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West Mifflin Borough Council Members
3000 Lebanon Church Rd.
West Mifflin, PA 15122
Re: Enactment of an ordinance known as Mandatory Reporting of Lost or Stolen Firearms
Attention: Mayor John Andzelik, Council President William Welsh and West Mifflin Council Members
This evening the West Mifflin Council will consider enacting an ordinance requiring the Mandatory Reporting of Lost or Stolen Firearms. We have researched the issues in this matter and wish to apprise the Council and Mayor of these results.
We assert that the enactment of this ordinance will be a direct violation of Title18 PA Crimes Code, §6120. Limitation on the Regulation of Firearms and Ammunition (see copy in your packet):
(a) General rule.--No county, municipality or township may in any manner regulate the lawful ownership, possession, transfer or transportation of firearms, ammunition or ammunition components when carried or transported for purposes not prohibited by the laws of this Commonwealth.
Click here to read the entire document
Clean Boats Campaign
Clean Boats Mean Healthy Waters
The connection between cleaning your boat and protecting your waters is clear. Aquatic invasives are plants and animals that don’t belong in our waters and cause a lot of damage. Many invasives arrive via international shipping or the pet trade, and are then unknowingly spread by boaters and anglers between waterways.
Safe from the predators and diseases of their native habitat, they reproduce uncontrolled. Once established, aquatic invasives can cause many problems. They can:
- Reduce game fish and other native wildlife populations
- Ruin boat engines and jam steering equipment
- Make lakes and rivers unusable by boaters and swimmers
- Increase the operating costs of drinking water and power plants
- Affect human health
- Reduce property values
Overall, non-native species cost the U.S. $127 billion each year.
In most cases, the best way to manage aquatic invasives is to halt their spread into new areas. That’s why cleaning your equipment every time you leave the water is so important.
You Can Help Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers
It only takes a few minutes to inspect and clean your boat and other equipment each time you leave the water. Knowing how to do this properly will save time and ensure that your efforts protect our waters from plants and animals that don’t belong. This site will teach you everything you need to know to protect your lakes and streams from harmful aquatic hitchhikers.
How to Clean Your Equipment Properly
Here are a few precautions that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Coast Guard recommend to protect your favorite fishing and boating spots from an unwanted invasion. It is important to follow these procedures every time you come into contact with any body of water. Even if you think the waterway is pristine, there may be an invasive species that has not yet been discovered. There are hundreds of different harmful species ranging from plants, fish, amphibians, crustaceans, mollusks, diseases or pathogens. Some organisms are so small, you may not even realize they are hitching a ride with you.
Remove any visible plant matter, animals, mud, and dirt from your boat, trailer, boots, waders, decoys, and all equipment that was exposed to the water. Even plant fragments and dirt may contain tiny hitchhikers.
Empty water from motors, jet drives, live wells, boat hulls, canoes and kayaks, scuba tanks and regulators, boots, waders, bait buckets, etc. Please do this before you leave. If you wait until you get home to empty water, it is likely to run down the gutter into a storm drain, which could contaminate local waters.
Clean your equipment, including your boat’s engine cooling system, live wells, and bilge with hot tap water (at least 104° F). If hot water is not available, spray equipment such as boats, motors, trailers, anchors, decoys, floats, and nets with high-pressure water.
Make sure that your boat and other equipment is allowed to dry for at least 5 days before using it in other waters.
For equipment that cannot be exposed to hot water, either dip it in vinegar for 20 minutes or in a 1-percent saltwater solution for 24 hours. This table provides correct mixtures for the 1-percent saltwater solution:
Gallons of Water
Cups of Salt
5
2/3
10
1-1/4
25
3
50
6-1/4
100
12-2/3
If your dog gets into the water, wash it with warm tap water as soon as possible, brushing its coat thoroughly.
Do not release unused bait into the waters you are fishing. Dump any unused bait into a trashcan. Be aware of any bait regulations, and do not use live bait in waters where it is prohibited.
If you need to get rid of your aquarium fish or aquatic pets, do not release them into or near a body of water or a storm drain. If you cannot find another home for them, bury them. Dump the aquarium water in the toilet or in your yard, far away from any storm drains.
You can find out more about aquatic invasives and how to prevent their spread by visiting the Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers Web site at www.protectyourwaters.net. Even if you don’t own a boat, you can help protect the waters of your state by contacting your state and federal legislators and asking them to support Great Lakes restoration. New legislation is needed to put in place a long-term restoration strategy for the lakes and to prevent the further spread of invasive species. Visit the Healing Our Waters Coalition at www.restorethelakes.org to find out how you can help ensure that your waterways are protected from the threat of aquatic invasives.
Source: The Izaak Walton League of America
GAME COMMISSION URGES HUNTERS TO CONSIDER SHARING VENISON
Hunters who are successful in the upcoming deer hunting seasons are encouraged by the Pennsylvania Game Commission to consider participating in the state’s Hunters Sharing the Harvest (HSH) program, which channels donations of venison to local food banks, soup kitchens and needy families. Pennsylvania’s HSH program is recognized as one of the most successful among similar programs in about 40 states.
“Using a unique network of local volunteer area coordinators and cooperating meat processors to process and distribute venison donated by hunters, HSH has really helped to make a difference for countless needy families and individuals in our state,” said Carl G. Roe, Game Commission executive director. “Pennsylvanians who participate in this extremely beneficial program should be proud of the role they play. HSH truly does make a tremendous difference.”
Started in 1991, HSH has developed into a refined support service for organizations that assist the Commonwealth’s needy. Each year, Hunters Sharing the Harvest helps to deliver almost 200,000 meals to food banks, churches and social services feeding programs for meals provided to needy Pennsylvanians.
“This program is all about the generosity of hunters and their desire to help make a difference,” Roe said. “It’s a program that many hunters have become committed to and enjoy supporting. After all, what is more gratifying than providing needed food to families?”
As part of the program, hunters are encouraged to take a deer to a participating meat processor and identify how much of their deer meat - from an entire deer to several pounds - that is to be donated to HSH. If the hunter is donating an entire deer, they are asked to make a $15 tax-deductible co-pay, and HSH will cover the remaining processing fees. However, a hunter can cover the entire costs of the processing, which is tax deductible as well.
HSH established a statewide toll-free telephone number – 866-474-2141 - which also can answer hunters’ questions about where participating meat processors can be found or other general inquiries about the program.
To learn more about the program and obtain a list of participating meat processors and county coordinators, visit the Game Commission’s website (www.pgc.state.pa.us), click on “Hunting” and then select “Hunters Sharing the Harvest.” Information also can be found on the HSH website (www.sharedeer.org).Source: PA Game Commission
PA Gun Owners Facing MANY Challenges & Hidden Dangers
While the PA budget dilemma dominates public media and the attention of many, seething beneath the surface of PA politics is a rapid undercurrent of anti-gun efforts to strip citizens of their freedoms.
From the PA State Police Commissioner openly writing to Mayors in the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Bloomberg group encouraging them to enact laws prohibited by PA’s preemption law to the legislative attempts to enact even MORE anti-gun laws to cover up the failure to prosecute criminals, we are faced with MANY concerns.
In addition a very small minority of state legislators, led by Reps. Caltagirone, Evans & Levdansky, continue to stymie efforts to enact pro-gun legislation like the Castle Doctrine (HB 40) and others that would actually save lives and restore Freedoms.
The old saying is appropriate here that the ONLY thing necessary for ‘evil’ to triumph is for good men (and women) to do nothing. With over 2 million gun owners in PA it is TIME to reassert ourselves in much greater numbers than ever before!
Great Outdoors America Report Arrives on Capitol Hill
A wide-ranging review of how Americans engage with and value the nation’s land and water resources and its outdoor recreation assets calls for a comprehensive overhaul of programs and policies to safeguard these resources for future generations and to meet the needs of a growing population.
The report by the private, bipartisan Outdoor Resources Review Group (ORRG) is being presented today (July 6) at a Capitol Hill briefing to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), who served as honorary co-chairs of the project.
In its report, the task force analyzed efforts to conserve and protect the nation’s outdoor heritage — including parks, wildlife refuges, and open space. The report draws a strong link between the availability and quality of these resources and the health of Americans, the economy, and communities nationwide. It also points to the tremendous hurdle in securing adequate funding for parks, recreation, and related purposes at the state and local levels, which are on the front line in providing these services.
In the foreword to the report, Senators Bingaman and Alexander said, “Americans all across the country, of all backgrounds and of all political views, care deeply about the health of our land and water resources – the wildlife, parks, forests, farms and ranchlands, and historic places that have sustained and enriched us as a people over generations….We are past due for a serious look at where we stand as a country in achieving our goal of safeguarding these resources…. Today, with a new President and a new Administration, we have the opportunity to put our conservation efforts on solid footing for generations to follow.”
“Healthy, productive land and water resources, wildlife habitat, parks and open space, culturally and historically significant landscapes, and available and accessible recreation lands are fundamental to the American way of life and our future prosperity,” the report notes. “At stake now and for future generations is the health of our people, our economy, our communities, and the lands and waters on which we depend, in short, the quality of life we enjoy in our cities and towns and rural places.”
Needed: Sustainable Funding Stream
A key proposal in the report, which is flagged for further study, is the development of an independent conservation trust within the federal establishment, with dedicated and sustained funding reaching $5 billion annually. One potential funding source, the report suggests, could be a percentage of royalties and revenues collected from development of new renewable and conventional energy resources and transmission capacity on public lands and on the outer continental shelf. The report anticipates conflicts over specific projects if a substantial push is made to develop energy resources on public lands that are valued as wildlife habitat or for recreation. It also calls for a national climate program to help fund the adaptation of land and water resources in a warming world.
The ORRG report is the first major assessment of outdoor resources since the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors in 1987.
In the more than 20 years since that study, a wide range of outdoor pursuits — including such activities as bird watching, water-related sports, rock climbing, mountain biking, and off-road vehicles — have grown in popularity, even as more traditional activities such as hiking, camping, hunting, and fishing retain strong core followings. The report recommends creating a new nationwide system of “Blueways” and water trails to energize grassroots activity to improve water quality and water-related recreation opportunities.
The 17-member ORRG task force was organized by Henry Diamond, partner at Beveridge & Diamond, P.C., an environmental law firm headquartered in Washington, and former commissioner of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation; Patrick Noonan, chairman emeritus of The Conservation Fund; and Gilbert Grosvenor, chairman of the board of the National Geographic Society.
The panel’s findings and recommendations were informed by analysis from a year-long research effort by Resources for the Future (RFF) examining trends in recreational land use and new issues affecting recreation, conservation, and open space. RFF is releasing its research report later this year.
Trends and Changes Affecting Outdoor Resources
The ORRG report identifies a number of recreational trends, policy failures, and technological changes that have affected outdoor resources. Among the findings and
recommendations:
- The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), created in 1965, has declined in significance and utility, a victim of undependable appropriations. This has made it difficult for public agencies to plan for and develop needed park and recreation lands and related facilities for outdoor use. The group recommends funding LWCF at its highest authorized level, adjusted for inflation, that is, at $3.2 billion a year, with a share guaranteed to the states and, in turn, to urban areas. By 2015, when the fund’s statutory authority expires, a new funding mechanism will be needed to ensure that demand can be met, including for a projected population increase of 100 million more Americans by 2040.
- Federal, state, and local funding and planning for conservation goals is fragmented and inefficient. Better coordination among numerous programs and jurisdictions is needed to meet recreational priorities. New technologies, such as geo-spatial mapping tools, offer a proven way to array large amounts of information to aid in planning and to provide transparency for outdoor resource investments.
- Both children and adults are struggling with obesity and related health problems. Participation in outdoor recreation activities is fundamental to overcoming these problems, but modern lifestyles, reduced vacation time, changing family structures, and a lack of parks and recreation areas near where people live have made such participation more difficult. More attention to these problems is needed, including vigorous promotion of outdoor activities, especially in schools, to reconnect individuals at an early age to nature and physical pursuits.
- Public / private partnerships offer a proven way to protect land and water resources and advance outdoor recreation. Entrepreneurial land trusts in states and localities have protected millions of acres of land and wildlife habitat, according to the Land Trust Alliance. Local conservancies have protected and restored parks and open space for public use. Such efforts can supplement governmental programs, particularly when public budgets are insufficient.
- Development of outdoor recreation facilities, it appears, has not kept pace with population growth, demographic changes, and participation rates. Moreover, trends in technology and travel that could not have been forecast a generation ago — including such activities as ecotourism and geo-tourism — require further analysis of the implications for the supply of and demand for outdoor resources.
Financial support for the ORRG work was provided by the Laurance S. Rockefeller Fund, the American Conservation Association, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The project also worked closely with The Conservation Fund and the National Geographic Society, which provided additional resources and support.
Source: Outdoor Resources Review Group
U.S. Senate Voted to end debate/Supports Anti-Gun Regulatory ‘CZAR’
The U.S. Senate ended debate on the nomination of one of the most outspoken animal rights, anti-hunting, and anti- Second Amendment individuals to a high government position. By a 63-35 vote, cloture was invoked and debate stopped on the nomination of Cass Sunstein to serve as the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).
Of the 63 senators that voted in favor of Sunstein (see the attached roll call vote), an anti-hunter, 22 were members of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, or 42 percent. (See the GOA analysis of this later in this report)
Unfortunately BOTH PA Senators voted for this disaster. Please voice your Disapproval and ‘demand’ an answer in writing and if you could be so kind as to forward a copy by e-mail or fax to us me for their permanent record I would greatly appreciate it!
For more information on Sunstein go to this link: http://www.thefoxnation.com/czars/2009/09/08/regulatory-czar-2nd-amendment-arguments-based-fears-not-founding-fathers
'Regulatory Czar': 2nd Amendment Based on 'Fears,' Not Constitution
October 23, 2007: "My tentative suggestion is that the individual right to have guns as it's being conceptualized now is best taken as a contemporary creation and a reflection of current fears, not a reading of civic-centered founding debates. Modern gun owners who are invoking the Second Amendment on the basis of a principle they favor are perfectionists," now-Regulatory czar Cass Sunstein lecture.
Creating a Better Environment Inside your Home
You and your family probably spend most of your time indoors and the air you breathe may put you at risk for health problems. EPA studies show that air pollution inside homes is often two to five times higher than outdoor levels.
Read EPA's Indoor airPLUS Better Environments Inside and Out ( PDF, 5 pp, 807KB)
Your home, however, does not have to be an unhealthy home. Indoor airPLUS qualified homes are designed for improved indoor air quality, compared to typical new homes, by helping to protect you against indoor air pollutants such as gases, chemicals, pests, carbon monoxide, radon and mold.
Indoor airPLUS qualified homes can help in protecting your family from health problems caused by indoor air pollutants, and they can be more comfortable and energy-efficient living spaces.
Learn more about indoor air pollutants in EPA's Care For Your Air brochure ( PDF, 1 PP, 1.97MB)
Source: US EPA
PA State Police (aka Rendell) AR-15 Rifle Registration
The current situation with AR-15 rifles is as follows: Rep. Martin Causer responded to the state police letter justifying their position on AR 15 rifles and has been joined by 28 other members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in direct opposition to the state police interpretation of Pennsylvania and federal law. The letter demands that the Pennsylvania State police clarify exactly where in the law they receive the authority to make this determination. In fact one paragraph, reproduced below, demonstrates the level of frustration in the legislature with the rogue actions of the Pennsylvania State police hierarchy:
I suppose that the legislature could amend the UFA to reverse this ill-conceived policy. But, I wonder whether the legislature should be put in the position of having to amend clear and unambiguous statutory language. In your opinion, would adding the phrase "and this time we really mean it," to the end of the definition of the term "firearm" in §6102 be sufficient to clarify the intent of the law for you?
As you can see from the above representatives believe the meaning and language of Pennsylvania law is clear and unambiguous.
Subsequent to this letter being sent on July 17 to the Pennsylvania State police Commissioner of firearms unit of the PSP has sent a dealer newsletter out with the following statement as to how to handle receivers for AR 15’s:
SALE OF A FRAME OR RECEIVER = ROS FORM
Please be advised that an Application/Record of Sale form must be completed for the sale or transfer of all frames and receivers. Section F. Firearm Information, shall be completed as follows:
• Dealers should write Other" in block 50.
• The make, model and serial number shall be included (blocks 51. 52. 55).
• Block 54 shall be completed with the term "frame" or receiver as applicable.
Please ensure your employees who transact in firearms are aware of this information. You may also refer to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms'
Open Letter to All Federal Firearms Licensees, dated July 7, 2009 for information on this subject.
Just to restate the essence of this argument is that Pennsylvania law does not allow them (meaning to do it is ‘against’ the law) to demand this information and specifically excludes long gun, rifle and shotgun, from the requirement to complete the record of sale form for these purchases. Pennsylvania Law (Title 18) States in pertinent part (see below):
§6111. Sale or transfer of firearms.
(1.4) Following implementation of the instantaneous records check by the Pennsylvania State Police on or before December 1, 1998, no application/record of sale shall be completed for the purchase or transfer of a firearm which exceeds the barrel lengths set forth in section 6102.
§6102. Definitions.
"Firearm." . . . .any shotgun with a barrel length less than 18 inches or any rifle with a barrel length less than 16 inches, or any pistol, revolver, rifle or shotgun with an overall length of less than 26 inches.
There is another dimension to this entire issue and that once a record of sale form is completed the assumption is that it fits the definition under Title 18 §6102 meaning that it is either a handgun or a short barreled rifle or shotgun (a short barreled rifle or shotgun is a NFA weapon). With this being said there is a potential conflict here in that the federal government holds that once a firearm is constructed as either a handgun or a rifle they can not be modified or changed into the other category. For it will be illegal to change a rifle into a handgun by replacing the barrel or vice versa. Our question is does this policy of registering (isn't this already illegal?) a frame or receiver as a handgun plays the owner in jeopardy of violating federal law should they want to use that receiver or frame to create a rifle?
Please stay tuned as there is much more coming in these areas and our freedoms have turned Pennsylvania into a battleground state.
House Bill 97 Moved Back to Committee
In the continuing effort to put a stranglehold on the poaching of Pennsylvania game animals House Bill 97 was hurriedly voted out of committee and rushed to the floor of the House of Representatives two weeks ago.
While no Sportsman or Sportswoman supports poaching in any way shape or form, this legislation contained language that could have been ‘easily’ misinterpreted in the field. These misinterpretations would have carried significant penalties for the unintentional violator.
We have been working with this legislation, and the sponsor, throughout several sessions in an attempt to refine this language so it is more clearly directed at the perpetrators. While the concept of "civil asset forfeiture" has been removed from this version and the fines and punishments have been more refined there still exists a wide chasm of concern.
As this legislation was debated last week the Allegheny County sportsmen's league the National Rifle Association and the Pennsylvania sportsmen's Association and the Pennsylvania Federation of sportsmen's clubs came together to express our concerns to members of the House of Representatives.
The result of this was that by a vote of 194-1 this Bill was sent back to the house game and Fish committee. There a package of 21 amendments awaits it, along with other needed revisions to current game code.
It is important to point out that during the past week when this Bill was brought to the floor even the animal rights groups like Humane Society of the United States and the notorious Peta were campaigning for this legislation's enactment. The fact that animal rights groups see the potential problems this legislation could raise for sportsmen should make all outdoors enthusiasts concerned.
We are hoping that the Pennsylvania game commission leadership will decide the bargain in good faith this time so that we can narrow the focus of this legislation away from the possibility of terrible consequences for the unintentional violator. Time will tell if we can be successful with this effort and it will be up to sportsmen to open their eyes and ears up and pay attention to this debate and this issue for otherwise the consequences could be devastating to each of us.
GIANT HOGWEED CONFIRMED IN BUTLER COUNTY
Noxious Weed Found in Forward Township, Evans City
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is warning residents of Forward Township in Evans City, Butler County, that Giant Hogweed, a noxious and invasive weed that can cause blistering and scarring on the skin of susceptible people, has been confirmed in their area.
Located along the Pittsburgh/Buffalo railroad tracks at the intersection of Spithaler School and Ash Stop roads, and at the intersection of the tracks and Ash Stop Road, the area with Giant Hogweed has been identified and marked with Department of Agriculture signage.
Citizens with suspected sightings of the plant are asked to call the Giant Hogweed Hotline at 1-877-464-9333. Brochures to aide in identification are available at the Forward Township Municipality Building or online at www.agriculture.state.pa.us under “Plant and Animal Health.”
“Thanks to a tip on the Giant Hogweed Hotline, the department was able to quickly and accurately identify the infestation,” said Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff. “We encourage local residents to stay away from the infested area as treatment continues, and to report any new sightings so we can act swiftly to stop the spread of the weed.”
Department of Agriculture field staff developed a control program for these areas and treated the plants with an herbicide. Staff will be available to visit with property owners to identify suspected plants present on their land.Giant Hogweed is spread naturally by seeds, which can be windblown and scattered or carried by water. Because of the close proximity to the railroad tracks, agriculture staff believes the seed heads were carried and dispersed by passing trains, and possibly through a nearby landscape plant dumping site.
In 1999, Giant Hogweed was discovered about 14 miles west of Evans City in Fombell, Beaver County. Property owners with land adjacent to the railroad tracks between Fombell and Forward Township’s Reibold Road, including along the northern and southern track spurs that connect to the main railroad track in Forward Township, are encouraged to learn how to identify the poisonous plant.
This invasive weed spreads rapidly once established in the area between land and a stream, making prevention of seed production critical to limiting the spread into Forward Township’s nearby Connoquenessing stream.
Agriculture department staff will continue to monitor the sites in Beaver and Butler counties during the next several weeks and continue to treat any new plants that may have emerged.Since 1985, 477 Giant Hogweed sites have been confirmed in Pennsylvania. Since then 203 sites have been eradicated.
As the regulatory agency for the treatment of Giant Hogweed, the Department of Agriculture has been supported by the Governor’s Invasive Species Council of Pennsylvania, an inter-agency council created by Governor Edward G. Rendell in 2004 to help develop and implement invasive species management plans for the commonwealth.
For more information on Giant Hogweed and other noxious weeds in Pennsylvania, visit www.agriculture.state.pa.us and click on “Animal and Plant Health,” or call 717-787-7204.giant_hogweed_heracleum_mantegaz.htm for more information.
Source: Pa Dept. of Agriculture
CAMPING GOES ‘GREEN’ AT STATE PARKS
The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has developed guidelines and a demonstration campsite that can help campers reduce their impact on the environment, Bureau of State Parks Director John Norbeck said.
“Normally we think of tent camping as a fairly natural activity, but there are things that campers can do differently to limit the impact they have on their outdoor surroundings,” Norbeck said. “Using a ‘green’ approach to camping it is not only good for the environment; it also can reduce your costs and make camping more enjoyable.”
The demonstration “green” campsite is being set up at state parks across the state this summer as a weekend program for visitors. It features a tent and sleeping bag made from recycled materials; fuel efficient cooking stove; an LED flashlight; solar charger and reusable batteries; re-usable cook set; solar camp shower; non-toxic bug repellant; bear-proof food container; a clothes line; and reusable marshmallow sticks.
Park staff will also provide outdoor recreational, amphitheater, and family and children’s programs that tie in with the “green” theme.
“We hope that after seeing the demonstration, visitors to our campgrounds will practice at least one of the techniques during their stay and share their experience with others,” Norbeck said.
Some tips for green camping include:
Look for a campsite that is already established, more than 200 feet from a water source, and stay off plants as much as possible.
Use re-usable plates instead of paper. Store them with your camp gear so you always remember them.
Take along re-usable water bottles. If you use commercial bottled water, make sure to recycle the bottles.
Use biodegradable camp suds for dishes and your body.
Avoid dumping soapy water on plants because the soap could kill them.
Recycle aluminum cans because burning them in a campfire will release chemicals that pollute the air.
Leave in place any plants, fossils, flowers or other things that you find.
Keep campfires in rings or use a cook stove instead.
Use local firewood instead of carrying it with you as some unwanted invasive pests might hitch a ride.
Tie a clothes line from tree to tree; bring along hot dog sticks instead of breaking off tree branches; set your lantern on the table instead of putting a nail in a tree to hang it.
Do not feed wildlife.
Dispose of trash properly or take it with you when you leave and recycle it when you get home.
Be considerate of other campers with music, cell phones and other noise.
The demonstration locations for the rest of the summer are:
Aug. 14- 17: Worlds End State Park, Sullivan County
Aug. 21-24: Hickory Run State Park, Carbon County
For more information about Pennsylvania’s 117 state parks, visit the DCNR Web site at www.dcnr.state.pa.us.
