walk over a half mile to Eastern Avenue, then figure out how to walk over a mile to enter Del City or any other Oklahoma City neighborhood. It is highly unlikely the released detainees would want to walk so far.
This 180° plan recommends various cooperative negotiated agreements to help other fund mitigation measures for the benefit of the impacted city of Del City to be part of the solution for all parties.
More: Del City residents fear a loss of their way of life if a jail is built nearby
Finally, I have been acquainted with and affected by this site for over 50 years now, as I grew up just inside Del City, hiked the site as a boy when it was still an old growth dense woodland, watched as that was chopped down and replaced with a massive public housing project (Hamilton Courts), and went to junior high with kids from there. All that is part of why I became an urban planner, so I want to help.
Larry Hopper is a certified planner and former principal planner and planning manager for the city of Oklahoma City Public Transportation and Parking Department.
Oklahoma Gas and Electric was down to about 1,900 customers without power Monday morning following the Sunday round of another 6 or 7 tornadoes in the state.
The heaviest outages were near Helena in northern Oklahoma and in the Village in Oklahoma City.
One storm was in the Oklahoma City metro area where a night-time tornado touched down near El Reno and proceeded east toward Yukon. The 6 or 7 tornadoes add to the 75 reported already for 2024 and 19 for the month of May. So it makes about 25 or 26 tornadoes in May so far.
The Oklahoma Mesonet suggests there is a potential for more severe weather for the next three days.
At least the storms brought more rainfall to areas of the state that needed it.
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