OKLAHOMA CITY – Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, has filed multiple pieces of legislation aimed at ending any remnants of the Covid tyranny, ensuring that there are greater limitations on government power during emergencies, and providing greater protections for individual freedoms in the event of such emergencies.

“Three years ago, governments around the world chose to infringe upon the rights of the people under the guise of safety due to a respiratory virus,” Dahm said. “We saw playgrounds and parks roped off, young children forced to attend school online, churches prohibited from meeting, businesses shuttered never to reopen, and lives destroyed in more ways than just the direct loss from the virus.”

“We now know it was a failure of epic proportions. We must never again let government manipulation take away our rights. To those petty tyrants who gladly infringed on individual liberties: you were wrong, you remain unapologetically wrong, and you cannot be trusted to make decisions to protect our rights. Therefore, we need laws to constrain you and those like you in the future who would violate the Constitution you swore to protect.”

Senate Bill 271 and SB273 amend the emergency powers of the governor and place limits on the duration of a state of emergency.

“Thankfully our governor was one of the first to open our state back up,” Dahm said. “However, with term limits and the tendency of government encroachments, we must ensure future elected officials cannot so easily trample our rights.”

SB272 and SB275 put strict limits on the closure of businesses and prohibit the closure of places of worship during declarations of emergency.

“The Constitution of Oklahoma guarantees the right to the gains of one’s industry, yet mayors, legislators, and other elected officials were gleefully shutting down businesses,” Dahm said. “The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of assembly as well as freedom of worship, yet churches were prohibited from having meetings. Such ridiculous encroachments should not be tolerated ever again.”

SB270, SB276, SB279, and SB280 would prohibit mask or vaccine mandates, protect parental rights to refuse vaccinations for their children, and prohibit employment discrimination based on vaccine status.

“Contrary to the science, children – the least vulnerable category – were forced by teachers’ unions and bureaucrats to wear masks,” Dahm said. “Mask and vaccine mandates were implemented all across the state with little regard for individual liberties or beliefs.”

“The atrocities and utter disregard for individual liberties that we witnessed during the pandemic must never be allowed to happen again. So many elected officials were wrong about almost everything; unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they’ve learned their lesson or won’t further violate your rights when given the chance.   They’ve yet to apologize or even admit they were wrong, so we must protect against future idiocy. We should have passed every one of these bills when they were first introduced, and now the Legislature is being presented with that chance once again.”