Local Governments Continue Vigilante Acts in Defying State Law
Pennsylvania continues to be a major focal point of the national gun control debate and as an example the issue of local municipalities defying Pennsylvania law in the enactment of "lost or stolen" gun legislation. Behind the scenes the manipulation of these issues is the group called cease-fire PA and Mayor Bloomberg's anti-gun mayors against guns coalition.
Joining the ranks of previously lawless acts against Pennsylvania law and the home rule charter is Harrisburg and Lancaster which both recently enacted lost or stolen legislation. Despite the fact that the Pennsylvania House of Representatives debated this issue and found it to be lacking in its value to societal safety the same rhetoric is being used as an excuse to justify the worth of having this as a tool and yet when you examine this rhetoric you can see what the true purposes. The quote below is from a recent article about the enactment of this legislation in Lancaster:
· After the unanimous vote, Brown said, "Handguns and the illegal use of guns has been responsible for an exorbitant amount of crime . . .
· So we thought that, since our city was considering passing this legislation to make gun owners more accountable, it was important for our young people to speak."
· Joe Grace, executive director of the Philadelphia-based CeaseFirePa, commended Council for its action, calling it "another step forward for sanity in terms of a simple handgun safety reform."
· "This is not about the lawful possession of a gun," Grace said. "This is about reporting a stolen gun to the police. It's a simple question of responsibility."
Grace said 13 police officers have been shot and killed in Pennsylvania in the last four years by criminals using illegal guns, with the most recent being state Trooper Joshua Miller, who died in a gun fight near Easton on Sunday.
As you can see from the above they are using the emotional heartstrings approach to try and obfuscate the real issues and are ignorant of the ramifications to the average gun owner. The conflicting points about "making gun owners more accountable" and then saying that this measure is not about the lawful possession of a firearm undermines the entire approach as well as justifying the fact that the state has withheld any authority in this area from local municipalities who are easily manipulated.
The facts are that enacting this legislation is a crime and the old saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions is truly applicable however it is time to recognize these acts for what they are and hold those accountable who have sworn oaths to abide by the very laws they're breaking.
Mine Subsidence Insurance to Become More Affordable for
Homeowners, Businesses on Jan. 1
Beginning Jan. 1, homeowners and commercial building owners can take advantage of substantially lower rates for mine subsidence insurance, making it more affordable to protect against catastrophic damage should an abandoned mine beneath their property collapse without warning.
Effective the first of the year, annual premiums for residential mine subsidence insurance will decrease by 25 percent. Insurance rates for commercial structures will drop by 60 percent.
Acting Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger said this affordable coverage can protect an investment and provide peace of mind to a home or business owner in Pennsylvania’s anthracite and bituminous coal regions.
Most homeowner policies do not cover damage caused by mine subsidence,” said Hanger. “More than 1 million Pennsylvania homes sit on top of abandoned mines, yet most homeowners in mining regions do not have this most basic coverage. The department has taken several measures to make Mine Subsidence Insurance even more affordable and easier to purchase, and it has expanded available coverage to include sidewalks, driveways, retaining walls, in-ground pools and other types of property.
“Starting in January, the average premium for mine subsidence insurance for residential property owners will be less than 70 cents for $1,000 of coverage,” said Hanger. “Homeowners can purchase up to $250,000 of coverage for only $157 per year, or slightly more than $13 per month, and business owners can get the same coverage for $314 per year. For that relatively small investment, they’ll get peace of mind knowing that their homes and businesses are covered in the event of mine subsidence on their property.”
Pennsylvania’s Mine Subsidence Insurance program is a non-profit fund administered by the Department of Environmental Protection that provides coverage of up to $250,000 for homes, businesses and attached structures in the event of subsidence from abandoned coal and clay mines.
The average residential policy is valued at $130,000 at an annual cost of $85, or just more than $7 per month. A 10 percent discount is also offered to persons 65 years of age and older for residential policies.“Property owners can now purchase mine subsidence insurance by phone, through their local insurance agent or online with a credit card,” said Hanger. “There’s really no excuse for not purchasing this vital coverage to protect your home and property.”
Property owners can apply for mine subsidence insurance directly from DEP by phone at 800-922-1678 or online at www.pamsi.org. The Web site contains a wealth of information on subsidence issues and program coverage, and features an interactive map program that lets property owners see if their home or business sits atop an abandoned mine.
“This rate reduction is the first offered by the program in 45 years and is a result of sound long-term administration and claims management practices,” Hanger said.
The Mine Subsidence Insurance Fund paid out more than $1.3 million for 29 claims during the past fiscal year and has settled more than $23 million in claims since the fund was created in 1961.
Source: PA DEP
- Was Senate reciprocity vote political 'cover?'
- by Dave Workman, Senior Editor
- With the failure by two votes—both marginal liberal Republicans—of the Thune Amendment that would have provided almost nationwide concealed carry reciprocity, conjecture has been rampant that the requirement for 60-vote approval gave several Democrats an opportunity to support an amendment they knew would fail for "political cover."
- Even The Washington Post's Dana Milbank suggested that the whole thing had apparently been carefully choreographed to allow some senators to vote for the amendment, thus giving them a chance to get a better grade from the National Rifle Association (NRA) on this issue.
- Voting against gun rights and their own caucus, Republican Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana and George Voinovich of Ohio held the final tally two votes short of the required 60 to pass legislation sponsored by Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. His amendment to the defense bill would have required full recognition of concealed carry permits between the states, a proposition that brought every anti-gun organization, including the Mayors Against Illegal Guns and International Association of Chiefs of Police, out of the political woodwork.
- What the amendment would not have done, contrary to assertions by opponents, is force any state to change its existing concealed carry statutes.
- Thune hinted to The Washington Post'that the measure might be introduced.again later this year. Various newspaper reports, and the Associated Press, characterized the issue as having a strong majority of support, but not enough to meet the 60-vote requirement.
- Emotional testimony from anti-gun Sens. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Dianne`Feinstein and Barbara Boxer of California, and Charles Schumer of New York asserted that passage of the measure would have allowed "gun traffickers" to bring "concealed assault weapons" into states that have banned such firearms. Proponents of the measure, including Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, called such assertions nonsense.
- "The reality of that particular situation is the gang members already have their guns," Webb observed at one point. "The people who need this bill are the ones that the gang members might be threatening."
- With the exception of Lugar and Voinovich, every other "nay" vote came from a Democrat, or in the case of Senators Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernard Sanders of Vermont, both Independents. Thirty-eight Republicans were joined by 20 Democrats, while West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd, the ailing Massachusetts Democrat Edward M. Kennedy and Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski did not vote.
- Joe Waldron, legislative director for the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, suggested in an e-mail exchange with Gun Week that "this was purely cover for rural state Democrats."
- "Most of those 'Ds' are not our friends," he observed.
- Leading the opposition, Feinstein, Schumer and Lautenberg not only argued that the legislation would have allowed gun traffickers to bring concealed semi-auto rifles into states with bans, they also professed outrage that this bill violate states rights.
- In the aftermath, gun rights activists quickly pointed to various national laws that the anti-gunners had supported, including the Clinton-era ban on so-called "assault weapons," Lautenberg's ban on gun ownership by anyone ever convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence, the Brady Law and National Instant Check.
- Following the narrow defeat, newspapers ridiculed Thune's proposal, and even criticized the South Dakota senator for suggesting during debate that New York's Central Park might be safer if armed visitors from his state were able to walk through the huge park while visiting the Big Apple. The New GUN WEEK, August 15, 2009
Gun Law Update: Obama Gun Treaty Skirts Congress
Gun Law Update
by Alan Korwin, Author
Gun Laws of America
April 24, 2009
http://www.gunlaws.com
--Trouble reading this? See it on line:
http://www.gunlaws.com/newstuff.htm
1. CIFTA Gun Treaty Removes Congressional Oversight
2. Amend Constitution by Statute, Using EPA Laws
3. National Ammo Shortage Is Suspicious
Permission to circulate this report granted.
1. CIFTA Gun Treaty Removes Congressional Oversight
(Note: How this treaty can overrule U.S. law or the Constitution itself is
discussed at the end, after the treaty analysis below.)
I've completed my review of the South America gun-control treaty that Mr.
Obama wants to get ratified.
It is known as CIFTA, the Inter-American Convention Against The Illicit Manufacturing Of And Trafficking In Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, And Other Related Materials. It can be found here verbatim:
http://www.oas.org/juridico/English/treaties/a-63.html
-- EVERY aspect of the treaty introduces major required gun controls, most of which will affect average citizens (as well as the targeted criminal syndicates, dictators and other bad actors).
-- The controls go way past anything EVER attempted by gun-control groups in the United States.
-- NONE of the proposed gun controls are likely to pass by themselves through Congress. If the treaty is enacted they don't have to – they become law when the treaty is ratified.
-- Virtually NO PROTECTIONS FOR RKBA are to be found, and the wordings are loose enough to allow all sorts of attacks on gun rights American enjoy today.
-- The U.S. government under this treaty GAINS POWER to manage firearms almost any way it would like to, without checks and balances.
-- Once signed, many of the restrictions and government intrusions become MANDATORY, and the full Congress, already cut out of ratification (only the Senate approves treaties) would be cut out of the implementation process entirely.
-- Top to bottom registration of all firearms, ammunition, ammunition components and other related materials is required if they are "in transit" and records must be kept indefinitely. This vague language, and the requirement to comply are a gun-banner's dream and a rights advocate's nightmare.
-- "Transit licenses or authorizations" for transfers of firearms are required for imported firearms, and loose language could include the same for all domestic firearms.
-- Lengthy recordkeeping is required that directly conflicts with U.S. law, and would be left up to bureaucrats and arbitrary controls and implementation.
-- Home reloading of ammunition would become illegal and subject to severe sanctions, without government licensing that is undefined and could include almost any conditions, taxes and limitations, including scrupulous inventorying, recordkeeping and unscheduled audit searches of people who reload.
-- Similar licensing and controls will be required on anything made "that can be attached to a firearm," known as "other related materials." This includes components, parts, replacement parts and such items as wood or composite stocks, slings, bayonets, bayonet lugs, sights, scopes, rails, lasers, grips, flash hiders, suppressors, muzzle brakes and other
paraphernalia. Attaching any such parts without a government license would be "illicit manufacture," a criminal act with undefined penalties.
-- Record sharing requirements ensure that any gun-owner data that must be destroyed under current U.S. law can be easily stored abroad, and can be retrieved at will as required under various international "cooperation" clauses.
If I were advising Mr. Obama IN FAVOR of using this treaty for gun control -- here is what I would suggest.
This creative vantage point helps me to underscore the serious threat the treaty presents. I DO NOT approve of any of the anti-rights suggestions, easily drawn from the treaty language -- they merely show you what Americans face. Everything I outline below comes directly from the treaty itself. Be sure you're sitting down.
Alan Korwin, Author Gun Laws of America
-------------
To: Barack Hussein Obama, President of the United States
From: (As if written by the anti-gun-rights lobby)
Re: CIFTA Treaty
Dear Mr. President,
We commend your common-sense support of the CIFTA Treaty for reducing illicit arms manufacture and gun trafficking. This is a brilliant stratagem in the exhausting effort to rid our country of the scourge of gun violence.
With the treaty in place and ratified by the Senate, you will be obligated to take certain steps with regard to private ownership of firearms that we have never been able to move through the houses of Congress. Further, you will be able to take these actions unilaterally, making swift change possible and, under international obligation to act you are insulated from direct criticism.
Our attorneys assure us the steps we outline here are in full compliance with international law and the terms of the treaty itself. Article VI of the U.S. Constitution unambiguously gives such a treaty a degree of supremacy over the nation, its laws, the states and the public (even though some in the powerful gun lobby deny this or point to questionable court precedents). This is especially useful as we adapt to a global economy, world courts, an empowered U.N. and environmental concerns on a planetary scale.
In addition, we know that if a law can be interpreted to either spread or curtail the proliferation of arms in the hands of average people, the common-sense interpretation must be to curtail arms whenever possible. CIFTA provides the perfect platform for this very reasonable approach.
There will be little disagreement that CIFTA's surface goal of keeping arms out of the hands of dictators, tyrants, terrorists, violent criminal cartels, syndicates and gangs, insurgents, non-state actors, and genocidal regimes is a worthy goal. The value for domestic gun control here and abroad is equally worthy, and lies in virtually every measure required to track and control arms. We are eager to see your signature on this
important step forward for the safety of Americans.
[Language from CIFTA appears in brackets.]
Statement of Purpose
["...the urgent need to prevent, combat, and eradicate the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other related materials, due to the harmful effects of these activities on the security of each state..."]
Note that "trafficking" is not explicitly limited by "illicit" and this is critical. It is perfectly reasonable to bring all firearms trafficking under control to properly manage the portion that is illicit or undesirable. This construction is precise and appears throughout the treaty.
["give priority... because of the links of such activities with drug trafficking, terrorism, transnational organized crime, and mercenary and other criminal activities"]
The unconditional inclusion of "other criminal activities" assures a broad jurisdiction for every facet of existing and not-yet-defined gun crime, even minor and paperwork violations, if so desired.
["international cooperation... appropriate measures at the national, regional and international levels... pertinent resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly on measures to eradicate the illicit transfer of conventional weapons and on the need for all states to guarantee their security... support mechanisms such as the International Weapons and Explosives Tracking System (IWETS) of the International Criminal Police
Organization (INTERPOL)"]
The emphasis on globalization dovetails smoothly with current plans. Potential exists to wed NICS and IWETS functionality.
["a 'know-your-customer' policy for dealers in, and producers, exporters, and importers of, firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other related materials is crucial for combating this scourge"]
Firearms dealers are specifically included in the web of CITRA.
["to eradicate illicit transnational trafficking in firearms is not intended to discourage or diminish lawful leisure or recreational activities such as travel or tourism for sport shooting, hunting, and other forms of lawful ownership and use recognized by the States Parties]
This is one rare spot where "trafficking" and "illicit" are connected, and then only for transnational acts. We do not expect this to inhibit any reasonable domestic gun-control activity associated with CIFTA. The sapient inclusion here of "acceptable" gun activity is neatly compartmentalized and removed from the ability to apply controls.
["this Convention does not commit States Parties to enact legislation or regulations pertaining to firearms ownership, possession, or trade of a wholly domestic character"]
While the treaty doesn't seem to require Parties to enact domestic gun laws, the careful wording does not prevent Parties from enacting domestic gun laws either. And it additionally requires that the parties "will apply their respective laws and regulations in a manner consistent with this Convention," binding future actions into compliance, while giving a comfortable appearance of autonomy. Our attorneys were impressed with how
well this is drafted.
Article I, Definitions.
The definitions are suitably robust and need little description here.
However, "Illicit manufacture" includes any ammunition made, "b. without a license from a competent governmental authority of the State Party where the manufacture or assembly takes place;". This unequivocally places dangerous homemade "reloading" operations under any reasonable controls deemed necessary. Such controls are not optional. Any so-called hobbyist operating outside a yet-to-be designed licensing scheme would be in violation. Penalties are to be independently determined by the Parties.
Also note that "an accessory that can be attached to a firearm" is included as "other related materials," and also subject to illicit manufacture rules. This provides the broadest controls over anyone making, transporting, possessing or transferring such items as wood or composite stocks, slings, bayonets or bayonet lugs, sights, scopes, rails, lasers,
grips, flash hiders, suppressors, muzzle brakes and other paraphernalia. The tax dollars from this new revenue source is not determined but believed to be potentially large.
Article II, Purpose.
Reiterates introductory remarks, promotes exchanges of information.
Article III, Sovereignty.
Ensures that territorial jurisdictions and a nonintervention policy are maintained.
Article IV, Legislative measures.
["States Parties that have not yet done so shall adopt the necessary legislative or other measures to establish as criminal offenses under their domestic law the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other related materials... the criminal offenses established pursuant to the foregoing paragraph shall include participation in, association or conspiracy to commit, attempts to commit, and aiding, abetting, facilitating, and counseling the commission of said offenses."]
Once the treaty is signed, laws (if needed) or "other measures" (regulations, memoranda of understanding, policies, operations manuals, AG opinions, basically any legal construct without limitation) are required to implement the terms of the treaty. This is excellent for our purposes. We believe the legal framework exists to handle most if not all the requirements outside cumbersome legislative channels, facilitating easy adoption of the treaty's conditions.
Some objections may be raised by opposition leaders or the gun lobby, but the signed treaty puts this game well into the home stretch by the time such annoyances arise.
Article V, Jurisdiction.
["Each State Party shall adopt such measures as may be necessary to establish its jurisdiction over the offenses"]
CIFTA doesn't even contemplate statutes, just "measures" for establishing jurisdiction, including rules for extradition.
Article VI, Marking of Firearms.
Serial numbers and similar markings already required on firearms by U.S. law become an international standard, and now include place of manufacture and name and address of importers, plus special marks for arms retained for official use. There is no enforcement mechanism for rogue nations that do not comply.
Article VII, Confiscation or Forfeiture.
["States Parties shall adopt the necessary measures to ensure that all firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other related materials seized, confiscated, or forfeited as the result of illicit manufacturing or trafficking do not fall into the hands of private individuals or businesses through auction, sale, or other disposal."]
The treaty, when signed, will once and for all end the intolerable practice of returning guns and accessories back to the public after they have fallen into police hands. Our legal opinion is that even recovered stolen guns would also be unreturnable, since these have been illegally trafficked as defined. State laws allowing gun resales and auctions will
become null and void, under the U.S. Constitution's supremacy clause. This may impact some police departments that have come to rely on such revenues, but the net gain in public safety and gun control is more than worth the small loss, which could perhaps be mitigated through use of bailout funds or other government monies.
Article VIII, Security Measures.
["States Parties, in an effort to eliminate loss or diversion, undertake to adopt the necessary measures to ensure the security of firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other related materials imported into, exported from, or in transit through their respective territories."]
It seems clear that the only way to effectively meet this common-sense security obligation (eliminate loss or diversion of firearms and related supplies) is to have universal registration and tracking of all firearms in the country. This long-sought elusive goal now within reach. The phrase "in transit" effectively touches every firearm, all ammunition and related gear.
Article IX, Export, Import, Transit Licenses
Port of entry and exit requirements already in place cover this section.
Article X, Strengthening Controls at Export Points
Same as above.
Article XI, Recordkeeping
["States Parties shall assure the maintenance for a reasonable time of the information necessary to trace and identify illicitly manufactured and illicitly trafficked firearms to enable them to comply with their obligations under Articles XIII and XVII."]
This provision provides clear authority to establish large scale comprehensive gun-registration databases. The "reasonable time" for recordkeeping had been determined by the FBI, under former AG Reno, as permanently.
We do anticipate some political objections to this provision, since U.S. laws place some restrictions on firearm recordkeeping on the public. However, as we learned under Attorney General Janet Reno, during the original implementation of the NICS background checks, government systems can be set up in any manner desired with little effective oversight, and only after prolonged and arguable challenges need the systems be changed. The true nature of such complex systems remains difficult to ascertain, is
difficult to monitor on an ongoing basis, can be modified in future iterations to more closely reflect desired policy without raising warning flags, and system backups maintained by allies do not fall under the same controls as domestic versions.
A review of the remaining 19 Articles of the treaty will be provided shortly. These are minor and deal largely with exchange of information among the parties, cooperation, training (for which the U.S. can play a significant role by financing and controlling programs among the Parties), mutual legal assistance (another area where the U.S. can exert significant influence), "controlled delivery" or sting operations, extradition of U.S.
citizens, and structural elements such as a consultative committee, periodic meetings, ratifications, withdrawal, effective dates and dispute settlements.
An interesting "Annex" exempts certain items from the definition of explosives, including:
["compressed gases; flammable liquids; explosive actuated devices, such as air bags and fire extinguishers; propellant actuated devices, such as nail gun cartridges; consumer fireworks suitable for use by the public and designed primarily to produce visible or audible effects by combustion, that contain pyrotechnic compositions and that do not project or disperse dangerous fragments such as metal, glass, or brittle plastic; toy plastic
or paper caps for toy pistols; toy propellant devices consisting of small paper or composition tubes or containers containing a small charge or slow burning propellant powder designed so that they will neither burst nor produce external flame except through the nozzle on functioning; and smoke candles, smokepots, smoke grenades, smoke signals, signal flares, hand signal devices, and Very signal cartridges designed to produce visible effects for signal purposes containing smoke compositions and no bursting charges."]
END OF ANALYSIS
------
The Supremacy Issue
Numerous attorneys and others wrote to challenge my position in Page Nine
#63 http://www.gunlaws.com/Page9Folder/PageNine-63.htm that Mr. Obama's
run-around gun treaty could conveniently bypass the legislative process and
the Constitution, like John M. says here:
"While your item in "Page 9" about Congress and the Obamanation Administration using an Inter-American Treaty on 'arms trafficking' to do an end-run around the Second Amendment is certainly scary, I'm not ready to concede (as you appear to do) that a treaty supersedes the Constitution under Article VI." He goes on to describe why Art. VI and other safeguards will protect us.
Many people went into greater detail. Cases were cited (Reid v. Covert; Missouri v. Holland; Whitney v. Robinson; Cherokee Tobacco). One high-placed lobbyist felt fairly safe because, "While an international treaty bypasses House consideration, it requires two-thirds of the Senate for ratification - a tall order even in ObamaNation."
Other people were less sure, like Chuck G. here: "I'm still up in the air about it as I've heard all my life exactly what you stated."
I too always heard what he had heard -- treaties supercede the Constitution -- and always thought it odd. Go read Article VI, cl. 2 yourself. The language is crystalline. One attorney at a high-profile think tank believes, "The federal government will have arguable legal authority to seize our guns and ammunition if this treaty is signed." So...
1. Opinions on the supremacy issue are inconsistent (though often adamant).
2. People who say the treaty won't be a problem point to a number of SCOTUS decisions, and perhaps stare decisis. Maybe that makes those folks fully comfortable with where Mr. Obama is heading on this. Less so for me.
3. SCOTUS precedents are increasingly ignored by those in power, with groovy rationalizations each time. And SCOTUS decisions have so eviscerated key elements of the Constitution, my faith there is shaken, not stirred.
4. The courts, which should provide more balance, a) don't, b) are run by the very people they're supposed to balance, and c) all too often use the completely worthless rational-basis test, knowing it's worthless, to allow every short-of-insane law to stand.
5. Given a choice of support for gun-rights or outright gun bans, we know which way this administration will go.
6. Four of the current SCOTUS Justices have expressed interest in defining U.S. law from foreign sources, leaving us one vote away from a new understanding of the supremacy clause.
7. Perhaps the biggest issue, though, making all else moot, is that new regs you can easily forecast coming from this treaty will be portrayed as a) required by international law so we're only doing what's right, b) required by Article VI however you like to read it, c) consistent with precedent, and most of all, d) not violative of the Second Amendment so no big deal.
After all, if, for instance, every home reloading enthusiast simply has to get a government license, pay an annual tax called a "fee," pass a test, accept "routine" BATFE searches without notice like FFLs must, and keep detailed records so government can fulfill its obligation to track all guns and ammo, backed up with threats of prison time for paperwork errors or a miscount of a single round, what's wrong with that?
Besides, you have an attorney general to protect you who's on record saying a ban on any working firearm in your own home is acceptable under 2A, so, what me worry?
You have a choice: assume the treaty won't be a problem, the supremacy clause will void any abuse and just let Mr. Obama enact the treaty, or remain a bit more skeptical of this man's motives. Choose wisely.
Alan.
P.S. If Mr. Obama is indeed a Marxist at heart as so many people fear and some evidence tends to support, a debate over constitutional principles would be pointless.
2. Amend Constitution by Statute, Using EPA Laws
"The National Parks Service has announced it will not challenge a court order that temporarily stops the late-term Bush administration policy of allowing CCW-permit holders to carry in National Parks."
That's the news media's backwards way of saying the bureaucrats running the National Parks are delighted they don't have to allow CCW-permit holders to exercise their civil rights in the parks, at least for now.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a temporary injunction, favoring a lawsuit brought by gun-control and environmental activists. She gave the Interior Dept., which runs the parks, until April 20 to respond.
The idea that parks must first undergo environmental-impact approval before partially honoring the right to keep and bear arms is a complete subterfuge and extremely dangerous on several grounds.
Most obvious, there is NO environmental impact of carrying an unfired gun in a park or elsewhere. Even fired, at the rate CCW permitees fire their guns, the impact is so small it is essentially unmeasurable. The District Court/EPA/Brady effort is a transparent deception, used by hoplophobes and gun banners, to stop a ruling that would restore limited civil rights (for government permitees only) and could save lives and deter crime.
The original 25-year-old ban was created during the Reagan era, reversing the right to carry that existed on these public lands since the nation's founding.
A bigger problem however is that, if EPA can be used to stop mere concealed carry on the basis of enviro-impact, what does that say for any form of outdoor marksmanship? The impact difference between carry and use is obvious. If the precedent of allowing EPA to regulate CCW stands, this invites the wholesale destruction of any outdoor target practice on public land. Officials know this. Nationwide, public land is a mainstay of
open-air exercise of the right to bear arms -- for practicing for proficiency and safety.
Using environmental threats to deny the civil and human right of self defense and the constitutional right to keep and bear arms is environmental terrorism.
The biggest problem though is that this repugnant scheme uses a statute and its regulations -- the EPA machinery -- to suppress the Constitution itself, namely the Second Amendment.
An ongoing and increasing problem, EPA and numerous other federal agencies, FHA, FCC, FTC, FDA, TSA, EEOC and others have suppressed First Amendment free-speech guarantees for decades. Now, using EPA legislation, people in charge are making inroads into infringing RKBA out of existence. Such activity is patently illegal. The terms of the Constitution can only be changed by amendment, as described in the Constitution itself, and not by law making from Washington or anywhere else.
People suggesting or implementing such actions should be quickly removed from office for violation of their oath, and brought up on charges of denial of civil rights and abuse of power. That had better happen soon, because we are reaching a tipping point. How many abuses and usurpations need we endure before people take to their pitchforks?
3. National Ammo Shortage Is Suspicious
Call me skeptical, but something doesn't smell right about the length and severity of the ammo shortage in America. We're not short of ammo, we're out. Since November. This is the end of April. WalMart shelves are bare. Big 5 Sports here in Phoenix got its weekly truck and it had 3 boxes of .38s (150 rounds), no 9mm, no .357, no .380, no .45. Dealers I've asked uniformly say their orders are just not being filled, and they get no word
on what or when they'll get more.
Anyone with DIRECT connections to ammo makers is encouraged to ask questions, get names, and let me know what you hear. I've seen the unsubstantiated rumors on the web that there's a conspiracy, but the talk sounds wacky and the parts don't make sense. Why would for-profit companies voluntarily cut back production in hard economic times when demand has exploded?
That said, note that most American gun owners are not short of ammo. They have plenty socked away. They just can't buy more, or replace supplies used at the range and elsewhere. The situation is most acute however for newcomers, of which there are hundreds of thousands scared into buying their first gun, who learn quickly that a new gun without some shells isn't much of a good deal.
Also note that this panic/obsessive buying is a shot across the bow for the temperature of America -- what would it take to trigger similar runs on supplies of toilet paper, bottled water, tobacco, liquor, batteries, light bulbs, canned goods, coffee, medicines and any other commodities people depend upon. If ammo, a minor niche product is any gauge, we live in delicate times.
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Alan Korwin
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"One man with courage is a majority."
--Thomas Jefferson
"No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
--Edmund Burke
Pittsburgh Public Schools Students Get Closer to Nature
The grounds of all Pittsburgh Public Schools soon will be greener and more inviting, with help from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s new School Grounds Greening Initiative. Thanks to a $1.5 million grant from the Grable Foundation, students and faculty alike will enjoy greener school grounds and will have more opportunities to interact with nature.
The project will add sustainable, low-maintenance greenery to all 66 Pittsburgh Public Schools over the next four years. WPC staff members will carry out the project in close collaboration with the Pittsburgh Public Schools' Chief Operations Office.
Features to be added to the school grounds include:
- Quiet spaces with plants and seating for students and teachers
- "Green" fences and walls enhanced with vegetation
- Raised beds for school-initiated planting projects
- Active play spaces with natural surfaces
- Additional trees“Studies show that nature and green spaces foster children’s intellectual, social, emotional and physical development, so this gift to Pittsburgh Public Schools represents an important investment in our children’s futures,” said Superintendent Mark Roosevelt.
Funding for the initiative was secured in November 2007 and planning work began immediately thereafter. WPC completed greening projects at 12 schools during 2008 and plans to complete approximately 18 projects annually from 2009 until 2011.
“WPC, together with various community partners, is improving the school experience for children and their families,” said Gregg Behr, executive director of the Grable Foundation, a local charity dedicated to improving the lives of children. Recent contributions to the Pittsburgh Public School System by the Grable Foundation include awards to The Pittsburgh Promise and the Fund for Excellence in Pittsburgh Public Schools.
According to recent studies, children who experience school grounds with natural areas are more physically active, exhibit higher creativity, and even show a reduction in discipline and classroom management problems. Proximity to natural areas also increases students’ ability to focus while reducing stress. Futhermore, connecting young people with nature may benefit the environment as many authorities believe that the window of opportunity to form positive attitudes about the natural environment happens during early and middle childhood – and requires frequent interaction with “nearby” nature.
“We are honored to play a role in improving students’ learning environments through the School Grounds Initiative, and we thank the Grable Foundation for making this project possible,” said Tom Saunders, President and CEO of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
To learn more about the School Grounds Greening Initiative, visit our website.
http://www.paconserve.org/
Source: Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
PA State Police (aka Rendell) to DEMAND
AR-15 Rifle Registration
The situation with AR-15 rifles is as follows: over the past several months I've been informed by gun dealers across the state of Pennsylvania that the Pennsylvania State police have been informing them that they must now register AR-15 rifles and other identifying information on the record of sale form just like they do with handguns. The interesting part of this is that they are failed to provide anything in writing. As time has progressed the Pennsylvania State police have been informing dealers that the release of this radical, illegal shift in policy would be forthcoming in the FFL dealer’s newsletter in mid July.
Fast forward to this week; two days ago I was informed by George Romanoff of Ace Sporting Goods and a representative of the National Shooting Sports Foundation that gun dealers would be notified of this new policy within two weeks.
The essence of this argument is that Pennsylvania law does not allow them (meaning to do it is ‘against’ the law) to demand this information and specifically excludes long gun, rifle and shotgun, from the requirement to complete the record of sale form for these purchases. Pennsylvania firearms dealers who comply with this policy dictate could, technically, themselves, be guilty of violating Pennsylvania law (which is a misdemeanor 1 crime-see section 6119) along with the Pennsylvania State police. PA Law (Title 18) States in pertinent part (see below):
§6111. Sale or transfer of firearms.
(1.4) Following implementation of the instantaneous records check by the Pennsylvania State Police on or before December 1, 1998, no application/record of sale shall be completed for the purchase or transfer of a firearm which exceeds the barrel lengths set forth in section 6102.
§6102. Definitions.
"Firearm." . . . .any shotgun with a barrel length less than 18 inches or any rifle with a barrel length less than 16 inches, or any pistol, revolver, rifle or shotgun with an overall length of less than 26 inches.
As you can see from the above sections of law, the Pennsylvania State Police have NO authority or justification for this new policy. Frankly this is a war that is being conducted and waged against gun owners in this state that originates directly from the executive office mansion and Ed Rendell.
It is, and has been, our position that the Pennsylvania Instant Check System (PICS) is an anachronism and an unnecessarily expensive distraction in this modern age and needs to be disbanded. We can turn over the functions of firearms instant checks to the National Instant Check System (NICS) which will not only do it for free but with far less complications to the gun buyer as well as the FFL dealer. The national instant check system is utilized by 38 states without any demonstrable problems.
There will be much, much more coming out in the next several weeks and I ask for your help in notifying gun owners about this problem. I know gun owners will wonder why this is a problem but let me give you an example of a situation that could be encountered by any owner of these firearms. If you are traveling home or to a range and get stopped by a police officer for any reason and during the course of this stop he sees that you have firearms in your vehicle. It is more than likely that he/she will decide to run each firearm against the Pennsylvania State police record of sale database (you know that illegal one that they continue to maintain at a cost to PA Taxpayers of over $500,000 a year). When the report comes back to the officer in the field that your favorite AR-15 is not registered in this Pennsylvania State Police Gun Registration System then in all likelihood what you will face is arrest and seizure of your property until "legal ownership" can be established, even though no crime has been committed other than the prejudice demonstrated by the particular law enforcement officer question. I know, when talking to gun owners, what you will encounter is that they will say this can't happen. Let me tell you I have in my files dozens of incidents (from ALL over the state) where gun owners encountered this very kind of attitude and even worse treatment than mentioned in my simple explanation.
As Dirty Harry would say, “do you (we) feel lucky”?
Two Great Pro-gun Amendments In The Senate -- But Harry Reid stands in our way
Thank you for all your activism so far!
Senator John Ensign of Nevada offered his amendment to repeal D.C.'s draconian gun ban today.
But Senators John Thune of South Dakota and David Vitter of Louisiana have also stepped up to the plate. They filed an amendment that would result in REAL national concealed carry reciprocity -- without adversely affecting no-permit states like Alaska and Vermont.
So now the battle lines are drawn! By the end of the week, the Senate will vote on whether to rule these two pro-gun amendments out of order.
The vote could come on a so-called "cloture" motion to cut off debate (and thus kill the Ensign and Thune/Vitter amendments). Moreover, if the underlying bill is then passed, the virulently anti-gun jurisdiction of the District of Columbia will be rewarded with a voting member of the House of Representatives.
But first, a little background on the two amendments:
You've all heard of the various "microstamping" proposals crafted by the anti-gunners to ban guns and ammunition nationwide.
The anti-gunners would do this by serial number "microstamping" requirements which are so onerous that guns (or ammunition) would become prohibitively expensive in all 50 states.
In the wake of the Heller case, the District of Columbia's reaction to the Supreme Court's decision declaring its gun laws unconstitutional was to pass legislation which will, as a practical matter, continue its current policy of denying gun licenses to its citizens. But, to add insult to injury, it added a whole bunch of additional anti-gun provisions.
One was a requirement that most guns used for self-defense be capable of "microstamping" a cartridge with a unique serial number.
Aside from being useless for identifying any criminal who pockets his spent brass, this provision would, even if it were technologically possible, make guns so expensive that no one would buy them.
If a few more liberal jurisdictions follow suit, this could start a chain reaction so that gun manufacturers will eventually be forced to manufacture ALL guns to meet the new microstamping standards.
The Ensign amendment would completely repeal D.C.'s gun ban and, in the process, help stave off the push for microstamping.
Next, the Thune/Vitter amendment on concealed carry reciprocity is an idea whose time has come. Why should your right to self-defense stop at the state line?
But it must be the right kind of national reciprocity. It must protect states like Alaska and Vermont which do not require a permit to carry concealed at all and it must be done in a Constitutional manner that protects State's rights.
The Thune/Vitter amendment would do these things -- it is REAL national reciprocity.
But the problem is this: Nevada Senator Harry Reid has moved to cut off debate on the D.C. bill -- using a parliamentary maneuver known as a "cloture" petition -- for the sole purpose of ruling such pro-gun amendments out of order.
You see, Barack Obama and the liberals who run Congress hate guns. They hate guns so much that they would probably be willing to kill the District's voting representative in order to preserve the District's gun ban.
The next two days are crucial. While there will be votes in the Senate throughout the day on Thursday -- which may include either of the two pro-gun amendments -- it is likely that the true focus will be on Friday's cloture vote.
ACTION: Contact your two Senators and urge them to vote AGAINST cloture on S. 160 until the Senate has had an opportunity to vote for all pro-gun amendments. As usual, you can use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at http://gunowners.org/activism.htm to send your Senators the pre-written message.
Obama’s USA Service Website Hosts Gun “Buy Back” Event
The usaservice.org website was originally set in place to facilitate Obama’s “call to service” on the national Martin Luther King Day of Service, a federally mandated “holiday” cooked up by Congress and Bill Clinton in 1994. “Individuals, businesses, non-profits, and churches from Baptist to Mormon to Scientologist are employing the site to publicize events and recruit volunteers,” writes Mark Bergin for World, a Christian magazine. “In many ways, such online organizing and activity is a picture of compassionate conservatism: privately initiated and funded opportunities to render social services.”
As it turns out, usaservice.org is being used as a platform for activity that is anything but the picture of compassionate conservatism. In the “Health & Public Safety” section of the website, there is a post for a gun “buy back” event that was presumably held in Chicago on Sunday, February 15. Bryan Garcia, host of the event, offered to pay $1,500 per gun and $6,000 for four guns. “We will prevent hundreds of people being shot from gang violence and other forms of gun violence,” writes Garcia. “The money given these anonymous gun donors has to be high, high enough to outweigh the need for gun owners.”
Illinois has some of the most restrictive firearm laws in the country. In order to possess or purchase firearms or ammunition, Illinois residents must have a Firearm Owner’s Identification card, which is issued by the state police. In Chicago, it is required that all firearms be registered with the local police department. Handguns are strictly outlawed and in Cook County so-called “assault weapons” and magazines that can hold more than ten rounds of ammunition are banned.
Earlier gun “buy back” programs in Chicago resulted in a record number of residents turning in guns for far less money. Reportedly 6,705 weapons were turned in for a “no questions asked” program in 2007. In 2008, Mayor Daley told Chicagoans that having a gun in their homes is “like having gasoline sitting in your home, sitting there, and you’re lighting a wick every night and you’re wondering whether or not it’s going to go off, and it goes off like that in your hand.” Daley’s irrational propaganda campaign resulted in the collection of 6,000 guns.
It is safe to say the gun buy back event posted on Obama’s USA Service was vetted by the moderators of the site. It is no secret that Obama and his supporters are militantly opposed to gun ownership and the Second Amendment.
“As a general principle, I believe that the Constitution confers an individual right to bear arms,” Obama said during the election campaign. “But just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can’t constrain the exercise of that right,” an obvious reference to Chicago’s anti-gun legislation. In 1996, when Obama was running for the Illinois state Senate, he supported a ban on the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns, a ban on “assault weapons” (that is to say all semi-automatic weapons), and mandatory waiting periods and background checks.
Earlier this week, Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, said “there are just a few gun-related changes” the Obama administration wants to make, including a reinstitution of a ban on the sale of assault weapons. Holder insisted restricting the Second Amendment would “have a positive impact in Mexico,” where drug cartel violence has taken a high toll. In 1994, president Clinton signed a law outlawing so-called assault weapons with a clause requiring congressional reauthorization after ten years. Congress allowed the legislation to expire in 2004.
During his confirmation hearings, Holder said he favors outlawing certain kinds of firearms and ammunition.
“Last week, over 50 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to President Obama urging him to enforce a ban on importing assault weapons, citing rising gun violence in Mexico,” CBS News reports. “The Sinaloa Cartel, which Holder was discussing at yesterday’s press conference, is involved in drug and weapons trafficking in the U.S. and Mexico.”
Obama has pledged to make the assault weapons ban permanent and promised to push for childproofing guns. He said he wanted to close the gun show loophole, which permits sales of firearms at gun shows without requiring a background check.
Many Americans know the election of Obama and Democrat domination of Congress will translate into more restrictive gun laws. After the election, firearm dealers reported sharply higher sales. According to FBI figures for the week of November 3 to 9, the bureau received more than 374,000 requests for background checks on gun purchasers, a nearly 49 percent increase over the same period in 2007, CNN reported. Many stores ran out of models deemed to be “assault weapons,” including the AR-15 rifle.
USA Service’s posting of a gun “buy back” event is yet another indication that Obama and his supporters will continue their assault against the idea of gun ownership and the Second Amendment. If Obama, AG Holder, and the Democrat dominated Congress have their way, the entire country will resemble Chicago, where handguns are illegal and other firearms are strictly regulated.
In the book “Lethal Laws,” published by Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership, we learn that authoritarian governments invariably disarmed their citizens. “The recipe for accomplishing this goal went as follows: demonizing of guns, registration, then banning and confiscation, and finally total civilian disarmament. Enslavement of the people then followed with limited resistance, as was the case in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Red China, Cuba and other totalitarian regimes of the 20th century,” writes Miguel A. Faria Jr.
The demonizing phase of this process is already in effect, as demonstrated by Bryan Garcia’s post on the usaservice.org website. Garcia assumes that the mere possession of firearms will result in murder and mayhem. Obama, Holder, and the Democrats are now pushing for the registration and banning of firearms. Confiscation and total disarmament will soon follow.
http://www.infowars.com/obamas-usa-service-website-hosts-gun-buy-back-event/
Allegheny County District Attorney Refuses to Act to END ‘Illegal’ Pittsburgh Gun Ordinances
In a letter to the Allegheny County District Attorney dated January 12, 2009, the Allegheny County Sportsmen’s League respectfully requested the intervention of this office against the individuals responsible in the city of Pittsburgh Council for the enactment of the “lost or stolen” gun control ordinance.
Previously D/A Zappala had stated publicly in local newspapers that the actions of the city of Pittsburgh city council to enact this ordinance was clearly not legal. Yet when challenged by the ACSL to act and enforce Pennsylvania criminal law he refused saying that this area of law continues to be unsettled. This is in direct defiance of the Ortiz decision from 1996, the Home Rule Charter and a court order signed by the city of Pittsburgh specifically agreeing to abide by Pennsylvania law. The District Attorney responded on January 20 with the above conclusions.
It is the height of arrogance and hypocrisy for a sitting District Attorney to clearly and flagrantly ignores statutory law and adopts a double standard for the enforcement of it. Especially when it involves Pennsylvania firearms law and the message it sends to all citizens that there is a double standard for those in a position of authority.
We will continue to press this case and try to arrive at some semblance of sanity in the way these issues are addressed. If it cannot come through solicitation by citizens for the enforcement of law to those charged with this authority than it will have to come in the form of redirection by the legislature to these individuals who are turning a blind eye to blatant criminal acts.
Lawmakers in 20 states move to reclaim sovereignty
Obama's $1 trillion deficit-spending 'stimulus plan' seen as last straw
Posted: February 06, 2009-By Jerome R. Corsi
NEW YORK – As the Obama administration attempts to push through Congress a nearly $1 trillion deficit spending plan that is weighted heavily toward advancing typically Democratic-supported social welfare programs, a rebellion against the growing dominance of federal control is beginning to spread at the state level.
So far, eight states have introduced resolutions declaring state sovereignty under the Ninth and Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, including Arizona, Hawaii, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington.
Analysts expect that in addition, another 20 states may see similar measures introduced this year, including Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nevada, Maine and Pennsylvania.
"What we are trying to do is to get the U.S. Congress out of the state's business," Oklahoma Republican state Sen. Randy Brogdon told WND.
"Congress is completely out of line spending trillions of dollars over the last 10 years putting the nation into a debt crisis like we've never seen before," Brogdon said, arguing that the Obama stimulus plan is the last straw taxing state patience in the brewing sovereignty dispute.
"This particular 111th Congress is the biggest bunch of over-reachers and underachievers we've ever had in Congress," he said.
"A sixth-grader should realize you can't borrow money to pay off your debt, and that is the Obama administration's answer for a stimulus package," he added.
The Ninth Amendment reads, "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
The Tenth Amendment specifically provides, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Brogdon, the lead sponsor of the Oklahoma state senate version of the sovereignty bill, has been a strong opponent of extending the plan to build a four-football-fields-wide Trans-Texas Corridor parallel to Interstate-35 to Oklahoma, as WND reported.
Rollback federal authority
The various sovereignty measures moving through state legislatures are designed to reassert state authority through a rollback of federal authority under the powers enumerated in the Constitution, with the states assuming the governance of the non-enumerated powers, as required by the Tenth Amendment.
The state sovereignty measures, aimed largely at the perceived fiscal irresponsibility of Congress in the administrations of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, have gained momentum with the $1 trillion deficit-spending economic stimulus package the Obama administration is currently pushing through Congress.
Particularly disturbing to many state legislators are the increasing number of "unfunded mandates" that have proliferated in social welfare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, in which bills passed by Congress dictate policy to the states without providing funding.
In addition, the various state resolutions include discussion of a wide range of policy areas, including the regulation of firearms sales (Montana) and the demand to issue drivers licenses with technology to embed personal information under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative and the Real ID Act (Michigan).
Hawaii's measure calls for a new state constitutional convention to return self-governance, a complaint that traces back to the days it was a U.S. territory, prior to achieving statehood in 1959.
"We are trying to send a message to the federal government that the states are trying to reclaim their sovereignty," Republican Rep. Matt Shea, the lead sponsor of Washington's sovereignty resolution told WND.
"State sovereignty has been eroded in so many areas, it's hard to know where to start," he said. "There are a ton of federal mandates imposed on states, for instance, on education spending and welfare spending."
Shea said the Obama administration's economic stimulus package moving through Congress is a "perfect example."
"In the state of Washington, we have increased state spending 33 percent in the last three years and hired 6,000 new state employees, often using federal mandates as an excuse to grow state government," he said. "We need to return government back down to the people, to keep government as close to the local people as possible."
Shea is a private attorney who serves with the Alliance Defense Fund, a nationwide network of about 1,000 attorneys who work pro-bono. As a counter to the ACLU, the alliance seeks to protect and defend religious liberty, the sanctity of life and traditional family values.
Republican state Rep. Judy Burges, the primary sponsor of the sovereignty resolution in the Arizona House, told WND the federal government "has been trouncing on our constitutional rights."
"The real turning point for me was the Real ID act, which involved both a violation of the Fourth Amendments rights against the illegal searches and seizures and the Tenth Amendment," she said.
Burges told WND she is concerned that the overreaching of federal powers could lead to new legislation aimed at confiscating weapons from citizens or encoding ammunition.
"The Real ID Act was so broadly written that we are afraid that it involves the potential for "mission-creep," that could easily involve confiscation of firearms and violations of the Second Amendment," she said.
Burges said she has been surprised at the number of e-mails she has received in support of the sovereignty measure.
"We are a sovereign state in Arizona, not a branch of the federal government, and we need to be treated as such, she insisted.
DCNR Warns Of Spring Wildfire Danger
As Conditions Worsen, Forest Visitation Climbs
The abundant sunshine and warm temperatures that are forecast this weekend are luring many into the state's forests, prompting the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to warn citizens of the heightened risk of wildfires.
"With the weekend wildfire danger expected to spike as the weather turns warm and dry, our Bureau of Forestry is bracing for what could be another very busy weekend," said Acting DCNR Secretary John H. Quigley. "We are asking people to be especially cautious as they hunt, fish, hike and enjoy the outdoors."
Campers and other state forest visitors are reminded open fires are forbidden in state forestlands March 1 through May 25, and when the fire danger is listed as high, very high, or extreme.
Acting Secretary Quigley noted woodlands quickly could become tinder dry at a time when anglers and hunters are out fishing for trout or hunting for spring gobblers. Also, warm weather brings out gardeners and other landowners who often burn to clear their land of garden waste, leaves and storm debris.
"Although we have had rain in recent days, it's very important to remember a little rain does not completely eliminate the threat of wildfires at this time of the year," said Acting Secretary Quigley.
Bureau of Forestry records show that more than 370 wildfires have already been reported across the state this spring, burning more than 1,500 acres. The most severe included an April 18 fire that burned 300 acres in Blair County, and another blaze the same day that destroyed two cabins in Centre County.
"We know people are responsible for causing 98 percent of Pennsylvania's wildfires and a mere spark can start a devastating and, possibly, deadly forest blaze," Acting Secretary Quigley said. "Forests are a renewable resource, but they quickly can be endangered by acts of carelessness."
Lack of green foliage in the early spring, combined with scant rainfall and sunny, windy days rapidly increases chances of forest and brush fires, Acting Secretary Quigley said.
Nearly 10,000 acres of forestland in the state are burned by wildfires each year and nearly 85 percent of all fires in Pennsylvania woodlands occur during the months of March, April and May.
Wildfires are so named for their rapid spread through bare vegetation when dry, windy conditions prevail. They are especially troublesome in the spring when wind, dry weather, direct sunlight through bare trees, and abundant dead undergrowth all can lead to rapid fire spread.
State forestry officials urge landowners to recycle, if possible, and if they must burn, to use extreme caution with trash and debris fires—one of the most common causes of wildfires—and obey local open-burning bans.
Residents are advised to create "safe zones" around homes and cabins by removing leaves and other debris from the ground and rain gutters; stacking firewood away from structures; and trimming overhanging branches.
DCNR's Bureau of Forestry is responsible for the prevention and suppression of wildfires on Pennsylvania's17 million acres of private and state woodlands. The bureau maintains a fire-detection system, and works with fire wardens and volunteer fire departments to ensure they are trained in the latest advances in fire prevention and suppression.
For more information, call the Bureau of Forestry at 717-787-2925 or visit the DCNR Forest Fire Protection webpage.
Source: PA Environment Digest
Fish for Free Days Set for May 23 & June 7
Have a little free time on your hands? Grab a friend or family member and try some free fishing. Thanks to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC), the only thing you’ll have to spend is some quality time together.
The PFBC has designated Saturday, May 23, and Sunday, June 7, as Fish For Free Days in the Commonwealth. Fish For Free Days allow anyone – not just license holders or youth under the age of 16 – to legally fish in Pennsylvania. From 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on both days, no fishing license is needed to fish in Pennsylvania's waterways.
“Fish For Free Days provide an opportunity for active anglers to introduce a friend or relative to the lifelong sport of fishing,” said PFBC Executive Director Douglas Austen. “It's also a great way for families to have fun, create new memories and spend quality time together.”
The May 23 Fish For Free Day was specifically designated to coincide with the Memorial Day weekend, a traditional time for families to gather, and the unofficial start of many outdoor recreational activities in the state. The June 7 date is part of the observation of National Fishing and Boating Week, June 6-14.
To make it even easier to get started – or restarted – in fishing, visit the PFBC’s web site at www.fishandboat.com and select “Fish” from the left-hand navigation bar. From the drop-down menu, select Fishing Fundamentals.
For more information, visit the PFBC’s web site at www.fishandboat.com. The mission of the Fish and Boat Commission is to protect, conserve, and enhance the Commonwealth’s aquatic resources and provide fishing and boating opportunities.Source: Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission
Constitutional conventions being planned across America
Certain powerbrokers and entities within the United States government as well as in state governments throughout the nation are attempting to renew calls for federal and/or state constitutional conventions.
The push for these comes in a troubling time for our nation as the mechanisms contained within the varied constitutions empower delegates to these conventions to make sweeping changes in the form and structure of government. While the founding fathers did provide this mechanism it, like the use of a firearm in a deadly force situation, is only meant to be used in the gravest of circumstances when no other options exist. That, sadly, is not the case and we do not question the powers enumerated in the Constitution but we do question the intent of those making these calls and the basis of which they are being made.
On the federal level there are arguably 32 states that have a standing call for a constitutional convention. The threshold for holding one under this section, article V, of the United States Constitution is 34 states.
Here in Pennsylvania the past legislative session had a Bill debated, Senate Bill 1290, which would have provided for the creation of a constitutional convention here at the state level. This legislation has been shown to be extremely flawed and would have presented more problems than the drafters apparently considered. We can be sure that we will see something along these lines reintroduced in the upcoming legislative session.
While no one can say that change is not needed it is apparent that politicians who favor this approach have a different agenda because they already retain the power necessary to make the changes that they publicly have decried as their reasoning for holding a constitutional convention. So why are they doing this? No one really knows all the reasons but we will track it nonetheless.
New Electronic Gadgets Galore!
But What should you do with the Old Stuff?
Contact Information: Donna Heron, 215-814-5113 or heron.donna@epa.gov
The holidays are behind us and gifts of new electronic devices ranging from cell phones to televisions are making us smile. This year as broadcast television switches to an all digital broadcast format, TVs were at the top of many gift lists. Now what do you do with those old electronics?
Don’t put your old electronics out with the trash! Think Green and recycle ‘em! Rather than making products from scratch, recycling electronics -- also known as e-cycling -- keeps harmful toxins out of the waste stream, recovers valuable materials that can be reused, conserves virgin resources, and results in lower emissions (including greenhouse gases).
Many people want to know how their families can help protect the environment. Recycling electronics makes a significant contribution -- recycling just one computer CPU and one monitor is equivalent to preventing 1.35 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from being released. Recycling one television prevents four to eight pounds of lead from the CRT glass from being added to the waste stream.
By banding together, we can accomplish truly impressive results:
* Recycling one million desktop computers prevents the release of greenhouse gases equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 17,000 passenger cars.
* Recycling one million cell phones saves enough energy to power more than 19,000 U.S. households with electricity for an entire year.
Here’s how you can become an e-cycler:
* Visit your new product manufacturer’s website to see if they have a recycling program. Some will recycle your old electronic equipment for free or a small fee.
* Contact your local city, municipality, or solid waste district to see when they will be sponsoring collection events for electronics. For contacts in the mid-Atlantic region, go to: www.epa.gov/reg3wcmd/eCycling/index.htm
* Find recyclers and collection sites near you by checking websites like:
http://www.earth911.org/, or by calling 1-800-CLEANUP, to find collection sites and events in your ZIP code.
http://www.eiae.org/– The Electronic Industries Alliance - To locate e-cyclers in your state.
http://www.techsoup.org/– TechSoup for information on computer reuse.
http://www.rbrc.org/- To locate cell phone and rechargeable battery collection sites at a retailer near you.
For more information on E-Cycling go to: http://www.epa.gov/reg3wcmd/eCycling/index.htmSource: U.S. EPA
Interior okays CCW in national parks
by Dave Workman, Senior Editor
Barring a court challenge to block its taking effect, a new rule by the Department of Interior that allows the carrying of concealed handguns by licensees inside national parks will take effect in about two weeks.
Anti-gunners are furious and had threatened legal action prior to the holidays.
Bill Wade, president of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, was quoted by The Salt Lake Tribune stating, "This regulation will put visitors, employees and precious resources of the National Park System at risk. We will do everything possible to overturn it and return to a common-sense approach to guns in national parks that has been working for decades." -
Under the rule change, announced by Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Lyle Laverty, citizens who possess valid concealed carry licenses or permits that are recognized by the state in which the park is located are essentially "good to go."
For example, if a national park is located in Washington State, residents of states whose licenses are honored by Washington statute should be able to carry while visiting Mount Rainier or Olympic National Park.
And, according to Interior Department spokesman Chris Paolino, if a state has a regulation such as Washington's, which allows unlicensed concealed carry for persons engaged in legitimate outdoor activities including hiking, camping, fishing or horseback riding, it should apply within the national parks there.
What this regulation will not allow is hunting, target shooting or casual plinking on national park lands. Open carry will not be allowed, nor may armed citizens enter park buildings with their concealed handguns. That applies to visitor centers, ranger stations and even restrooms.
The same rule will apply to national wildlife refuges, with the exception that hunting is already legal on refuges, and that will not change. Opponents of the rule change had campaigned against it by asserting that parks would become venues for careless shooting activities.
Opponents of the original proposal were quick to react. Scot McElveen, president of the Association of National Park Rangers, was quoted by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggesting that this change will be bad for wildlife in the parks.
The rule was also opposed by the National Parks Conservation Association and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, After the rule change was announced, Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke went on the attack, calling the change a "parting gift for the gun lobby" from the Bush Administration.
"We urge the proper authorities to use common sense," Helmke said in a press release, "and stop this senseless rule."
However, gun rights organizations- were supportive of the rule change.
"No longer will American citizens be required to leave their right of self-defense at the gates of a national park," said Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. "This common-sense change in regulations reflects not only changes in the laws of 48 states, but more importantly the Supreme Court's ruling in June that upheld the individual right to keep and bear arms that is protected by the Second Amendment."
Chris Cox, head of the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action, issued a statement noting, "We are pleased that the. Interior Department recognizes the right of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves and their families while enjoying America's national parks and wildlife refuges."
Philip Van Cleave with the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a grassroots group that had also been actively pushing for the change, called the decision "a big win for gunowners."
"This victory has been years in the making," Van Cleave told Gun Week, "and VCDL is proud to have played an important role in expanding our freedoms."
An assistant US attorney in Seattle, WA, told Gun Week that in the event of a self-defense shooting in a national park, the FBI would investigate. Self-defense guidelines are essentially the same on federal land as they are on state land. That is, the validity of a self-defense claim is determined under what is generically called the "reasonable man doctrine." That is, what would any reasonable person do under the same circumstances, knowing what the shooter knew at the time?
As part of the instructions to a jury under a model from the 9th US Court of Appeals, when determining whether someone acted in self-defense, a jury would be told the following: "Use of force is justified when a person reasonably believes that it is necessary for the defense of oneself or another against the immediate use of unlawful force. How- ever, a person must use no more force than appears reasonably necessary under the circumstances.
"Force likely to cause death or great bodily harm is justified in self-defense only if a person reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm.
"The government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not act in reasonable self-defense." The New GUN WEEK, January 1, 2009
DEP Says Thermostat Law, Recycling Effort Will Protect Pennsylvanians
Fewer Pennsylvanians will face exposure to a potentially dangerous neurotoxin now that Pennsylvania’s new Mercury-Free Thermostat Law is in place, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.
“This law is another means of protecting the health and welfare of our most vulnerable citizens – our children,” said Tom Fidler, the DEP’s deputy secretary for waste, air and radiation management. “Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that poses the greatest risk of nerve and brain damage to pregnant women, women of childbearing age, and young children.”
At The Hardware Center in Paoli, Fidler unveiled a statewide recycling program that will allow citizens to safely dispose of out-of-service thermostats containing mercury.
“In Pennsylvania, we are working to protect our citizens from all sources of mercury. From enacting the Clean Air Mercury Rule for power plants to making thermostat recycling more convenient, we are going to take all reasonable measures to protect Pennsylvania’s children,” he said.
Mercury thermostats contain the largest amount of mercury found in ordinary household products. A single mercury thermostat contains between 3 and 5 grams of mercury.
According to estimates by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, each year about 6 to 8 tons of mercury from discarded thermostats ends up in solid waste facilities and between 1 and 2 tons are released into the air.
Mercury can pose a long-term danger as it accumulates in the environment and remains active for up to 10,000 years. Waterways throughout Pennsylvania have been placed under fish consumption advisories due to high mercury contamination levels.
“Protecting our citizens and environment from mercury can be accomplished in partnership with industry,” Fidler said. “Governor Rendell’s administration worked with thermostat manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and installers, and the legislature to craft a cost-effective program that shares the responsibility for protecting the environment.”
The Mercury-Free Thermostat Law:
- Bans the sale, installation and disposal of mercury thermostats effective Dec. 8, 2009;
- Mandates that thermostat manufacturers establish and maintain a collection and recycling program for out-of-service mercury thermostats;
- Requires that wholesalers who sell thermostats must participate as a collection site for mercury thermostats, effective Dec. 8, 2009;
- Requires thermostat retailers or contractors to participate as a collection point or provide notice to customers that recycling of mercury thermostats is required under Pennsylvania law and identify locations of nearby collection points, effective Dec. 8, 2009;
- Directs manufacturers and the DEP to provide education and outreach on the proper management of mercury thermostats and other products containing mercury, including maintaining a list of approved collection sites.
“The Mercury-Free Thermostat Law gives every citizen and every contractor convenient access to outlets for recycling of out-of-service mercury thermostats,” Fidler said. “They can drop off thermostats at retail and wholesale collection points in their communities virtually every day of the week.
“Retailers, such as The Hardware Center in Paoli, will be key to this effort for homeowners who can now recycle their old thermostat when they go to purchase a mercury-free thermostat.”
Thermostat retailers are not required to meet their responsibilities under the law for another year, but a number of wholesalers statewide voluntarily already are providing collections to the public and to contractors through a program created by the Thermostat Recycling Corp. The nonprofit group was founded in the late 1990s by three major thermostat manufacturers and has been operating successfully in Pennsylvania since 2000. Wholesalers may meet their obligations under the new state law by joining the existing program.
To find a participating wholesaler in your community, call the Thermostat Recycling Corp., toll-free, at 1-800-238-8192.
The Mercury-Free Thermostat Law is the latest of Pennsylvania’s aggressive efforts to reduce mercury releases into the environment. The Clean Air Mercury Rule will result in an 80 percent cut in mercury emissions from all Pennsylvania coal-fired power plants by 2010, and a 90 percent reduction by 2015.
The state is involved in a Great Lakes regional strategy for reducing mercury from industrial and non-industrial sources and it also participates in the National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program to recover mercury switches used in automobile convenience lighting.
Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards require that 18 percent of electricity sold in the state will come from renewable and alternative sources by 2021, leading to a significant reduction in mercury emitted from traditional power plants.
Making Homes Energy Efficient
With the cost of heating homes expected to hit record levels this winter, the Department of Environmental Protection is urging residents to make their homes as energy efficient as possible before the heating season begins.
Cooling and heating a home uses more energy than any other system in a house. The typical American family spends close to $1,862 a year on their home’s utility bills and the U.S. Energy Information Agency predicts residential heating costs will rise more than 30 percent in 2009.
Unfortunately, a large portion of that energy is wasted. By using a few inexpensive energy-efficiency and conservation measures, residents can reduce their energy bills by 10 percent to 50 percent.
- Keep your thermostat at a low but comfortable temperature throughout the winter and opt to wear a sweater or use an extra blanket if you are chilly. You can also set the temperature lower on your thermostat when you are away from home for extended periods.
- Close any vents or openings that you may have used in the summer. You can also close all windows and storm windows at the start of the heating season, but keep shades, blinds and curtains open to let winter sun in during the day, especially on the east and south sides of your home to create extra heat. Close coverings at night to slow heat escaping back out of the home.
- Check furnace air filters each month, and clean or replace them as needed. Dirty filters block airflow through your heating and cooling systems, increasing your energy bill and shortening the equipment’s life. You should also avoid blocking warm-air supply and return registers with furniture, carpets or drapes.
- Seal up your fireplace if not in use: Keep existing glass fireplace doors closed or seal-up the fireplace tightly with insulated foam board to help stop heat from being lost up the chimney. Remember to remove any insulation and open dampers next time you operate the fireplace.
- Lower the temperature on your water heater to 120°F and wrap it with an insulation blanket.
More tips for energy conservation are available at www.depweb.state.pa.us, keyword: Energy, then click on “Pollution Prevention/Energy Efficiency.”
Information is also available at www.StayWarmPA.com, including conservation tips and resources for getting financial assistance with utility bills and home weatherization.
On Sept. 11, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission kicked off its annual “Prepare Now” campaign to increase consumer awareness on rising energy prices, explore ways to reduce energy usage, educate consumers about the availability of low-income programs, increase awareness for safe home heating, and discuss potential policies and strategies. Visit www.puc.state.pa.us, and click on “Prepare Now” or call the PUC at 1-800-692-7380.
Source: PA DEP
Consumers Cautioned About Heating Fuel Contracts;
Consumers Urged to Report Problems
Attorney General Tom Corbett is cautioning Pennsylvania consumers to carefully review their options concerning any long-term heating fuel contracts they may have authorized.
"With the unusual swings in heating oil prices that we have seen over the past year, a growing number of consumers are questioning their long-term fuel delivery contracts," Corbett said. "It is important for consumers to understand the options and limitations of various contracts, and to report problems involving deceptive or misleading practices to the Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection."
Corbett said that consumers who are concerned about the price they are paying for heating fuel should carefully review the details of any delivery contract they have signed.
Some contracts call for the delivery of a certain number of gallons of fuel, for a fixed price, which was set when the contract was signed. Other contracts set a maximum price that consumers will be charged for each gallon of fuel, but allow prices to adjust downward if the current price is lower. A third type of contract does not limit the price for fuel, but simply extends winter fuel bills over a 12-month period, allowing consumers to budget a fixed payment every month.
Corbett said that if the current price for heating fuel is lower than the price in your contract, consumers should carefully review the terms of their agreement to see if the price can be adjusted downward. Consumers may also want to contact their heating oil supplier to see if their contract can be re-negotiated.
Consumers who are having difficulties with fuel companies honoring delivery contracts, disputes over delivery prices and concerns about misleading or deceptive price advertising, should contact the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Hotline at 1-800-441-2555 or file an online consumer complaint at www.attorneygeneral.gov.
Source: PA DEP
Anti Gun Rights Bills Summary as of April 2007
All of these anti-gun bills are falsely sold as a public safety package, and in reality they do nothing to ensure the security or safety of the law-abiding citizens of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Sponsors of these bills claim they will fight crime or prevent criminal behavior; however they don’t focus on criminal behavior. Instead, they focus only on the guns as the reason for crime in their neighborhoods. As an analogy, this line of thought would effectively ignore the fault of motor vehicle operators in any motor vehicle accident, and just blame the car or the auto dealers.
Truthful lawmakers will acknowledge that the problem is not the availability of guns on the street; it’s the failure to remove criminals from the street. Noticeably absent in any of these proposed bills is an initiative to build more prisons for repeat criminals and to prohibit early releases due to prison overcrowding. Also, these bills miserably fail to address the ongoing problem of criminal lawyers plea bargaining away already existing state law gun violations. District attorneys, prosecutors and judges willingly allow and condone this. It makes their jobs easier. Yet they scream the mantra: “We need more gun laws”. Currently, there are enough existing gun laws to resolve the so-called “gun crime” issue. Yet many present laws are not enforced.
As a whole, this barrage of legislation would accomplish only one thing: the elimination of Pennsylvania citizens’ constitutionally protected rights to legally bear arms. Certain lawmakers wish to ban our right to keep & bear arms, and in doing so, set a landmark precedent for other states to follow. Passing more useless laws against law abiding citizens, as a politically correct solution, does nothing to address the real problem of criminals on our streets: criminals preying on those law abiding citizens and putting police officers’ lives at risk.
FYI 1st degree felony: up to 20 years in jail & maximum $25,000 fine.
2nd degree felony: up to 10 years in jail & maximum $25,000 fine.
3rd degree felony: up to 7 years in jail & maximum $15,000 fine.
1st degree misdemeanor: up to 5 years in jail & maximum $10,000 fine.
2nd degree misdemeanor: up to 2 years in jail & maximum $5,000 fine.
3rd degree misdemeanor: up to 1 year in jail & maximum $2,500 fine.
Under current PA law, anyone using a firearm in the commission of a crime has an additional 5-year mandatory sentence that can be imposed on them if the courts do their job.
HB 18 - Ammunition, limitations on regulation, municipal powers (Amend 18 and 53 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY D. EVANS, JAMES, MYERS, PARKER, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ, CURRY,FRANKEL, GALLOWAY, JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI & ROEBUCK
This is a very bad idea. It will allow a county, a city, a township or municipality the
authority to establish it’s own firearm laws without the requirement of being uniform throughout the state!
In effect your local municipality could regulate the following:
1) Sales of firearms, and additional waiting periods & background checks
2) Possession of firearms or ammunition
3) Gun club firing ranges and the discharging of firearms
4) Hunting
5) Storage of firearms and ammunition
6) It could limit you from possessing, carrying, or “manner of carrying” firearms reasonably around zones surrounding schools, playgrounds, universities, colleges, bars or other places of general public accommodations.
7) It could limit your ownership, possession, transfer, and transportation of so-called assault weapons. See HB 30 for assault weapon definition.
An individual’s constitutional right could be taken away by one simple majority vote on a referendum question!
In short this will open the door for every form of gun control that any anti-gunner could ever think of. Even worse, it could be enacted anywhere in the state. This would be a costly legal nightmare for gun owners in PA, to comply with the possibility of hundreds of local laws, not to mention that the laws can differ depending on which locale you reside in or travel through.
HB 20 – Mandatory Gun Storage within easy access to minors prohibited; penalties (Amend 18 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY D. EVANS, GERBER, CALTAGIRONE, JAMES, MYERS, WHEATLEY,WILLIAMS, BENNINGTON, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ, CURRY, FRANKEL,GALLOWAY, JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI & ROEBUCK
This will place the legal burden and penalties on all gun owners to prevent minors from gaining access to all unsecured firearms without parental permission. Firearms will be required to be stored either a locked box or with a trigger lock. The only exemption would be while carrying a firearm, or keeping a firearm within close proximity, (only within “arms reach”).
HB 21 – Display or use of firearm, further providing for bail, governed by general rules (Amend 42 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY JAMES, D. EVANS, GERBER, BUXTON, MYERS, PARKER, STURLA,WILLIAMS, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ, CURRY, FRANKEL, GALLOWAY,JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCKAny person charged with the offense of “use or display of a firearm” as defined in 18 PA C.S. (relating to definitions) bail shall not be less than $50,000.
This would, of course, apply to anyone merely showing a weapon to ward off a would-be mugger.
HB 22 – Handgun purchases and sales, limit; Violence Prevention Fund, establishing; municipal regulation of firearms and ammunition (Amend 18 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY MYERS, D. EVANS, GERBER, JAMES, WILLIAMS, BENNINGTONBISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ, CURRY, FRANKEL, GALLOWAY, JOSEPHS,KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCK,
This will mandate that no one could buy more than one handgun per month. It will, of course, require a massive database of all gun owners’ personal information to make it operational. This has been tried in other states with no reduction in crime. Again, the taxpayers and gun owners would be burdened with paying for the upkeep of this database registration system. This bill also creates a new anti-gun bureaucracy called the Violence Prevention Fund (another expensive program for us taxpayer to pay). This bill would also affect municipal regulation of firearms and ammunition.
HB 23 – Handgun and ammunition, regulation; limitation on municipal powers (Amend 18 and 53 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY MYERS, D. EVANS, GERBER, JAMES, WILLIAMS, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ,CURRY, FRANKEL, GALLOWAY, JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCK
This is a very bad idea. It will remove the uniformity of law throughout the state, letting a first class city limit purchase to one hand gun a month. Again this will require an expensive database of all gun purchasers to make it viable system. An individual’s constitutional right would be taken away by one simple majority vote on a referendum question!
HB 24 - Tracing Guns, illegal possession by anyone under 21 years of age (Amend 18 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY MYERS, D. EVANS, GERBER, BENNINGTON, JAMES, STURLA, WHEATLEY,WILLIAMS, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ, CURRY, FRANKEL, GALLOWAY, JOSEPHS,KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCK
This bill will require firearm tracing from anyone under 21 years of age who illegally possesses a firearm. It will require all local police to trace any firearm recovered using the existing Federal National Tracing Center maintained by the BATFE and report all information to the PA state police. It will also allow the PA state police to “legally” create and maintain a database of firearms. It’s the same illegal gun owner database that the state police have maintained for many decades by diverting money away from crime fighting.
HB 25 – Firearms and ammunition, regulation; limitation on municipal powers (Amend 18 and 53 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY MYERS, D. EVANS, GERBER, JAMES, WILLIAMS, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ,CURRY,FRANKEL,GALLOWAY,JOSEPHS,KIRKLAND,LEACH,M. O'BRIEN,PASHINSKI & ROEBUCK
Another bad idea. Removing the uniformity of law throughout the state by letting a first class city make it unlawful to own, use, possess or transfer a so called assault weapon or any accessory or ammunition for an “assault weapon”. See HB 30 & SB 48 for definition of assault weapons (basically it would be a BAN on all ammunition).
Again, an individual’s constitutional right could be taken away by one simple majority vote on a referendum question.
HB 28 - Persons prohibited from possessing, using, manufacturing, controlling, selling or transferring; carrying firearms on public streets or property in Philadelphia, prohibited (Amend 18 Pa.C.S.)
INTRODUCED BY WILLIAMS, D. EVANS, W. KELLER, MYERS, STURLA,BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ, CURRY, FRANKEL, GALLOWAY, JOSEPHS,KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCK,
This will allow Philadelphia to make its own guns laws. Citizens traveling thru any part Philadelphia from anywhere in PA, while in possession of a firearm or ammunition, will become criminals without their knowledge or intent to commit a crime. This would be a third degree felony, but if you possess a concealed carry permit it’s considered only a first degree misdemeanor. Subsequently, you stand a good chance of having your carry permit revoked.
HB 29 – Registry for lost or stolen, failure to report, State Police duties (Amend 18 Pa.C.S.)
INTRODUCED BY WILLIAMS, D. EVANS, GERBER, CALTAGIRONE, JAMES, W. KELLER,MYERS, WHEATLEY, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ, CURRY, FRANKEL, GALLOWAY,JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCKFailure to report lost or stolen firearms to the appropriate local law enforcement official within 24 hours is a summary offense punishable by a fine up to $500. A person intentionally failing to report a loss or theft of a firearm commits a misdemeanor of the third degree. A court, in addition to any penalty prescribed by law, may prohibit you from acquiring a firearm for a period of six months.
Allows PA state police to” legally” create and maintain a database of stolen firearms. It prohibits any law enforcement agency to create, operate or maintain any registry of firearm ownership. However, nothing in this purposed bill forces the state police to destroy the illegal gun owner database that the state police have maintained for many decades. (A database created by diverting money away from crime fighting.)
HB 30 - Assault Weapon Ban, prohibition, registration, penalties (Amend 18 Pa.C.S.)
INTRODUCED BY FRANKEL, D. EVANS, BISHOP, WHEATLEY, YOUNGBLOOD, COHEN,BENNINGTON, GERBER, JAMES, MYERS, STURLA, WILLIAMS, CRUZ, CURRY,GALLOWAY, JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCK
This is an extremely bad bill. It will make it illegal to posses a huge number of common firearms now owned and used by gun owners in PA. This bill makes the following unlawful:
1) To own, use, possess or sell an unregistered “assault weapon”.
2) Any accessory such as any detachable magazine over 10 rounds, barrel shroud, folding stock, thumbhole stock, telescoping stock, muzzle break or muzzle compensator. These parts described above are defined as “conversion kits”. Possession of conversion kits or components carries the penalty of first degree felony.
3) To keep your “assault weapon” unless you register it with the state police every year, pay a registration fee every year and undergo a complete background check every year. You will be required to safely and securely store “assault weapons” pursuant to regulations. You will be legally permitted to use the “assault weapon” only on your property or duly licensed firing range.
When transporting an “assault weapon,” you will only be allowed to travel directly to and from certain locations (without intermittent stops) and with special storage requirements.
Your registered “assault weapon” will have zero resale value, as you will be banned from selling, trading or transferring it. Someone will be allowed to inherit it provided they comply with all the above requirements within 30 days. The only way to dispose of your “assault weapon” will be to turn it over to the state police for destruction or permanent disabling so that it is incapable of discharging a projectile. Note: the state police will be allowed to perform a compliance inspection at your home once a year to ensure that you are not violating any provision of this law. If you are found in violation, the penalty is a third degree felony.
HR 35 – Study new technologies to identify firearms used in crime.
This will require investigating new technologies that are designed to equip firearms with a microscopic array of characters that identify the make, model and serial number of the firearm on the empty cartridge when fired.
A huge expensive database will have to be created to pay for this experiment that in the long will do nothing to reduce or probably not be able to solve even any crimes. Sounds really good except it should have been a study of how many times criminals break existing gun laws and cases are plea bargained away or how the gun law violations are adjudicated away.
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HB 73 – Cruelty to animals, live pigeon shoots prohibited (Amend 18 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY SHIMKUS, CARROLL, BUXTON, CURRY, JOSEPHS, LEACH, ROEBUCK,SIPTROTH, BENNINGTON, BISHOP, CASORIO, DePASQUALE, FRANKEL, WALKO,MANDERINO, MELIO, MYERS, M. O'BRIEN, TANGRETTI, CRUZ, COSTA, VITALI,FREEMAN, CIVERA, COHEN, STURLA, CALTAGIRONE, MAHER, PRESTON, KULAYOUNGBLOOD, W. KELLER, PAYNE, ROSS, SAMUELSON, RUBLEY, SWANGER AND MUNDYOnce they ban pigeon shooting, how soon will it be until they ban game preserves, live bird dog training, and dove, pheasant, grouse, duck and all bird hunting, by using this as the basis for subsequent law?
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HB 277 - Ballistics ID of Bullets & Mandatory Use of Trigger Locks.
Again, another terrible bill. Every handgun except antique models shall be equipped with a trigger lock. No handgun may be sold or transferred unless a digitized or electronic image of its fired bullet and shell casing is placed in a qualified database along with make, model, caliber, serial number and ballistics identifier.
Other states have tried to implement similar programs with no reduction in crime and no appreciable increase in crimes being solved with this added information. A huge waste of our taxpayer money! Anyone who sells or has the intent to sell or transfer a handgun without a ballistics identifier will be subjected to a civil penalty of $7,500 to $15,000 and a fine from $500 to $1,000 for each handgun. Since criminals typically don’t buy handguns from dealers, this merely creates another burden for the law-abiding citizen attempting to purchase or sell a firearm. Note: over time, with use and wear of the firearm, all this information will become useless, yet still it is sold to the public as a crime fighting bill.
Once again, this is another intrusive law that imposes a greater burden on the honest citizen and violates his constitutionally protected rights. And it is yet another proposed law that does nothing to prevent a criminal from illegally using a firearm.
HB 291 – Handgun Safety, Testing & Certification; providing for implementation of personalized handgun requirements and forfeiture of certain handguns.
INTRODUCED BY YOUNGBLOOD,CRUZ,THOMAS,CURRY,WATERS,BISHOP,PARKER & JOSEPHS
This bill authorizes a new “safety standard” that only “smart guns” (personalized to a specific user) can be fired only by the authorized user or users. Four years after the adoption of this safety standard bill, all your handguns other than antique or “smart guns” may not be sold, offered for sale, traded, or transferred, or possessed by you, under the penalty of a felony of the third degree. Additionally, such handguns may not be sold, offered for sale, traded, transferred, shipped or leased or distributed by dealers after four years from adoption of this bill.
In the simplest of terms, if the bill becomes law, whether the practical technology to manufacture a “smart gun” exists or not, all other handguns will be illegal to posses, own, sell or transfer. There will be no compensation for the taking of your private property. However, as it will be a crime to own a “dumb” handgun, your property will be worthless. This is another bill that makes criminals out of law abiding gun owners with no focus on criminals that happen to use a firearm to commit crime.
HB 452 - Amends Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) further providing for persons prohibited from possessing, using, manufacturing, controlling, selling or transferring firearms and for the PA State Police.
INTRODUCED BY FRANKEL, CALTAGIRONE, COHEN, CURRY, JAMES, KULA, MELIO,SWANGER AND YOUNGBLOOD,
In the past innocent citizens who have been involuntary committed to mental institutions (302) for political or personal reasons (merely on the “allegation” of being mentally unstable) and have been locked up against their will. After they have proved that they are of sound mind, and after having spent a considerable amount of money to prove their innocence, this bill would then make them spend even more money to get their Constitutional rights back.
If
anything, legislation should be introduced to eliminate involuntarily commitment of citizens in PA without a trial, or at least to require someone to be held accountable for committing people to mental intuitions without a hearing.
HB-957 - Possession or use of certain firearms prohibited in this Commonwealth, offense defined, grading, "five-seven pistol" defined (Amend 18 Pa.C.S.)
INTRODUCED BY CRUZ, YOUNGBLOOD, KING AND JOSEPHS,
This will ban the possession or use of a” five-seven pistol" or any pistol that fires the ammunition in the caliber of 5.7mm. Possession is a third degree felony.
HB 485 –Firearms and ammunition, limitation on regulation (Amend 18 Pa.C.S.)
INTRODUCED BY WILLIAMS, BISHOP, CALTAGIRONE, DONATUCCI, JAMES, JOSEPHS,MYERS, M. O'BRIEN, PARKER, THOMAS, W. KELLER AND HENNESSEY,This is a very bad idea. It would allow a first class city, to have a firearms enforcement commission with the Authority to establish their own firearm laws without the requirement of being uniform throughout the state!
In effect any first class city can regulate the following and more:
1) Sales of firearms, and additional waiting periods & background checks
2) Possession of firearms or ammunition
3) Gun club firing ranges and the discharging of firearms
4) Sales and transfers of firearms and ammunition or components
5) Storage of firearms and ammunition
6) Possession, carrying, or “manner of carrying” of firearms reasonably in
zones surrounding schools, playgrounds, universities, colleges, bars or other places of
general public accommodations.
7) Ownership, possession, transfer, and transportation of so called assault weapons.
(See HB 30 for assault gun definition)
An individual’s constitutional right can be taken away by one simple majority vote on a referendum question! In short this would open the door for every form of gun control that any anti-gunner could ever think of. Even worse, it can be enacted anywhere in the state. This would be a costly legal nightmare for gun owners in PA, to comply with the possibility of hundreds of local laws, not to mention that the laws can differ depending on which locale you reside in or travel through.
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HB 608– Child Firearm Safety Lock
INTRODUCED BY WATERS, BISHOP, BLACKWELL, DALEY, JAMES, W. KELLER, KIRKLAND,MELIO, MICOZZIE, MYERS, PARKER, PERRY AND YOUNGBLOOD
1) Requires all sales or transferred firearms to have a locking device included for that firearm. Failure to provide a locking device is penalized by suspension or revocation of dealer’s license, and a fine not more than $10,000.
2) Any person that fails to properly secure a firearm against theft or access without permission shall be subject to civil liability for damages resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse of that firearm.
As an analogy, if this same bill was applied to your stolen car, you could be sued for all monetary damages done with your car by the thief’s criminal action if you didn’t use a steering wheel lock or securely lock your car in a garage. Crazy is it not!!! You would be legally responsible for any damages done with the misuse of your stolen firearms. Instead of holding the criminal totally responsible for their actions, some lawyer could portray the criminal as a victim and sue you for letting them have access to your improperly stored firearms. How about that for justice?
HB 760 – ALL Firearms Registration Act.
INTRODUCED BY CRUZ, YOUNGBLOOD, PARKER, WHEATLEY, BENNINGTON AND CURRY
1) You are required to register all of your firearms with the PA state police, other than machine guns or “antique firearms”.
2) Beginning with, and every year after registration begins, you are required to submit or provide all the following personal information in your renewal application for every firearm you own:
- Your name
- Your home address
- Your business address
- Your telephone number
- Your birth date
- Your social security number
- Your age & citizenship
- The name, make, model, manufacture, caliber or gauge and serial number for
every firearm.
- Two passport sized photos taken less than 30 days prior to your renewal.
- $10 per firearm application fee every year.
- You also must submit your fingerprints to the PA state police.
3) If you are approved to continue to own your firearms, you will be issued an owner’s registration certificate with your photo, along with your other personal information, for each firearm. You must carry it at all times with that firearm, and you must show “your papers” to any police officer upon demand.
4) Your additional duties as a registered firearm owner:
- You must notify the state police within 48 hours of the loss, theft or destruction of a firearm, or the registration certificate for it.
- Any change of any information on the registration certificate must be reported within 48 hours.
- If you sell one of your registered guns or buy or transfer a firearm, you must notify the state police not less than 48 hours prior to delivery.
- You must return to the state police the original registration certificate for any firearm is lost, stolen, destroyed or disposed of with 48 hours.
5) You must keep any firearm in your possession unloaded and disassembled or bound by trigger lock or stored in a gun safe unless the firearm is in your immediate possession or under control at your home, your business, or while you are still allowed to use it in lawful recreational purposes.
6) The PA state police are empowered to make up any additional rules or regulations that they deem fit to allow you the privilege of keeping your registered firearms.
The proposed fee is only $10 per firearm, however expect future increases to fully administer all sections of this act. Also watch the summary offense for violating any section of this act change to a misdemeanor or a felony, with real jail time and a very large fine.
PRO-GUN LEGISLATION Summary as of Oct 2007
By enacting more anti-gun laws on the books, violent crime in our state will be virtually eliminated! Believe it? Well don’t, because it’s wishful thinking. For example, there is one mandatory sentence law currently on the books (Title 42, Section 9712) that makes using firearms in the commission of a crime a 5-year mandatory jail sentence. This law is routinely plea-bargained away by the courts and the DA’s. WHY?? So, are we to believe that more gun control legislation will make a difference when current laws are being plea-bargained away? Currently the ‘Laws Relating to Firearms’ booklet published by the state contains approximately 126 pages. This is an increase of an additional 76 pages of gun control laws that have been added since 1995. One has to ask how much is enough and, perhaps more importantly, where are we headed as a society IF we predicate freedoms based on the actions of criminals? As has been shown by the National Academy of Sciences and the Centers for Disease Control, this increase in Pennsylvania gun laws has shown no impact on crime. Perhaps it is time to start considering a new direction in controlling crime?
On the positive side we have several PRO-gun bills pending in Harrisburg that will help protect the families and property of law-abiding citizens by acting as real deterrents to criminal actions. Police officers can’t be everywhere to protect your family’s safety and even if you could make a phone call, the response time for emergency help is, at best, several minutes away in cities, in the rural area it can take over 30 minutes or more. If that’s not bad enough, the Supreme Court has consistently ruled each and every time that police are not responsible for protecting your family or property from criminal acts. Many PRO-gun legislators recognize these flaws in current existing laws and are working with us to introduce legislation to correct these real problems.
HB 19 – Offenders, serious drug trafficking, violent repeat, not to possess firearms.
INTRODUCED BY D. EVANS, GERBER, CALTAGIRONE, MYERS, STURLA, WHEATLEY,WILLIAMS, BENNINGTON, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ, CURRY, FRANKEL, GALLOWAY,JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCKAnti-gun politicians are always screaming for more “so called” common sense gun control to prevent criminal access to firearms. Unfortunately, almost of their proposed bills focus on the firearms of law abiding gun owners and not on the criminal’s actions or illegal possession of firearms.
This bill changes all that by forcing the District Attorney’s, judges and court system to punish repeat offending predatory criminals who use firearms in commission on crimes. By providing real common sense mandatory jail time and additional felony charges for prior criminal convictions using firearms in the past.
Many innocent people in PA have been injured or killed by repeat violent offenders being let back out on the streets early, from charges that were plea bargained away instead of enforced. Wow, what a novel concept; prosecuting repeat criminals for offenses they commit with firearms. How much safer will police officers and citizens be when these criminal predators are off the streets, incarcerated in jail paying a time penalty for their actions.
Gun control has a real human cost. It’s time criminals start to pay 100% for their crimes with time behind bars instead of citizens having to put bars on their homes and live in fear.
HB 142 – Right to hunt, fish, harvest game
INTRODUCED BY BAKER, ROHRER, ARGALL, BENNINGHOFF, BELFANTI,BOYD,CALTAGIRONE, CAPPELLI, CAUSER, CLYMER, DALLY,DENLINGER, ELLIS, FAIRCHILD,GEIST, GODSHALL, GOODMAN, GRELL, HARHAI, HESS, HUTCHINSON, KAUFFMAN,M. KELLER, MANN,MARKOSEK, McILHATTAN, METCALFE, MOUL, PERRY, PHILLIPS,PICKETT,PYLE, RAPP, REICHLEY, ROAE, SOLOBAY, STABACK, STERN, R. STEVENSON, WALKO AND WOJNAROSKI
This proposed bill would amend the PA constitution after a general election referendum vote. It aims to make hunting and fishing a right with proper state issued licenses according to restrictions provided by laws of the commonwealth.
HB 205 – PGC Commission, composition & former employees
INTRODUCED BY PICKETT, PHILLIPS, R. STEVENSON, CREIGHTON, GEIST,HERSHEY,YOUNGBLOOD, CALTAGIRONE, MUSTIO, GODSHALL, ROHRER,SONNEY, McILHATTAN,HENNESSEY, KULA, J. EVANS, CAUSER, RUBLEY, RAPP AND SWANGER
This bill requires an independent game commission composed of 8 competent PA citizens who are well informed on the subject of wildlife conservation, restoration and who are not PGC employees. They will be appointed by governor with the advice and consent of 2/3 of the senate.
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HB 618 - Rights, restoration, offenses under prior laws of the Commonwealth
INTRODUCED BY HANNA, DENLINGER, GEIST, GEORGE, GERGELY, GODSHALLAND GRUCELAThis bill provides for restoration of rights for past non-violent offenses for those sentenced under very old laws involving the vehicle and penal codes where over the course of many decades the definitions have changed. People who had been convicted of or plead guilty to minor offenses in the past which presently would not be a serious violation of current law and the sentencing was an ambiguous misdemeanor shall have the option to have their rights restored to own and posses firearms for lawful purposes.
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HB 641 – Self-protection, general principals of justifications, definitions, protection of other persons, use of force, civil immunity for use of force, sentences for firearms offenses
INTRODUCED BY CAPPELLI, BENNINGHOFF, BAKER, BARRAR, BASTIAN,BELFANTI,BOYD, CALTAGIRONE, CASORIO, CAUSER, CLYMER,DENLINGER, ELLIS, EVERETT,FAIRCHILD, GEIST, GEORGE,GINGRICH, GODSHALL, GRELL, GRUCELA, HALUSKA,HARRIS, HERSHEY,HESS, HICKERNELL, HUTCHINSON, KAUFFMAN, M. KELLER,KILLION,KOTIK, MAJOR, MARSICO, METCALFE, R. MILLER, PAYNE, PEIFER,PETRARCA,PETRI, PHILLIPS, PICKETT, PYLE, RAPP, SAINATO,SAYLOR, SIPTROTH, S. H. SMITH,SOLOBAY, SONNEY, STERN,R. STEVENSON, SURRA, TURZAI AND WANSACZ
This bill, commonly referred to as the “castle doctrine”, is very similar to ones enacted in other states which have a proven history of acting as a real deterrent to violent criminal confrontations. Under PA law currently you are required to demonstrate that you retreated or attempted to retreat from any criminal confrontation other than inside you home. This presumes that you have the time and opportunity to call the police to intervene and hopefully they will make it in time to save you. If you do anything to protect your self or property outside your homes, even IF you are still on your own property/land, to harm the criminal or protect your family from imminent attack you can be held criminally and or civilly liable for your actions, justified or not, by an over zealous DA or criminals family. This bill would provide protections against punitive lawsuits for civilians as well as off duty law enforcement officers and their families. This single proposed bill, if passed into law, will restore balance to a justice system that has for decades favored the criminal over the victim. Citizens will be ‘less’ likely to fall into harms way because of fear of losing everything if they protect themselves and criminals will be less likely to commit these acts IF they do not know if they are armed or not. It’s a really cost effective way to deter criminals, with average citizens providing added security when the police are not around.
HB 641 would provide civil immunity for the use of force against criminals without having to surrender your personal safety or to needless retreat in the face of intrusion or attack outside the person home or vehicle. This bill also provides for very strict provisions on the use of deadly force and cannot be used by anyone while they are engaged in unlawful or illegal acts, or used against a peace officer acting in the performance of their official duties.
HB 819 – Game Commission, regulations relating to hunting with flintlock muzzleloader.
INTRODUCED BY DENLINGER, CALTAGIRONE, CAPPELLI, COX, GEIST,GINGRICH,GODSHALL, HARRIS, HENNESSEY, HERSHEY, KAUFFMAN,KORTZ, MENSCH, MILLARD,PALLONE, PICKETT, RAPP, READSHAW,REICHLEY, ROCK, ROHRER, SCAVELLO,SIPTROTH, SONNEY AND STERNThis bill simply allows the use of ‘inline’ muzzle loaders whenever a ‘flintlock’ season is called for in the hunting regulations.
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HB 1029 - Firearms, sale or transfer, further provided
INTRODUCED BY R. STEVENSON, METCALFE, BAKER, BELFANTI, BOYD,BROOKS,CAPPELLI, CAUSER, CLYMER, CREIGHTON, CUTLER, DALEY,DENLINGER, J. EVANS,EVERETT, GEIST, HALUSKA, HENNESSEY,HESS, HUTCHINSON, KORTZ, KOTIK,LONGIETTI, McILHATTAN,MILLARD, R. MILLER, PETRARCA, PICKETT, PYLE,RAPP, ROAE,SOLOBAY, SONNEY, STERN AND SURRAThis bill clarifies the instant check requirements for the sale of firearms that the holders of a valid concealed carry permit or any current law enforcement officer’s identification are exempt from the requirements and fees of the Pennsylvania Instant Check System.
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HB 1115 - Pennsylvania Election Code - Disclosure to public of candidate information
INTRODUCED BY MUSTIO, METCALFE, J. EVANS, EVERETT, GEIST, GIBBONS,GOODMAN, HENNESSEY, HERSHEY, KOTIK, O'NEILL,SCAVELLO, SONNEY,R. STEVENSON, GINGRICH, KILLION, COX, KORTZ AND HARRISThis much needed bill clarifies and defines Pa election code requirements for public disclosure of all candidates’ information, voter eligibility requirements, and much needed oversight to the election process of candidates to public offices.
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HB 1145 - Prohibits the Governor in time of a disaster or emergency from seizure, taking or confiscation of lawfully possessed firearms or ammunition
INTRODUCED BY SOLOBAY, BAKER, BELFANTI, BENNINGHOFF, BOYD,CALTAGIRONE,CAPPELLI, CASORIO, CLYMER, CONKLIN, COX, CUTLER,DALEY, DeWEESE, EVERETT,FABRIZIO, FAIRCHILD, GEIST, GEORGE,GIBBONS, GOODMAN, HALUSKA, HERSHEY,HESS, KORTZ, KOTIK,McILHATTAN, METCALFE, MUSTIO, PAYNE, PETRARCA, ROAE,K.SMITH, SONNEY, R. STEVENSON, SURRA, WALKO AND J. WHITEThis bill prohibits the governor of PA from authorizing anyone from unlawfully taking of firearms or ammo away its citizens in times of any disaster or emergency situation.
As evidence, the accounts of what happened to the survivors of hurricane Katrina wherein the Governor of Louisiana disarmed the citizens who needed their firearms the most to protect themselves from the break down of all civil authority and protect their property from criminal looting and violent attacks. (There are currently no specific protections against this kind seizure of firearms in Pennsylvania law.)
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HB 1160 – Temporary emergency Licenses for carrying further provided
INTRODUCED BY METCALFE, BASTIAN, COX, EVERETT, GERGELY, GRELL,M. KELLER,KORTZ, MOUL, MUSTIO, PETRARCA, PYLE, RAPP, ROAE,ROHRER, R. STEVENSON,CAUSER, SWANGER, DENLINGER AND YEWCICThis bill authorizes the issuance of immediate temporary non-renewable concealed carry license to qualified individuals in imminent danger for their lives. This license would be issued, by the Sheriff in the County of residence, only after the individual provides evidence of the imminent danger AND passes all the background checks necessary for the issuance of a regular license to carry firearms.
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HB 1161 - Offense of unlawful firearms records; penalty prescribed.
INTRODUCED BY METCALFE, BAKER, BASTIAN, CAPPELLI, COX,CREIGHTON,CUTLER, J. EVANS, EVERETT, GEIST, GERGELY,GIBBONS, HARRIS, HERSHEY,HESS, HUTCHINSON, M. KELLER, KORTZ,MARSHALL, MUSTIO, RAPP, ROAE, ROHRER,S. H. SMITH, SONNEY,R. STEVENSON, SURRA, CAUSER, SWANGER, DENLINGER,SAYLOR ANDYEWCICThis bill prohibits the state police or any other state agency from keeping or maintaining any registry or any type of database of law abiding firearm owner’s purchases. Free people should never have their gun registered and history has shown that registration has always lead to confiscation of firearms, and given rise to tyranny. People should not fear their governments, governments should be fear of their people. A long as this balance of power by of consent to be governed by the people, honesty, fairness and freedom for all is maintained.
The state police wasted nearly $130 million operating the PICS system, which would have been done at ‘no’ cost to gun owners or the state of Pennsylvania by the National Instant Check system, a part of which is the retention and maintenance of an illegal database of gun owners. How many crimes have the state police solved by the staggering amount of money spent? Conducting the Instant Checks through the state run system has cost Pennsylvania citizens and gun owners dearly.
1998 Start up costs for the PICS System -- $22,000,000.
Yearly costs to operate and maintain PICS -- $6,000,000.
(Total thus far 11 years x $6 million= $66,000,000)
2007 PICS Upgrade -- $32,000,000
Total Costs to date -- $126,000,000
Successfully prosecuted prohibited individuals who tried to buy a gun on average per year--120 - 140
Wouldn’t the money be much better spent catching and locking criminals up rather than making list of law abiding gun owner’s firearms? See also SB 738 for concurrent senate bill.
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HB 1185 – Employees Right to self defense act.
INTRODUCED BY SONNEY, METCALFE, BAKER, BELFANTI, BENNINGHOFF,CAPPELLI,COX, CUTLER, DALEY, EVERETT, GEIST, GINGRICH,HUTCHINSON, M. KELLER,KIRKLAND, KORTZ, MARSHALL, McILHATTAN,PICKETT, PYLE, RAPP, ROHRER, SAYLOR,SOLOBAY, R. STEVENSON,GIBBONS, DENLINGER AND YEWCIC,This bill prohibits employers from discharging, threatening, or discriminating against an individual who chooses to exercise their right to self-defense throughout the Commonwealth, while on the job or storing their firearm in their privately owned vehicles on company property.
HB 1235 – provides for open access to PSP Records that are used in the denial of a firearms purchase so that a citizen can challenge the accuracy of criminal history records information. Note this bill is currently in senate, passed house vote 197 to 6 against.
INTRODUCED BY J. WHITE, McCALL, EVERETT, METCALFE, SURRA,GERGELY,SOLOBAY, COX, DALEY, DENLINGER, GIBBONS, GOODMAN,HORNAMAN, KAUFFMAN,KORTZ, KOTIK, MAHONEY, MANDERINO,McILHATTAN, MOYER, MUSTIO, READSHAW,SAYLOR, SCAVELLO, WALKO,YEWCIC, HESS, ROAE, SIPTROTH AND CALTAGIRONE
This bill provides a specific and regulated process for the state police to provide show just cause and provide documentation in a specifically designated time frame as to why an individual was denied the right to acquire firearms.
There is also a prescribed manor in where the individual citizen can challenge the accuracy of the state record. The burden to prove the accuracy shall fall upon that agency to prove its records are correct. If the challenge to accuracy is ruled valid, the individual also has the right to appeal the decision directly to PA the Attorney General for another review. If that review fails you shall have the added recourse of appealing to the commonwealth court. This is vastly superior to the current system of hiring a lawyer and paying legal fees to obtain the same information.
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HB 1292 – Limits the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, to regulate the possession of firearms inconsistent with provisions of statutory law.
INTRODUCED BY FAIRCHILD, METCALFE, BAKER, BASTIAN, CALTAGIRONE,CASORIO,CLYMER, CUTLER, DENLINGER, EVERETT, FABRIZIO, GEIST, GEORGE, GERGELY,GINGRICH, GODSHALL, HALUSKA, HARHAI, HARRIS,HERSHEY, HESS, KILLION, KORTZ,MARSHALL, McILHATTAN,R. MILLER, MURT, PAYNE, PHILLIPS, PICKETT, PYLE,RAPP,READSHAW, REICHLEY, ROAE, ROHRER, SAYLOR, SEIP, S. H. SMITH,SONNEY,STERN, SURRA, YEWCIC AND SWANGER
This bill restricts the DCNR from regulating the possession of firearms by concealed carry permit holders or off duty law enforcement officers in PA state parks or any other area of their jurisdiction against state law.
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HB 1392 – defining “Firearm” in theft and related offenses.
INTRODUCED BY O'NEILL, CAPPELLI, CUTLER, EVERETT, FRANKEL,GIBBONS,HERSHEY, HESS, M. KELLER, KENNEY, MAHONEY, MILLARD,R. MILLER, MILNE,MURT, NAILOR, REICHLEY, ROEBUCK, RUBLEY,SAYLOR, STERN, SWANGER, J. TAYLOR,WATSON, YOUNGBLOOD AND YUDICHAK
This bill closes a loop hole in current law and specifically defines what a firearm is in relationship to theft and other related offenses to be consistent with other definitions of the term firearm used in other laws
HB 1569 - Criminal history record expungement.
INTRODUCED BY BENNINGHOFF, THOMAS, BUXTON, CARROLL, CREIGHTON,DENLINGER,FABRIZIO, GEORGE, GIBBONS, GINGRICH, HERSHEY,JAMES, KIRKLAND, KORTZ, LEACH,McILHATTAN, MELIO, R. MILLER,MOUL, PRESTON, REICHLEY, ROAE, RUBLEY AND SOLOBAY
This bill provides for specific procedures for limited individuals that have paid their debt to society turned the lives around and have lead a productive life a means to have their rights restored as full citizens of PA.
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HR 296 - Federal REAL ID ACT unfunded mandate costing PA taxpayers $ Millions
INTRODUCED BY SIPTROTH, JOSEPHS, THOMAS, MARKOSEK, McCALL, CARROLL,SCAVELLO,CONKLIN, SANTONI, DeWEESE, MANDERINO,DALLY, W. KELLER, WALKO, FREEMAN, KULA,SEIP, COSTA,PETRARCA, PALLONE, CASORIO, HARKINS, CURRY, HARHAI, SAINATO,HORNAMAN, R. TAYLOR, BIANCUCCI, GRUCELA, RAMALEY, WANSACZ,GOODMAN, KING,MUNDY, GEORGE, FAIRCHILD, BEYER, HENNESSEY ANDBARRARNote this resolution is currently in senate, passed house vote 200 to 3 against
This resolution opposes the costly unfunded mandate for the state of PA driver’s license to comply with federal standard imposed under the REAL ID ACT of 2005. It’s estimated that compliance with this act by PA taxpayers is going to be approximately 86 million dollars and raises privacy and security concerns that will affect all citizens. Additional other state legislators from Maine, Idaho, Arkansas, Montana, Washington, Georgia, Texas, West Virginia, New York, Maryland, Ohio and others are rejecting this act as well PA will also reject this unfounded mandate.
SB 738 – Unlawful registry of privately owned firearms or maintaining an illegal database of firearm owners. This bill is the senate version of HB 1161 – see it for review.
If you would like to have any of this PRO-GUN legislation become a law in PA.
Please write your PA representatives letters and emails and ask them to support these proposed PRO-GUN legislation. Be sure to mention the bill numbers and thank them for their support of your Constitutional right.
You can also make copies of the Vote NO and Vote YES legislation list, have members of your gun club or friends sign them and send them to the legislators.
We ask you to vote NO on the following bills as they are a direct violation of our Constitutional rights under Article 1 Section 21 & Section 25
VOTE NO ON THESE BILLS
HB 18 – Ammunition, limitations on regulation, municipal powers.
HB 20 – Mandatory Gun Storage within easy access to minors prohibited; penalties
HB 21 – Display or use of firearm, further providing for bail, governed by general rules
HB 22 – Handgun purchases and sales, limit; Violence Prevention Fund, establishing; municipal regulation of firearms and ammunition
HB 23 – Handgun and ammunition, regulation; limitation on municipal powers.
HB 25 – Firearms and ammunition, regulation; limitation on municipal powers
HB 28 – Persons prohibited from possessing, using, manufacturing, controlling, selling or transferring; carrying firearms on public streets or property in Philadelphia
HB 29 – Registry for lost or stolen, failure to report, State Police duties
HB 30 – Assault Weapon Ban, prohibition, registration, penalties
HB 73 – Cruelty to animals, live pigeon shoots prohibited
HB 277 – Ballistics ID of Bullets & Mandatory Use of Trigger Locks
HB 291 – Handgun Safety, Testing & Certification; providing for implementation of personalized handgun requirements and forfeiture of certain handguns
HB 452 – Amends Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) further providing for persons prohibited from possessing, using, manufacturing, controlling, selling or transferring firearms.
HB 485 – Firearms and ammunition Commission, limitation on regulation.
HB 760 – Firearm Registration Act
HB 960 – First class city, gives cities power to enact their own laws & regulations
HB 1198 – Illegal Firearm Task Force Program, established, Office of Attorney General, powers, duties; appropriation
HB 1478 – Sale or transfer, fee, surcharge, Added cost to firearm transactions
HB 1536 – Sale or transfer, further provided unless approved mandatory training program
HB 1633 – First class cities firearm registration act – reworked HB 760
HB 1701 – Capitol Gun Carry Prohibited, penalties and limitations
HB 1733 – Registry of lost or stolen, Pennsylvania State Police - HB 29 Reworked
HB 1745 – Amends the Tax Reform Code - an additional tax on ammunition
HB 1746 – first class cities to impose restrictions purchase, sale and possession of firearms.
HB 1758 – local government may enact laws its own Firearms.
HB 1845 – Possession of firearms with removed manufactures numbers
THANK YOU FOR COMMITTING TO VOTE NO ON THESE BILLS
We ask you to vote YES for the following bills. We also ask you to pass reality based laws which protect Citizens’ rights, and which lock up and punish criminals that prey upon the people that elected you to make their lives and this Commonwealth a safer place.
VOTE YES ON THESE BILLS
HB 19 – Offenders, serious drug trafficking, violent repeat, not to possess firearms.
HB 142 – Right to hunt, fish, harvest game
HB 205 – PGC Commission, composition & former employees
HB 618 – Rights, restoration, offenses under prior laws of the Commonwealth
HB 641 – Self-protection, general principals of justifications, definitions, protection of other persons, use of force, civil immunity for use of force, sentences for firearms offenses
HB 819 – Game Commission, regulations relating to hunting with flintlock muzzleloader.
HB 1029 – Firearms, sale or transfer, further provided
HB 1115 – Pennsylvania Election Code - Discloser to public of candidates
HB 1145 - Prohibits the Governor in time of a disaster or emergency from seizure, taking or confiscation of lawfully possessed firearms or ammunition
HB 1160 – Temporary emergency Licenses for carrying further provided
HB 1161 – Offense of unlawful firearms records; penalty prescribed
HB 1185 – Employees Right to self defense act
HB 1235 – providing for challenge of accuracy of criminal history records information
HB 1248 – Publish publicly the enforcement of PA Laws and the court information on judges, prosecutors and positions taken on enforcing the law including sentencing.
HB 1292 – Limits the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, to regulate the possession of firearms inconsistent with provisions of statutory law.
HB 1392 – defining “Firearm” in theft and related offenses.
HB 1569 – criminal history record expungement
HR 296 – Federal REAL ID ACT unfunded mandate costing 86 million to PA taxpayers
SB 738 – Unlawful registry of privately owned firearms or maintaining an illegal database of firearm owners.
THANK YOU FOR COMMITTING TO VOTE YES ON THESE BILLS
Anti Gun Rights Bills Summary as of March 25, 2008
Urban politicians scapegoat guns and gunowners instead of addressing the real causes of crime. This is as scientific as the doctors of old who were convinced that they could cure all disease by bleeding their patients. If the patient died, they didn’t bleed him enough. This failure to face reality does nothing to ensure the security or safety of the law-abiding citizens of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Sponsors of these bills claim they will fight crime or prevent criminal behavior; however they don’t focus on criminal behavior. Instead, they focus only on the guns as the reason for crime in their neighborhoods. As an analogy, this line of thought would effectively ignore the fault of motor vehicle operators in any motor vehicle accident, and just blame the car or the auto dealers.
Like doctors of old who turned their back on bleeding, lawmakers who study the issue with scientific objectivity will acknowledge that the problem is not the availability of guns on the street; it’s the failure to remove criminals FROM the street. Noticeably absent in any of these proposed bills is an initiative to build more prisons for repeat criminals and to prohibit early releases of violent criminals due to prison overcrowding. Also, these bills fail miserably to address the ongoing problem of prosecutor’s plea bargaining away OR failing to apply already existing state law gun violations. District attorneys, prosecutors and judges willingly allow and condone this. It makes their jobs easier. Yet they scream the mantra: “We need more gun laws”. Currently, there are enough existing gun laws to resolve the so-called “gun crime” issue. Yet many present laws are not enforced.
As a whole, this barrage of legislation would accomplish only one thing: the elimination, for ALL intents and purposes, of Pennsylvania citizens’ constitutionally protected rights to legally bear arms. Certain lawmakers wish to ban our right to keep & bear arms, and in doing so, set a landmark precedent for other states to follow. Passing more useless laws against law abiding citizens, as a politically correct solution, does nothing to address the real problem of criminals on our streets: criminals preying on law-abiding citizens and putting police officers’ lives at risk.
FYI 1st degree felony: up to 20 years in jail & maximum $25,000 fine.
2nd degree felony: up to 10 years in jail & maximum $25,000 fine.
3rd degree felony: up to 7 years in jail & maximum $15,000 fine.
1st degree misdemeanor: up to 5 years in jail & maximum $10,000 fine.
2nd degree misdemeanor: up to 2 years in jail & maximum $5,000 fine.
3rd degree misdemeanor: up to 1 year in jail & maximum $2,500 fine.
Under current PA law, anyone using a firearm in the commission of a crime can have an additional 5-year mandatory sentence that can be imposed on them if the courts do their job.
Any ungraded offense in the Uniform Firearm Act is a first-degree misdemeanor, which means upon conviction you LOSE your constitutional right to firearm ownership for the REST of your life.
Pennsylvania pays for instant check – a job that most states let the feds do for free. Perhaps this is why PICS has never issued a cost-benefit analysis.
The Pennsylvania Instant Check System (PICS) from 1998 to 2008 has cost the tax payers in excess of 130,000,000.00 dollars to administer to date for background checks for all firearm purchases. The federal NICS would do the same job for no additional cost to taxpayers.
Here are the results of all that money spent, do the math, what is the cost to ONLY catch someone that was later successful prosecuted for more additional taxpayer money.
1998-2004 a total of 57,283 people denied.
1998-2004 a total arrests of 1,181 people
1998-2004 a total conviction of ONLY 637 people
1998-2004 a total referral to the ATF for concurrent jurisdiction of ONLY 59 people
The PA State Police wasted nearly $130 million operating the duplicative Pennsylvania Instant Check System (PICS) system between 1998 and 2007, which would have been done at ‘no’ cost to gun owners or Pennsylvania by the National Instant Check system, a part of which is the retention and maintenance of an illegal database of gun owners. How many crimes have the state police solved by the staggering amount of money spent?
HB 18 - Ammunition, limitations on regulation, municipal powers (Amend 18 and 53 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY D. EVANS, JAMES, MYERS, PARKER, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ, CURRY,FRANKEL, GALLOWAY, JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI & ROEBUCK
This legislation will balkanize Pennsylvania with a patchwork quilt of inconsistent gun laws that will confuse and ensnare the citizens.
In short this legislation will open the door for every form of gun control that any anti-gunner could ever think of. Even worse, it could be enacted anywhere in the state. This would be a costly legal nightmare for gun owners in PA, to comply with the possibility of hundreds of local laws, not to mention that the laws can differ depending on which locale you reside in or travel through.
HB 20 – Mandatory Gun Storage within easy access to minors prohibited; penalties (Amend 18 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY D. EVANS, GERBER, CALTAGIRONE, JAMES, MYERS, WHEATLEY, WILLIAMS, BENNINGTON, BISHOP, COHEN,CRUZ, CURRY, FRANKEL, GALLOWAY, JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI & ROEBUCK
18Pa 6110 already makes it unlawful to make a firearm available for a person under the age of 18 even if the person is well trained and responsible and the gun is in the home for purposes of self defense. This “feel good” legislation seeks to make a bad law even worse.
HB 21 – Display or use of firearm, further providing for bail, governed by general rules (Amend 42 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY JAMES, D. EVANS, GERBER, BUXTON, MYERS, PARKER, STURLA, WILLIAMS, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ, CURRY,FRANKEL, GALLOWAY, JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCKThis legislation mandates significantly higher bail for “use or display of a firearm”. We oppose this legislation because the authors do not limit this to “use or display of a firearm” during the commission of a crime of violence, but just use or display.
This would, of course, apply to anyone merely showing a weapon to ward off a would-be mugger.
HB 22 – Handgun purchases and sales, limit; Violence Prevention Fund, establishing; municipal regulation of firearms and ammunition (Amend 18 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY MYERS, D. EVANS, GERBER, JAMES, WILLIAMS, BENNINGTON, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ, CURRY, FRANKEL,GALLOWAY, JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCK
This will mandate that no one could buy more than one handgun per month. It will, of course, require a massive database of gun owners’ personal information to make it operational. This has been tried in other states with no reduction in crime. Maryland and Virginia have it and Baltimore and Richmond have higher homicide rates than Philadelphia. South Carolina was the first state to adopt gun a month and was the first state to abandon this failed idea. This bill would also affect municipal regulation of firearms and ammunition.
HB 23 – Handgun and ammunition, regulation; limitation on municipal powers (Amend 18 and 53 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY MYERS, D. EVANS, GERBER, JAMES, WILLIAMS, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ, CURRY, FRANKEL, GALLOWAY,JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCK
This is a very bad idea. It will remove the uniformity of law throughout the state, letting a first class city limit firearm purchases to one hand gun a month. Despite the fact that other states have tried this concept and found no value as a crime fighting tool and in fact these states have a higher per capita rate of violent crime than Pennsylvania.
Again this will require an expensive database of all gun purchasers to make it viable system. An individual’s constitutional right would be taken away by one simple majority vote on a referendum question!
HB 24 - Tracing Guns, illegal possession by anyone under 21 years of age (Amend 18 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY MYERS, D. EVANS, GERBER, BENNINGTON, JAMES, STURLA, WHEATLEY, WILLIAMS, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ,CURRY, FRANKEL, GALLOWAY, JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCK
This bill will require firearm tracing from anyone under 21 years of age who illegally possesses a firearm. It will require all local police to trace any firearm recovered using the existing Federal National Tracing Center maintained by the BATFE and report all information to the PA state police. Pennsylvania police already can do all of these things.
What the bill really does is allow the PA state police to “legally” create and maintain a registry of firearms – something that is expressly forbidden in law.
HB 25 – Firearms and ammunition, regulation; limitation on municipal powers (Amend 18 and 53 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY MYERS, D. EVANS, GERBER, JAMES, WILLIAMS, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ, CURRY, FRANKEL, GALLOWAY,JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI & ROEBUCK
Another bad idea. Removing the uniformity of law throughout the state by letting a first class city make it unlawful to own, use, possess or transfer a so called assault weapon or any accessory or ammunition for an “assault weapon”. See HB 30 & SB 48 for definition of assault weapons (basically it would be a BAN ammunition also).
Again, an individual’s constitutional right could be taken away by one simple majority vote on a referendum question.
HB 28 - Persons prohibited from possessing, using, manufacturing, controlling, selling or transferring; carrying firearms on public streets or property in Philadelphia, prohibited (Amend 18 Pa.C.S.)
INTRODUCED BY WILLIAMS, D. EVANS, W. KELLER, MYERS, STURLA, BISHOP, COHEN, CRUZ, CURRY, FRANKEL, GALLOWAY,JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCK,
Citizens traveling thru any part Philadelphia from anywhere in PA, while in possession of a firearm or rifle or shotgun, will become unintentional criminals. This would be a third degree felony, but if you were eligible possess a concealed carry permit it’s considered only a first degree misdemeanor although a prosecution for this section means you would lose your right to own a firearm and EVER possess a License to Carry a Firearm. This section would make it illegal to even transport a rifle or shotgun through Philadelphia.
HB 29 – Registry for lost or stolen, failure to report, State Police duties (Amend 18 Pa.C.S.)
INTRODUCED BY WILLIAMS, D. EVANS, GERBER, CALTAGIRONE, JAMES, W. KELLER, MYERS, WHEATLEY, BISHOP, COHEN,CRUZ, CURRY, FRANKEL, GALLOWAY, JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCKFailure to report lost or stolen firearms to the appropriate local law enforcement official within 24 hours is a summary offense punishable by a fine up to $500. A person intentionally failing to report a loss or theft of a firearm commits a misdemeanor of the third degree. A court, in addition to any penalty prescribed by law, may prohibit you from acquiring a firearm for a period of six months.
Allows PA state police to” legally” create and maintain a database of stolen firearms. It prohibits any law enforcement agency to create, operate or maintain any registry of firearm ownership.
This legislation was resoundingly defeated in ‘Committee of the Whole” and defeated again as an amendment to HB 1845.
HB 30 - Assault Weapon Ban, prohibition, registration, penalties (Amend 18 Pa.C.S.)
INTRODUCED BY FRANKEL, D. EVANS, BISHOP, WHEATLEY, YOUNGBLOOD, COHEN, BENNINGTON, GERBER, JAMES, MYERS,STURLA, WILLIAMS, CRUZ, CURRY, GALLOWAY, JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, LEACH, M. O'BRIEN, PASHINSKI AND ROEBUCK
This is an extremely bad bill. It will make it illegal to possess a huge number of common firearms now owned and used by NRA competitive shooters and many other law abiding gun owners in PA. This bill makes the following unlawful:
1) To own, use, possess or sell an unregistered “assault weapon”.
2) Any accessory such as any detachable magazine over 10 rounds, barrel shroud, folding stock, thumbhole stock, telescoping stock, muzzle break or muzzle compensator. These parts described above are defined as “conversion kits”. Possession of conversion kits or components carries the penalty of first degree felony.
3) To keep your “assault weapon” you MUST register it with the state police every year, pay a registration fee every year and undergo a complete background check every year. You will be required to safely and securely store “assault weapons” pursuant to regulations. You will be legally permitted to use the “assault weapon” only on your property or duly licensed firing range.
When transporting an “assault weapon,” you will only be allowed to travel directly to and from certain locations (without intermittent stops) and with special storage requirements.
Your registered “assault weapon” will have zero resale value, as you will be banned from selling, trading or transferring it. Someone will be allowed to inherit it provided they comply with all the above requirements within 30 days. The only way to dispose of your “assault weapon” will be to turn it over to the state police for destruction or permanent disabling so that it is incapable of discharging a projectile. Note: the state police will be allowed to perform a compliance inspection at your home once a year to ensure that you are not violating any provision of this law. If you are found in violation, the penalty is a third degree felony.
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HR 35 – Study new technologies to identify firearms used in crime.
INTRODUCED BY JOSEPHS, D. EVANS, COHEN, BISHOP, BLACKWELL, CALTAGIRONE, CURRY, FRANKEL, JAMES, KULA, MANDERINO, MELIO, M. O'BRIEN, PARKER, SONNEY, J. TAYLOR, WILLIAMS, YOUNGBLOOD AND DONATUCCI
This will require investigating new technologies that are designed to equip firearms with a microscopic array of characters that identify the make, model and serial number of the firearm on the empty cartridge when fired.
A huge expensive database will have to be created to pay for this experiment – siilar schemes in other states have proven to be ineffective at reducing crime.
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HB 73 – Cruelty to animals, live pigeon shoots prohibited (Amend 18 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY SHIMKUS, CARROLL, BUXTON, CURRY, JOSEPHS, LEACH, ROEBUCK, SIPTROTH, BENNINGTON, BISHOP,CASORIO, DePASQUALE, FRANKEL, WALKO, MANDERINO, MELIO, MYERS, M. O'BRIEN, TANGRETTI, CRUZ, COSTA, VITALI,FREEMAN, CIVERA, COHEN, STURLA, CALTAGIRONE, MAHER, PRESTON, KULA, YOUNGBLOOD, W. KELLER, PAYNE, ROSS,SAMUELSON, RUBLEY, SWANGER AND MUNDYThe groups that are supporting banning live pigeon shoots have publicly stated that this legislation is the beginning of the animal rights move to eliminate private shooting preserves and paint ALL hunting and fishing pursuits as cruelty to animals.
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HB 277 - Ballistics ID of Bullets & Mandatory Use of Trigger Locks.
INTRODUCED BY BISHOP, BLACKWELL, CURRY, DONATUCCI, FRANKEL, JAMES, JOSEPHS, MELIO, PARKER, SOLOBAY, WILLIAMS, YOUNGBLOOD AND MYERS, FEBRUARY 6, 2007
Again, another terrible bill. Every handgun except antique models shall be equipped with a trigger lock. No handgun may be sold or transferred unless a digitized or electronic image of its fired bullet and shell casing is placed in a qualified database along with make, model, caliber, serial number and ballistics identifier.
Other states have implemented similar programs with no reduction in crime and no appreciable increase in crimes being solved with this added information. A huge waste of our taxpayer money! Anyone who sells or has the intent to sell or transfer a handgun without a ballistics identifier will be subjected to a civil penalty of $7,500 to $15,000 and a fine from $500 to $1,000 for each handgun. Since criminals typically don’t buy handguns from dealers, this merely creates another burden for the law-abiding citizen attempting to purchase or sell a firearm. Note: These identifiers are easily rendered useless through the intentional alteration of parts or over time, with use and wear of the firearm yet still it is sold to the public as a crime fighting bill.
Once again, this is another intrusive law that imposes a greater burden and increase in the prices of firearms for the honest citizen and violates his constitutionally protected rights. And it is yet another proposed law that does nothing to prevent a criminal from illegally using a firearm.
HB 291 – Handgun Safety, Testing & Certification; providing for implementation of personalized handgun requirements and forfeiture of certain handguns.
INTRODUCED BY YOUNGBLOOD, CRUZ, THOMAS, CURRY, WATERS, BISHOP, PARKER & JOSEPHS
This bill creates a new “safety standard” of “smart guns” (guns personalized to a specific user) that can be fired only by the authorized user or users. Four years after the adoption of this safety standard bill, all non-compliant handguns become contraband and may not be sold, offered for sale, traded, or transferred, or possessed by you, under the penalty of a felony of the third degree. Additionally, such handguns may not be sold, offered for sale, traded, transferred, shipped or leased or distributed by dealers after four years from the adoption of this bill.
In the simplest of terms, if the bill becomes law, whether the practical technology to manufacture a “smart gun” exists or not, all other handguns will be illegal to possess, own, sell or transfer. There will be no compensation for the taking of your private property. However, as it will be a crime to own a “dumb” handgun, your property will be worthless. This is another bill that makes criminals out of law abiding gun owners with no focus on criminals that happen to use a firearm to commit crime.
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HB 452 - Amends Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) further providing for persons prohibited from possessing, using, manufacturing, controlling, selling or transferring firearms and for the PA State Police.
INTRODUCED BY FRANKEL, CALTAGIRONE, COHEN, CURRY, JAMES, KULA, MELIO, SWANGER AND YOUNGBLOOD,
This legislation requires that mental health providers notify the State Police of voluntary commitments.
This violates privacy and doctor - patient confidentiality and works against the public interest by discouraging people from seeking mental health treatment.
HB 485 –Firearms and ammunition, limitation on regulation (Amend 18 Pa.C.S.)
INTRODUCED BY WILLIAMS, BISHOP, CALTAGIRONE, DONATUCCI, JAMES, JOSEPHS, MYERS, M. O'BRIEN, PARKER, THOMAS,W. KELLER AND HENNESSEY,This is a very bad idea. It would allow a first class city, to have a firearms enforcement commission with the Authority to establish their own firearm laws without the requirement of being uniform throughout the state!
In effect any first class city can regulate the following and more:
1) Sales of firearms, and additional waiting periods & background checks
2) Possession of firearms or ammunition
3) Gun club firing ranges and the discharging of firearms
4) Sales and transfers of firearms and ammunition or components
5) Storage of firearms and ammunition
6) Possession, carrying, or “manner of carrying” of firearms reasonably in
zones surrounding schools, playgrounds, universities, colleges, bars or other places of
general public accommodations.
7) Ownership, possession, transfer, and transportation of so called assault weapons.
(See HB 30 for assault gun definition)
An individual’s constitutional right can be taken away by one simple majority vote on a referendum question! In short this would open the door for every form of gun control that any anti-gunner could ever think of. Even worse, it can be enacted anywhere in the state. This would be a costly legal nightmare for gun owners in PA, to comply with the possibility of hundreds of local laws, not to mention that the laws can differ depending on which locale you reside in or travel through.
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HB 608– Child Firearm Safety Lock
INTRODUCED BY WATERS, BISHOP, BLACKWELL, DALEY, JAMES, W. KELLER, KIRKLAND, MELIO, MICOZZIE, MYERS,PARKER, PERRY AND YOUNGBLOOD
This legislation will make it illegal to maintain firearms in a condition where they may be used for self defense.____________________________________________________________________________
HB 760 – ALL Firearms Registration Act.
INTRODUCED BY CRUZ, YOUNGBLOOD, PARKER, WHEATLEY, BENNINGTON AND CURRY
1) You are required to register all of your firearms with the PA state police, other than machine guns or “antique firearms”.
DEFEATED BY GUN OWNERS -- 2007
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HB-957 - Possession or use of certain firearms prohibited in this Commonwealth, offense defined, grading, "five-seven pistol" defined (Amend 18 Pa.C.S.)
INTRODUCED BY CRUZ, YOUNGBLOOD, KING AND JOSEPHS,
This will ban the possession or use of a” five-seven pistol" or any pistol that fires the ammunition in the caliber of 5.7mm. Possession is a third degree felony.
This cartridge is used in rifles and pistols and has ballistics similar to the ancient .22 Hornet.
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HB-1198 - Illegal Firearm Task Force Program
INTRODUCED BY J. TAYLOR, KENNEY, BARRAR, BLACKWELL,CAPPELLI, FRANKEL, GOODMAN, HARPER, HENNESSEY,JAMES, W. KELLER, KILLION, KIRKLAND, LEACH, LENTZ, McGEEHAN, MICOZZIE, MURT, MYERS, D. O'BRIEN, O'NEILL,RAYMOND, ROSS, STABACK, STURLA, VEREB, WATSON AND YOUNGBLOOD
This chapter provides for the creation of the Illegal Firearm Task Force Program. The Office of Attorney General would provide resources (5 million in fiscal year) and direct grant money prioritized to cities with the greatest number of firearm homicides. In other words the big cities like Philly and Pittsburgh would get almost all of the resources.
The purpose is to establish illegal firearm task forces to investigate firearm theft, illegal firearm sales, transfers and possession. All of these activities are illegal already, so what is the purpose to investigate them?
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HB-1478 - ($10 Instant Check FEE Increase) Firearm Sale Surcharge
INTRODUCED BY D. EVANS, BLACKWELL AND PRESTONAn additional $10 sales tax is charged for the transfer of firearms to be deposited into the Pennsylvania Instant Check System records funds. The sponsor and co-sponsors of this legislation are ALL TOO EAGER to raise the cost of gun ownership to law abiding citizens but cannot be found when it comes time to raise the cost of committing crime for criminals. Note: the federal instant check system will do the same background check at no cost! The PICS system from 1998 to 2008 has already cost taxpayers in the last 10 years over 130 million dollars. From the PICS records 1998-2004 a total of 57,283 people that were prevented from the transfer of firearms for a variety of reasons. Strangely during the same time period only 1,181 people were arrested, and out of that, ONLY 637 were successfully prosecuted. So much for the “being tough on crime” rhetoric.
HB-1536 – Further prohibitions on the sale or transfer of firearms
INTRODUCED BY McGEEHAN, BLACKWELL, BRENNAN, CRUZ, JAMES AND LEVDANSKY
All firearm sales will be delayed for an additional 48 hours unless the purchaser or transferee has completed a firearm safety education program approved by the PSP commissioner.
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HB-1633 - First Class City Firearms Registration Act
INTRODUCED BY CRUZ, YOUNGBLOOD, BLACKWELL, JAMES AND THOMAS
This bill is very similar to HB 760 except no $10 tax is charged per firearm and, it only applies to residents of first class cities. Any non-resident owning “unregistered” firearms being transported through their jurisdiction must have these firearms broken down into a “non-functioning state”, or unloaded & enclosed in a case during transportation. Any registered firearm unless in a person’s immediate possession and control must be unloaded, disassembled or bound by a trigger lock or similar device.
Note there is no provision for LTCF permit holders (unless defending your life) that could be classified as a lawful recreation purpose within the city limits.
See HB 760 for reasons why this bill is a just on more from a long line of bad ideas, all of which do nothing at all to address the crime control problem.
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HB-1745 – Extra 2% tax on Firearms and Ammunition sold in PA
INTRODUCED BY JAMES, YOUNGBLOOD, JOSEPHS, CURRY, KIRKLAND, MYERS, THOMAS AND WILLIAMS
Extra 2% tax on firearms and ammunition sold in PA. How does this stop crime?
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HB-1746 - First Class City Firearms Restriction Act
INTRODUCED BY THOMAS
Authorizes first class cities (Philadelphia) to impose extra restrictions on purchase, sale and possession of firearms. With this law in place they could outlaw the possession of any firearm, or impose any other restriction that could be dreamed up, with a stroke of a pen.
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HB-1758 - The illegal Firearm Local Control Act
INTRODUCED BY THOMAS
Allows municipalities to enact their own firearm laws with restrictions on purchase, sale and possession without any regard to state law. See HB 485 for reason why this is another really bad idea
HB-1927 – Sale or Transfer of Firearms - Amends title 18 section 6111
INTRODUCED BY O'NEILL, BARRAR, BRENNAN, CALTAGIRONE, CARROLL,CRUZ, CURRY, CUTLER, GEIST, GINGRICH,GODSHALL, HERSHEY, KENNEY, KILLION, MANN, McILHATTAN, MICOZZIE, R. MILLER, MILNE, MURT, NAILOR, PICKETT,QUINN, REICHLEY, ROSS, RUBLEY, SABATINA, SANTONI, SCHRODER, SIPTROTH, SONNEY, STURLA, SWANGER,THOMAS AND YOUNGBLOOD
This is already illegal under federal and state law. This bill amends (title 18 section 6116) relating to unsworn falsification to authorities. Anyone convicted for violating this section commits a third degree felony.
As a side note; Supreme Court has ruled that previously convicted criminals cannot be prosecuted for violating this section, because it’s a violation of their constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment (self incrimination). See Haynes vs. US 1968
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HB-1966 - Extra 1% tax on Firearms and establishing Violence Reduction Fund
INTRODUCED BY PAYTON, COHEN, JAMES, JOSEPHS, LENTZ, McGEEHAN, M. O'BRIEN, PARKER, SIPTROTH, STURLA,THOMAS, WHEATLEY AND YOUNGBLOOD
An extra 1% tax on the purchase price of firearms, and all tax monies collected will go to the PSP to assist local police forces with programs to reduce violence. It could be used to fund local anti-gun programs, or highly popular and illegal “gun buy back” programs, or for any type of “reduce violence” scheme that local police deem fit-use for the money.
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HB-2168 – False reports to Law Enforcements Authorities
INTRODUCED BY WILLIAMS, BLACKWELL, CIVERA, CREIGHTON, DePASQUALE, JAMES, JOSEPHS, KENNEY, McGEEHAN,MELIO, MURT, D. O'BRIEN, PRESTON, SABATINA AND FRANKEL
Making a false report regarding lost or stolen firearms to law enforcement authorities is considered a misdemeanor of the first degree. If the report is made during a declared state of emergency it will be up graded to a third degree felony.
For example, IF you were one of the victims of hurricane Katrina and police came to illegally confiscate your firearms, you are posed with a moral dilemma; do you just roll over and give them up or do you lie?
What we need passed is HB 1145. This would prohibit the Governor in time of disaster or emergency from the seizure, taking or confiscation of lawfully possessed firearms or ammunition.
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HB-2224 - illegal Transfer of Firearms - Amends title 18 section 6111.1 (k)
INTRODUCED BY D. O'BRIEN, PRESTON, SABATINA AND FRANKEL, GINGRICH, HELM, JOSEPHS, W. KELLER, KILLION,McGEEHAN, MELIO, MICOZZIE, R. MILLER, MURT, MYERS, M. O'BRIEN, REICHLEY, MICOZZIE, R. MILLER, MURT, MYERS,M. O'BRIEN, REICHLEY
Authorizes PA State Police to compile, analyze, and use the information sent to PSP as part of the Pa Instant Check System for the application of transfer or sale of firearms. This would legalize the illegitimate firearms ‘record of sale’ database that the PSP currently retains on Pennsylvania gun owners.
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HB-2228 – Encoded Ammunition Act
INTRODUCED BY MYERS, M. O'BRIEN, McGEEHAN, THOMAS, PARKER, JOSEPHS, FRANKEL, KENNEY, YOUNGBLOOD,W. KELLER, MELIO, WATERS, WILLIAMS, WHEATLEY, KIRKLAND, JAMES, BLACKWELL, ROEBUCK AND OLIVER
1) All ammunition sold or possessed must have a unique serial number on the base of the bullet, a matching number on the cartridge casing, and your ammunition purchase will be registered with the PA state police.
2) The seller of ammunition must collect and submit all of the following information to the PSP for use in their database::
- date of each ammunition purchased
- serial numbers of all ammunition purchased by you
- your driver license number
- Your name
- Your birth date
- any other additional information the PSP deemed as necessary.
3) You will fund this ammunition database, containing your personal information, with an extra .05 cents tax for each round of encoded ammunition purchased. The outside each box of is labeled with the name of manufacturer and a list of all serial numbers of ammunition contained within the box.
4) Everyone is required to dispose of all ammunition that is not encoded, by Jan 1, 2010. The penalty is not spelled out for possession of un-coded ammo; however the default on any un-graded offense in the Uniform Firearm Act is a first-degree misdemeanor. Therefore, firearm ownership would be prohibited upon the conviction of possessing a single round of un-coded ammo. Are we to think that won’t ever happen in PA? Currently there are people in New Jersey serving one year of jail time for each hollow point in their possession!
5) Anyone that willfully destroys or renders the encoded information unreadable commits a misdemeanor of the third degree. If you get sentenced to one year in jail, you loose your right to own firearms.
6) There is nothing in this act that lets you hand load or reload your own ammunition. If you want to load your own ammunition you must obtain a federal license to engage in the business of manufacturing ammo, therefore requiring you to comply with all the numerous federal laws and regulations. This includes paying your yearly Special Occupation Tax along with all provisions required of this act just to reload ammo. Are you ready to be made into a criminal? All of this, to allegedly solve a crime, which career criminals routinely, gets plea-bargained down.
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SB 48 - Assault Weapon Ban, prohibition, registration, penalties (Amend 18 Pa.C.S.)
INTRODUCED BY WILLIAMS, AND KITCHEN
See HB 30 FOR REVIEW, it’s very similarly worded. This is another extremely bad piece of proposed legislation that does nothing to focus on existing criminal behavior.
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SB-49 – Firearm tracing title 18 section 6127
INTRODUCED BY C. WILLIAMS
Any firearm recovered from a person under 21 years of age, for illegally possession of firearm, shall be traced to attempt to find out how they gained possession. This law puts the burden on local law enforcement to trace the information and report to PSP for their registry of these firearms.
There is no provision in this legislation to return stolen firearms to rightful owners.
Yes you read that last sentence correctly. Right now stolen firearms confiscated by police spend more time locked up than the thieves that stole them do, especially if they are under 18.
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SB-291 – Constitutional Convention
INTRODUCED BY FERLO, FONTANA, RAFFERTY, GREENLEAF, O'PAKE, PIPPY, EARLL, BROWNE, BOSCOLA AND BRUBAKER
A Constitutional Convention is intended to address certain defects in governmental operations OR to rewrite the entire form of government in accordance with the delegates selected by the political powers that be extant at the time of the call for the convention. Proponents of this concept see this as the best way to reform government without fully investigating what is at fault now. Reducing the size of government is more about shrinking the bureaucracy and NOT in shrinking representation, which is the eventual goal of proponents in PA. The TRUE problem with PA government is a lack of accountability and responsibility for ones’ actions.
Some proponents state that a constitutional convention can be controlled and yet every constitutional scholar flatly states that no controls can be effective over delegates to this process as it is out of the hands of legislators at that point.
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SB-701 - Sale or Transfer of Firearms - Amends title 18 section 6111 (g) (2)
INTRODUCED BY GREENLEAF, WASHINGTON, RAFFERTY, COSTA, BOSCOL, O'PAKE, TARTAGLIONE AND C. WILLIAMS
This amends title 18 section 6111(g)(2)by raising the penalty in existing law for licensed firearm dealers who illegally transfer firearms from a third degree to a second degree felony.
It also adds a new section of law (6111.6 Straw Purchases). With the presumption of you being guilty unless you can prove you are innocent. Any firearm, absent a stolen police report filed by the original purchaser or a record of lawful transfer after the date of purchase, found in possession of anyone other than the original purchaser is under the presumption that the original purchaser made a straw purchase then illegally transferred the firearm. Violation of this section is a second degree felony to be imposed on the original purchaser. The only other exemption is for firearms purchased with the intent they are going to be given as bona fide gifts to another individual. (Such as transfer of firearms from parent to child or grand parent to grand children)
This new section of law also legalizes the Pennsylvania State Police desire to create, retain and maintain a database related to all handgun information, transferred, sold or amount purchased by a person or licensed dealer / manufacturer in PA – existing statute to the contrary.
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SB-1038 - Persons not to possess, use, manufacture, control, sell or transfer firearms (Amend 18 Pa.C.S.) 6105 (c), (f), 6105.1 (a), 6109 LTCF permits (c), (e), (i.1), 6111.1(f), (g)
INTRODUCED BY WASHINGTON, FONTANA, KITCHEN, TARTAGLIONE, C. WILLIAMS AND HUGHES,This bill makes numerous changes in the existing laws dealing specifically with prohibiting firearm ownership to anyone ordered to undergo involuntary mental health treatment on a “out patient” basis.
Involuntary mental health commitment has been abused in the past by Pennsylvania law enforcement in an attempt to cover up their mistakes.
This bill possibly could make a whole new class of prohibited persons in PA with no real proof of any problems that now exist in current law, without addressing real abuses to the misapplication of mental health laws now on the books.
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SB-1042 – Limit on handgun purchases and sales in Cities of First Class - Amends title 18 section 6111.6
INTRODUCED BY WASHINGTON, KITCHEN, TARTAGLIONE, STACK AND C. WILLIAMS,
Creates a new section of law 6111.6 in title 18 and is very similar language to HB 22 or SB 1043.
This will mandate that no one can purchase more than one handgun per 30 day period in cities of the first class (Philadelphia). See SB 1043 for the right questions to be asked before enactment of this ill conceived proposed bill should be brought up for a vote.
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SB-1043 - Limit on handgun purchases
INTRODUCED BY WASHINGTON, FONTANA, STACK, TARTAGLIONE AND C. WILLIAMS
Creates a new section of law 6111.6 in title 18 and is very similar language to HB 22 or SB 1042.
This will mandate that no one can purchase more than one handgun in any 30 day period.
This legislation will mandate that no one could buy more than one handgun per month. It will, of course, require a massive database of gun owners’ personal information to make it operational. This has been tried in other states with no reduction in crime. Maryland and Virginia have it and Baltimore and Richmond have higher homicide rates than Philadelphia. South Carolina was the first state to adopt gun a month and was the first state to abandon this failed idea. This bill would also affect municipal regulation of firearms and ammunition.
Right now straw purchasers break the existing laws with impunity, and only get caught because they do so many the sheer number of them they leave an easy to follow paper trail right back to them, sad fact is when finally caught they are not aggressively prosecuted provided by law. People who sell firearms unlawfully can be charged with the same crime that the buyer used the gun for and face similar civil liability.
What this bill will most certainly create is a new expensive administrational bureaucracy to oversee this program. It will, of course, require a massive database of all gun owners’ personal information to make it operational. This has been tried in other states with no reduction in crime. Again, the taxpayers and gun owners would be burdened with paying for the upkeep of this database registration system. This bill also creates a new anti-gun bureaucracy called the Violence Prevention Fund.
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SB-1150 - Cruelty to animals, live pigeon shoots prohibited (Amend 18 Pa.C.S)
INTRODUCED BY BROWNE, COSTA, DINNIMAN, WASHINGTON, GREENLEAF, KITCHEN, BOSCOLA, D. WHITE, HUGHES,RAFFERTY, A. WILLIAMS, MUSTO, C. WILLIAMS, TARTAGLIONE AND FERLO,The groups that are supporting banning live pigeon shoots have publicly stated that this legislation is the beginning of the animal rights move to eliminate private shooting preserves and paint ALL hunting and fishing pursuits as cruelty to animals. See HB 73 for similar proposed legislation.
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SB-1171 – Firearms not to be carried without a license Amends title 18 section 6106 (a)
INTRODUCED BY FUMO, TARTAGLIONE, STACK, KITCHEN, A. WILLIAMS, HUGHES AND WASHINGTON
Upgrades section 6106 with Increased penalty with a one year mandatory sentence imposed.
Anyone who carries a firearm in their vehicle, concealed carry or open carry on their person without a License To Carry Firearm permit outside of their home or fixed place of business commits a third degree felony and upon conviction must serve a mandatory one-year minimum sentence. If you have no criminal record and are eligible to posse a License To Carry Firearm permit (but don’t for whatever reason) and has not committed any other criminal violation still constitutes a first degree misdemeanor and must serve mandatory one-year minimum sentence. With either conviction you are prohibiting from owning any more firearms, even if there is no criminal intent on your part.
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SB-1205 - altering or obliterating marks of identification
INTRODUCED BY HUGHES, WASHINGTON, KITCHEN, FUMO, TARTAGLIONE, A. WILLIAMS, C. WILLIAMS AND STACK
These changes would give police the ability to destroy any confiscated firearms when the legal owner can’t be located after a “reasonable” time of only 120 days. It modifies title 18 sections 6111(c) and 6111.1 (b), 6117. This bill prohibits any law enforcement agency to sell or transfer any confiscated firearm, which is commendable. The bad thing in this bill is this: It only requires the police to make a “reasonable” effort to find the legal owner of any confiscated firearms before they are destroyed. Conveniently absent from this bill is the definition of “reasonable effort”.
This bill also creates a new section 6117.1 relating to destruction of confiscated firearms: this would create a confiscated firearm database, and specific methods and procedures for the destruction of confiscated firearms, including making that “reasonable” effort to find the legal owner and failing to identify the lawful owner of the destruction process. The only exception is a stay of destruction if the confiscated firearm is evidence pertinent to an on going investigation or in a criminal prosecution or civil litigation. As soon as that is completed all confiscated firearms not claimed by their lawful owners will be destroyed.
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SB-1213 - Mandatory Firearms Registration in First Class City Act
INTRODUCED BY TARTAGLIONE, WASHINGTON, KITCHEN, A. WILLIAM, FUMO, HUGHES, FONTANA AND C. WILLIAMS
This bill is very similar to HB 760 except no $10 tax is charged per firearm and, it only applies to residents of first class cities. Any non-resident owning “unregistered” firearms being transported through their jurisdiction must have these firearms be broken down into a “non-functioning state”, or unloaded & enclosed in a case during transportation. Any registered firearm unless in a person’s immediate possession and control must be unloaded, disassembled or bound by a trigger lock or similar device.
Note there is no provision for LTCF permit holders unless (defending your life) that could be classified as a lawful recreation purpose within the city limits.
See HB 760 for reasons why this bill is just more of a long line of bad ideas, all of which do nothing at all to address the crime control problem.
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SB-1214 – Registry for lost or stolen, failure to report, State Police duties (Amend 18 Pa.C.S.)
INTRODUCED BY TARTAGLIONE, WASHINGTON, KITCHEN, A. WILLIAMS, FUMO, STACK, HUGHES, FONTANA AND C. WILLIAMS
This bill is very similar to HB 29. It requires any owner or other person lawfully in possession of a firearm who suffers the lossor theft of a weapon shall report the facts and circumstances to the police department having jurisdiction within 24 hours of the discovery.____________________________________________________________________________
SB-1215 - Sale or Transfer of Firearms - Amends title 18 section 6111 (g) (5) & (6)
INTRODUCED BY KITCHEN, TARTAGLIONE, HUGHES AND FUMO
This amends 6111 (g) (5) & (6) in regards the sale or transfer of firearms. In Ohio and in many other states, it is legal to sell a firearm to another person without using a dealer to facilitate the transfer. In Pennsylvania, since 1995, private transfers are illegal unless you go through a dealer. In Pennsylvania if you sell to a person whom you have reason to believe intends to use firearm unlawfully, the seller is liable for the same criminal and civil penalties as the person who uses the gun in a crime. This is one of the strongest deterrents against private sales to persons with known criminal intent. This legislation removes the “reason to believe” language, so that if a person sells handgun to his brother, who is not a criminal, but years later the brother uses the gun in a crime, the seller can be convicted of the same crime. This tramples Blackstone’s concept of culpability and replaces it with an Orwellian concept of the ministry of justice.
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SB-1217 - Firearms not to be carried without a license Amends title 18 section 6106 (a)
INTRODUCED BY A. WILLIAMS, WASHINGTON, McILHINNEY, KITCHEN, TARTAGLIONE, COSTA, LAVALLE AND WOZNIAK
This legislation allows the state to confiscate vehicles and vessels if a passenger is carrying a firearm unlawfully. And prohibits the owner from filing a claim in court for return of his property.
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SB-1228 – Restrictions License To Carry Firearms in First Class City
INTRODUCED BY A. WILLIAMS, C. WILLIAMS, TARTAGLIONE, HUGHE, WASHINGTON AND KITCHEN
This legislation would roll back the clock and allow Philadelphia to return to the days when only the politically connected could get a license to carry a firearm. Everyone else is left with two uncomfortable choices, either be a (government disarmed) victim of the criminals or illegally carry a firearm for self defense and take your chances not to be caught as a victim of a unjust law.
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Only YOU, by your active involvement, can stop these gun owner’s nightmares from becoming law.
West Mifflin Borough Council Rejects the Installation of Metal Detectors-
Complies with the Law
On January 20 at a public hearing before Council the issue of the installation of metal detectors and the discrimination against law-abiding citizens carrying concealed firearms finally came to a head. With dozens of pro-gun activist in attendance, Council heard from Greg Rotz and Kim Stolfer as to the lack of authority for council to enact a law of this kind as well as the possible ramifications for this action. In addition the justification laid out by Council President was laid bare when the shooting in Missouri was exposed as philosophically bankrupt because state law already prohibits the carrying of firearms in government buildings in Missouri. It also came as a shock to those in attendance to find out that two police officers were murdered in cold blood and there are service weapons used to carry out the criminal act.
Former state representative Richard Olasz, who is now a Council member, took immediate action at the end of testimony and brought forth a motion to terminate consideration of the metal detector. This motion was voted on and approved with the Council President voting against dropping the matter.
This was another example of a cooperative effort between numerous grass-roots pro-gun groups within Pennsylvania. Working together we can have a decided impact and the of special merit and recognition should be the assistance of Greg Rotz, Rich Banks, Mike Christeson and numerous gun owners from the Allegheny County Sportsmen’s league and Pennsylvania Open Carry Association.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=88218
Federal licensing, registration bill introduced
by Dave Workman, Senior Editor
A bill that would require the licensing of all handgun owners and anyone who owns any semi-automatic handgun, rifle or shotgun that accepts a detachable magazine has been introduced by an Illinois Democrat.
The bill would also set up a federal registration system for all transfers of these so-called "qualifying firearms." Perhaps the most ominous part of the bill is that it defines "qualifying firearm" as "any handgun; or any semi-automatic firearm that can accept any detachable ammunition feeding device; and does not include any antique."
Gun rights activist David Codrea has labeled Rep. Bobby Rush's HR 45, the "Blair Holt Firearms Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009" a "declaration of war on American gunowners."
HR-45 was introduced into the House of Representatives in early January, just days after the 111th Congress convened. Rush (D-lst District), who was in 1968 a co-founder of the Illinois Black Panther Party and a member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, is the lead sponsor.
According to Sharon Jenkins, Rush's director of National Media Relations and Marketing, "It's a simple, straightforward law enforcement measure that would require every gun manufactured or sold in America to have a 'gun identification number' (GIN) similar to what's currently required for American automobiles (VIN-Vehicle Identification Number). It does not prohibit or in any way limit consumers' Second Amendment rights ft)" gun ownership."
Named in memory of a heroic Chicago high school student who shielded the body of another student on a bus when a gunman boarded and opened fire, the bill would require private citizens to apply for a firearm license to the Attorney General, and pass a test on safe handling and storage of firearms, the use of firearms in the home and risks associated with such use, and the legal responsibilities of firearms owners, including a knowledge of federal, state and local laws. Each citizen applying for a gun license would have to open his mental health records to the Attorney General "or an authorized representative" and also submit a current passport-sized photograph with their name, address and the date and place of their birth.
This license would carry a number "unique to each licensed individual," and be renewable every five years. The license can be revoked.
It would require owners of "qualifying firearms" to report any change of address within 60 days of the move, and it would also be a violation of law to not report loss of a firearm to the Attorney General within 72 hours after the loss or theft is discovered.
There is also a section relating to child safety, and it also provides for heavy fines and imprisonment for violations of the act.
Under the Rush bill, it would be illegal to sell, deliver or transfer a firearm to anyone who is not licensed. In addition, nine months after the date of enactment, this legislation requires the Attorney General to establish and maintain a federal record of sale system that would log every firearm transfer conducted in the United States that is processed by a federally licensed firearms dealer.
It also eliminates the prohibition on gun registration that is now a part of federal law.
There is an exception for "the infrequent transfer of a firearm by gift, bequest, intestate succession or other means by an individual to a parent, child, grandparent, or grandchild of the individual, or to any loan of a firearm for any lawful purpose for not more than 30 days between persons who are personally known to each other."
There was no immediate indication from the Obama Administration whether it would support this measure.
Codrea sent out a blog on the proposed legislation that suggested the bill would ,leap to "the front burner" if there is just one shooting in a "gun free zone."
Under Rush's legislation, the Attorney General would create regulations that specify procedures for submission of gun license applications. These applications would be made through licensed dealers or federal agencies.
The license fee "shall not exceed $25."
As word of the licensing scheme spread across the Internet, gunowners reacted with both indignation and defiance.
Rush issued a "fact sheet" on the legislation in which he claimed that "The purpose of this bill is to restrict the availability of firearms to criminals, youth and gang members."
He further argued that "No sensible individual can argue with the fact that with over 200 million guns in the United States, we need a uniform system to keep track of these weapons." The New GUN WEEK, February 15, 2009
Pittsburgh City Council Passes ‘Illegal’ Gun Ordinance-Legal Action Unavoidable
Pittsburgh City Council has passed an ordinance – Mandatory Reporting of Lost or Stolen Firearms - that is in direct conflict with PA Crimes Code (statewide preemption law—Title Section 6120).
The City legislators have been trying to help Cease Fire PA and anti-gun state representative Dave Levdansky pass this measure in the state house without success this past spring. Now the council members have acted in flagrant disregard of the law, the home rule charter, prior court orders and even the advice of their own solicitors in enacting ‘Mandatory Reporting of Lost or Stolen Firearms’ as a city ordinance with only one ‘no’ vote-Councilman Burgess.
Prior to the enactment of this ordinance the City Council held a ‘post-agenda’ hearing where the ACSL participated and gave testimony and stood for questioning by council members. During the course of this hearing it became clear that ‘NO’ amount of logic or reason would dissuade Councilmen Shields or Peduto from prostrating public policy at the feet of Cease Fire PA and their willingness to commit criminal acts in pursuit of this agenda.
It is also a fact that criminals who misuse firearms in this state do not fear being prosecuted for violations of the Pennsylvania Uniform Firearms Act because they know that that is the first thing that will be plea-bargained away. Of course City Council is, apparently, unconcerned with those problems or in going after career violent criminals and that is exactly what the vote on this ordinance demonstrated—political demagoguery.
As part of my testimony at the post-agenda meeting I mentioned the Boston Gun Project and the success that they had in stopping youth firearms homicides for 29 months. Councilman Burgess stated for the benefit of the media that Council was doing everything in its power and ‘turning over every stone’ to stop the killings. Yet nothing has been done in the last decade to bring to Pittsburgh, until very recently, this kind of a project. My question to all of council is ‘why’?? If Councilman Shields, as well as the rest of council, were truly concerned about gun violence then success stories like Boston should have been fast tracked into action!
In addition the City of Pittsburgh has twice before ignored state law, subsequently successfully sued by the ACSL and then told by Common Pleas Court (Judge James) to ‘abide by state law’ and ordered to, in effect, cease and desist. These issues involved Council’s enactment of an Assault Weapon Ban and, later, their active participation with Janet Reno’s U.S. Justice Department to register and track ‘every’ gun owner in western PA in a sophisticated computer database.
In a rude and disrespectful display of political arrogance, Councilman Burgess sent a letter to Kim Stolfer (Chairman of the ACSL Legislative Committee) explaining that he recognized the ‘illegality’ of the proposed ordinance and would have voted for it if he could. Instead of stopping there, Councilman Burgess went on to ‘challenge’ Kim Stolfer to a public debate on handguns and then scoffed at the likelihood of our participating in this debate. The letter from Burgess was distributed to local media on Thursday and Kim Stolfer did NOT receive his copy until Friday morning after the media contacted him numerous times.
Interestingly, the written reply to Burgess to accept his challenge as well as rebut his unfounded and insulting points resulted in the Tribune Review following up with story on the merits of our accusations and positions. You can read more at this link -- http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_602272.html
As of this writing, Councilman Burgess and Kim Stolfer will be squaring off on the Kevin Miller show on KDKA radio (1020-AM) on December 19th at 2p.m. The debate will be a lively one to be sure!
The fact of the matter is that barring a selfless and ethical act on the part of the Allegheny County DA (Zappala) arresting and incarcerating ‘all’ of the council members who voted for this, the City of Pittsburgh is facing a guaranteed legal action against their actions.
West Mifflin Borough Installing Metal Detectors and They Say NO to CCW
The borough of West Mifflin has been contacted by the legislative committee, as well as a number of other groups and individuals interested in this issue, to ascertain exactly what they plan to do with the installation of metal detectors and to inform them that denying individuals the ability to enter Council chambers is a violation of law, the home rule charter, the Ortiz decision, and court precedent in Allegheny County pursuant to the court order issued against the city of Pittsburgh.
While this contact has resulted in a number of articles written about this particular issue, the response from West Mifflin borough has been complete silence. No attempt to communicate in any fashion has been forthcoming therefore a small group of gun owners is planning to attend the borough council meeting on January 20. Early indications are that they are going to try to muzzle gun owners and individuals who would like to speak at this meeting from talking due to the apparent publication of articles where in legal challenges to their authority were mentioned.
This is an ongoing and developing problem that we will be following and dealing with at each turn.
More to come on this as well!
Pittsburgh Mayor Passes on ‘Illegal’ Gun Ordinance-Legal Action Pending
The city of Pittsburgh is now in violation of the Pennsylvania crimes code, the home rule charter, the Ortiz Supreme Court decision and a 13-year-old Allegheny County Court order. The passage of the legislation "mandatory reporting of lost or stolen firearms" and the failure of Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstall to take a principled stand against these violations of the law and court orders clears the way for legal action to, once again, put the genie back in the bottle and force government to comply with the law.
Wow, what a novel idea!
Wouldn't it be nice if there was a prosecutor or judge who was willing to stand on principle and seated Councilman arrested for the crimes they have committed?!
After the above transpired Kim Stolfer was challenged by the only opposition to this legislation, Councilman Rick Burgess, to do a live debate on the radio show hosted by Kevin Miller on KDKA radio. Kim Stolfer responded swiftly with a three-page response to the innuendo and misstatements of the Councilman as well as accepting the challenge to debate him anywhere anytime. As the date for the debate approached it became apparent that KDKA radio was going to make some changes to their broadcast schedule and that Kevin Miller was going to be replaced and as a
result of this the Councilman chose this as an opportunity to cancel the debate. A curious man would wonder why this particular radio talk show host was so important to the Councilman that no substitutions were possible.
The end result is that we are in the planning stages of putting together a legal challenge to the lunacy that seems to run unchecked within City Hall.
More to come as circumstances develop.
Obama's AG pick Holder has long anti-gun history
by Dave Workman, Senior Editor
Eric Holder, the man chosen by president-elect Barack Obama to be the next attorney general of the United States, has an anti-gun track record that has gun rights activists alarmed, not only about the man, but about the signals that Obama is sending about how his administration will actually deal with gun rights.
Within hours after Holder's nomination was announced, activist Internet forums were busily discussing his background, with ample documentation.
Prominent among those was the transcript of Holder's weekly briefing on March 20, 2000, when he was deputy attorney general under Janet Reno during the Clinton Administration. At that time, he went on record urging Congress to pass legislation
requiring handgun licensing and "safety certification" for all handgun buyers, and a federal law mandating trigger locks on all handguns that are sold. He also pushed for adoption of "smart gun" legislation that would explore technology ultimately resulting in the development of firearms that could only be used by a single individual.
Before that, he had lobbied Congress to pass federal legislation requiring background checks on all gun show transactions, even between private parties.
Holder was one of several people who signed an amicus brief in the Heller case that supported the Washington, DC, handgun ban and also argued that the Second Amendment did not affirm an individual civil right.
Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, said Holder's nomination to become this nation's chief law enforcement officer "tells American gunowners that Obama's campaign claims supporting the Second Amendment were empty rhetoric."
"America's 85 million gun owners have ample reason to be pessimistic about how their civil rights will fare under the Obama administration," Gottlieb said. "Mr. Obama will have a Congress with an anti-gun Democrat majority leadership to push his gun control agenda. Gunowners have not forgotten Mr. Obama's acknowledged opposition to concealed carry rights, nor his support for a ban on handgun ownership when he was running for the Illinois state senate."
Gottlieb told Gun Week that it is no small wonder there was a rush on gun shops all over the country immediately after the election.
With Holder, he indicated, there is a concern that the Justice Department might be lethargic about protecting the rights of gunowners. He also said that Holder's addition to the Obama team is another signal about the direction that the new administration is going to tilt when it comes to gun rights versus gun control.
"Barack Mama vigorously portrayed himself on the campaign trail as a man who supports gun ownership," Gottlieb said, "but now that he has won he is surrounding himself with people who are avowed gun prohibitionists.” The New GUN WEEK, December 15, 2008
Pennsylvania woman plans suit stemming from open carry issue
Meleanie Hain's attorney says the Lebanon, PA, woman has endured the ridicule of neighbors and lost baby- sitting jobs since she achieved notoriety for openly, and legally, carrying a gun to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game, according to The Patriot-News of Harrisburg.
And it's Sheriff Michael DeLeo's fault, according to a malicious-prosecution lawsuit that civil rights attorney Matthew Weisberg said he planned to file on Nov. 24.
"The sheriff should have known Meleanie had the right to openly carry," the Philadelphia-area attorney said.
Since DeLeo tried to take away her permit to carry a concealed weapon, "she has become a pariah in her small. community," Weisberg said in the newspaper's report.
Hain achieved national attention after she took a gun, holstered on her hip, to a soccer game Sept. 11 at Optimist Park in Lebanon. After some other parents complained, DeLeo revoked her concealed weapons permit, saying she showed poor judgment.
Lebanon County Judge Robert J. Eby reversed the sheriff's decision on appeal during a court hearing attended by about 60 gun rights activists.
Eby also lectured Hain, telling her that what is legal is not necessarily right.
He asked her to conceal her gun if she carried it to soccer games. But Hain said after the hearing that she planned to continue carrying it openly since it is her right under the Second Amendment.
Weisberg said the parents who sent their children to her in-home baby- sitting service knew she openly carried a gun, but didn't care until after the sheriff revoked her license.
"She lost those jobs because of the negativity surrounding her prosecution," he said.
Weisberg said the lawsuit will seek damages for Hain's pain and suffering, as well as money for her attorney fees.
George Christiansen, attorney for the Lebanon County Sheriff's Department, acknowledged he has received a letter from Weisberg about the intention to sue, and he has turned it over to the county's insurance company.
"I don't know the legal basis for the lawsuit," Christiansen said. "Mike DeLeo exercised what the state statute put upon him regarding the issuance of permits. I'm convinced it was a valid judgment call. Everybody can sue anybody for anything."
DeLeo revoked Hain's permit under the Pennsylvania Uniform Firearms Act, which gives sheriffs the right to deny permits to anyone "whose character and reputation is such that the individual would be likely to act in a dangerous manner to public safety."
"I just did my job," DeLeo told the newspaper. "The courts have ruled, and we respect that ruling." The New GUN WEEK, December 15, 2008
Local communities challenge the enforcement of Pennsylvania law
In what appears to be a coordinated effort a number of local communities are feeding off the anti-gun antics of the Philadelphia city Council and Mayor by introducing their own legislation mandating the reporting of lost or stolen firearms. This is being done in the shadow of the decision by Commonwealth court that there is no authority for any community to make these decisions.
The fact that they are prohibited from enacting these ordinances by Pennsylvania title 18 crimes code subsection 6120 but also the home rule charter seems to fall on deaf ears even though each community retains their own solicitor who was supposed to advise them on the legality of their efforts.
These efforts appear to be headed for a showdown in the Supreme Court and more will be coming out in the near future about additional efforts to confront these clearly illegal policies.
2008 Election-Gun Owners Eye Results-Many Confused on Candidate Positions
In what many foresee as a rough road ahead the outcome of the 2008 elections, nationally and within the state of Pennsylvania, has many gunowners and sportsmen deeply concerned.
The election of Barack Obama and his selection of members of his cabinet leave little room for doubt that gun owners will be squarely in the crosshairs of the new administration. In fact during the course of the campaign President elect Obama stated on NPR radio that he believes in a national ban on the carrying of concealed firearms for self-defense.
The following items appear to be on the short list for consideration within the next 100 days of the administration:
Ø "Making the expired federal assault weapons ban permanent." Perhaps no other firearm issue has been more dishonestly portrayed by gun prohibitionists. Notwithstanding their predictions that the ban's expiration in 2004 would bring about the end of civilization, for the last four years the nation's murder rate has been lower than anytime since the mid-1960s. Studies for Congress, the Congressional Research Service, the National Institute of Justice, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found no evidence that gun prohibition or gun control reduces crime. Guns that were affected by the ban are used in only a tiny fraction of violent crime-about 35 times as many people are murdered without any sort of firearm (knives, bare hands, etc.), as with "assault weapons." Obama says that "assault weapons" are machine guns that "belong on foreign battlefields," but that is a lie; the guns are only semi-automatic, and they are not used by a military force anywhere on the planet.
Ø "Repeal the Tiahrt Amendment." The amendment--endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police--prohibits the release of federal firearm tracing information to anyone other than a law enforcement agency conducting a bona fide criminal investigation. Anti-gun activists oppose the restriction, because it prevents them from obtaining tracing information and using it in frivolous lawsuits against law-abiding firearm manufacturers. Their lawsuits seek to obtain huge financial judgments against firearm manufacturers when a criminal uses a gun to inflict harm, even though the manufacturers have complied with all applicable laws.
Ø "Closing the gun show loophole." There is no "loophole." Under federal law, a firearm dealer must conduct a background check on anyone to whom he sells a gun, regardless of where the sale takes place. A person who is not a dealer may sell a gun from his personal collection without conducting a check. Gun prohibitionists claim that many criminals obtain guns from gun shows, though the most recent federal survey of convicted felons put the figure at only 0.7 percent. They also claim that non-dealers should be required to conduct checks when selling guns at shows, but the legislation they support goes far beyond imposing that lone requirement. In fact, anti-gun members of Congress voted against that limited measure, holding out for a broader bill intended to drive shows out of business.
Ø "Making guns in this country childproof." "Childproof" is a codeword for a variety of schemes designed to prevent the sale of firearms by imposing impossible or highly expensive design requirements, such as biometric shooter-identification systems. While no one opposes keeping children safe, the fact is that accidental firearm-related deaths among children have decreased 86 percent since 1975, even as the numbers of children and guns have risen dramatically. Today, the chances of a child being killed in a firearm accident are less than one in a million.
The items listed above in addition to the ban on concealed carry of firearms are ones most likely to be subject to early legislative efforts.
Congress:
Across the country a small but not insignificant number of pro-gun Congressman incumbents have lost their seats to dedicated anti-gun individuals. Here in Pennsylvania Congressman Phil English was unseated by a woman who is an avowed enemy of the Second Amendment.
Pennsylvania:
Gun owners and sportsmen lost a small number of pro-gun votes but did pick up several seats that would otherwise have gone against us in legislative areas. More will be coming out on these races but at this time the final results have not been determined and several campaigns are being challenged.
DEP SECRETARY REMINDS PENNSYLVANIANS TO STAY OUT OF MINES, QUARRIES
‘Stay Out – Stay Alive’ Program Highlights Dangers of Active, Abandoned Mines
The idle equipment, steep cliffs, serene pools of water, and mysterious shaft openings of active and abandoned mines can be alluring for adventure seekers, but many times are deadly, according to Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty.
The secretary visited an abandoned strip mine in Joffre today that is less than 10 feet from the Pan Handle Trail—a popular recreation spot in the community—to warn residents to stay out of mines, quarries and abandoned mine lands because of the many dangers these sites can hold.
“There are thousands of abandoned sites just like this across Pennsylvania with steep cliffs, hidden underground mine openings and dangerous water bodies,” said McGinty. “Mines are not safe places for swimming, exploring or off-road riding. When you venture into these sites, you put your life and the lives of emergency personnel who conduct the search and rescue operations at risk.”
McGinty’s remarks kicked off the 2008 “Stay Out - Stay Alive” campaign to warn people about the dangers of trespassing in mines and quarries.
Since 2000, 31 people have died trespassing in mines and quarries in 19 Pennsylvania counties. The U.S. Mine Safety and Heath Administration (MSHA) reports that 249 people have died nationally during that same period.
To combat this problem, DEP has partnered with MSHA, other mining states and the mining industry to promote the Stay Out - Stay Alive program.
“Pennsylvania has been blessed with great mineral resources, and mining has been a cornerstone of our economy for more than 200 years, but the unregulated mining practices of the past have left us with one-quarter million acres of dangerous and deadly mine lands,” said McGinty. “Every year we hear of more tragic accidents: swimmers drowning in abandoned water-filled pits where water temperatures drop dramatically just below the surface; people entering abandoned mines or dilapidated structures and getting lost or trapped; and all-terrain vehicle riders breaking through brush on the crest of an old mine site and rolling down a hillside.
Be safe this summer. Mines and quarries are not playgrounds; they can kill you. Stay out and stay alive.”
DEP recently began airing 30-second radio and television messages across the state as part the campaign to underscore the dangers of abandoned mine sites and quarries. The department conducts educational programs for community groups and distributes Stay Out - Stay Alive information to those receiving hunting and fishing licenses through the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Fish and Boat Commission. The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources also distributes Stay Out – Stay Alive information with all off-road vehicle and snowmobile registrations and to users of state parks and forests. Additionally, DEP works with state and local police and emergency responders to identify and limit access to dangerous sites. Pennsylvania has the largest abandoned mine lands problem in the country. Approximately 1 million Pennsylvanians live within one mile of a dangerous abandoned mine, while active mining operations are found in all but one of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
Since 2003, Governor Edward G. Rendell has committed more than $145 million to 240 abandoned mine reclamation projects across Pennsylvania, turning more than 6,100 acres of dangerous wasteland into opportunities for economic growth and improved quality of life.
“The $625 million Growing Greener II initiative allocates $60 million to clean up rivers and streams affected by abandoned acid mine drainage and reclaim dangerous sites.
Governor Rendell was instrumental in persuading Congress to reauthorize the Abandoned Mine Lands Fund for another 15 years. The federal program, which is funded by a tax on modern mining activities, will direct $27.6 million to Pennsylvania during 2008 to reclaim abandoned coal mines.
For more information on abandoned mine reclamation, or to view the public service announcement, visit www.depweb.state.pa.us, keyword: Stay Out Stay Alive.
Source: PA DEP
Prepare for Fall with the GreenScapes Seasonal Planner
GreenScapes has developed a Seasonal Planner (PDF) (2 pp, 1MB) to help you garden sustainably throughout all the seasons. Fall is just around the corner and The GreenScapes Seasonal Planner reminds you of how your gardening practices should change from Summer to Fall, so that you don't have to keep track of it all yourself. Learn how to save energy, water, and time maintaining your lawn, as the weather cools and the leaves start to fall. We encourage you to share it with friends and colleagues.
Source: U.S. EPA
- House Passes DC Gun Rights Legislation
- by Dave Workman, Senior Editor
-
- Voting 266-152, the House of Representatives with 181 Republicans and 85 Democrats in the majority passed a bill from which the original language was stripped and in its place was substituted strong pro-gun language authored by a freshman Democrat from Mississippi.
The "National Capital Security and Safety Act" was passed
- despite a last-minute effort by the District of Columbia City Council to amend its own restrictive handgun registration regulations before Congress stepped in and took over gun regulation in the city.
- The city had originally adopted an ordinance allowing the
- registration of only revolvers, while still banning semi-automatic
- handguns and requiring trigger locks. The high court ruling in the
- Heller decision specifically noted that requiring trigger locks, to
- prevent the gun from being used until it is required for self-defense, is unconstitutional.
- Some 50 Democrats signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, authored by Mississippi Rep. Travis Childers, that became the substitute language of the original HR 6842, which had been introduced by anti-gun Washington, DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. She subsequently ended up opposing the measure with her name on it, even though as a delegate to the House,
- she cannot vote.
- The bill, which still must pass the Senate and be signed by
- President George Bush, removes semiautomatic firearms from the
- District's long-standing definition of a machinegun. It also strips
- authority from the city council to regulate gun ownership, including a requirement that firearms be registered. The legislation also allows District residents to purchase handguns in neighboring Virginia and Maryland, while allowing the possession of unregistered firearms.
- The city's effort to head off this House bill included a similar
- provision allowing semi-autos and removing them from the definition of "machinegun," according to The Washington Times. The city's ordinance still limits magazine capacity to 10 rounds.
- The House measure, which had the support of the National Rifle
- Association, was in direct response to the deliberately complicated regulations initially adopted by the city after it lost the landmark
- Heller case that struck down the city's handgun ban. Not only did
- those first regulations enrage gunowners all over the country, they angered pro-gun members of Congress in both parties.
- However, passage of the legislation in the House does not guarantee the bill will become law. What the vote did accomplish was give several Democrats from conservative districts the ability to campaign as pro-gunners in tight races.
- That much was recognized by the Second Amendment Foundation, which cautioned Democrats against feeling too smug about touting this single vote.
- "Those Democrats are fully aware that chances of this bill getting
- through the Senate during this session of Congress are virtually nil," said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb, "but this issue gave them a chance to cast a pro-gun vote they can brag about on the campaign trail.
- You can bet your gun collection that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will block a vote on this."
- Gottlieb also blasted the District council for essentially creating the problem and then scrambling to provide a fix before Congress stepped in.
- He lauded the House for having "rightfully assumed responsibility for enforcing the Second Amendment in our nation's capitol city."
- However, he was far less cordial to five Washington state Democrats who all voted against the bill. The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms took to task Reps. Dicks,
- McDermott, Inslee, Larsen and Smith, all of whom joined a majority of Democrats to oppose the measure. In all, 145 Democrats and 7 liberal Republicans voted against the bill. The New GUN WEEK, October 15, 2008
ALERT!!!!
Allegheny County Sportsmen's
League, Inc.
Pennsylvania Sportsmen’s Association
October 2, 2008
EMERGENCY ACTION REQUEST: H.B. 1845 Needs Your Help to Move it Out of Committee and onto the Floor for a Senate Vote
Fellow gun owners and sportsmen:
The amended House Bill 1845 passed the House and the Senate Judiciary Committee but has remained bogged down in the Senate Appropriations Committee where it will die and ALL of our hard work will be LOST unless you act quickly. It is important to point out that law enforcement supports this amended Senate version as does the PA District Attorney’s Association.
The pro-gun initiatives are included below:
- Prohibits DNCR from
undermining state law. (originally
House Bill 1292)
- This bill clarifies that the DCNR cannot continue to pass regulations that undermine state firearms laws. Without this legislation, the DCNR will continue to deny the lawful possession of firearms
-
- by concealed carry permit holders and off duty law enforcement officers in PA state parks.
- Prohibits government from
confiscating Firearms or Ammunition from Citizens during a disaster
(such as happened to law abiding homeowners after the Katrina hurricane)
(originally
House Bill 1145)
- This bill prohibits the Governor and other government officials from using an emergency as pretext to confiscate firearms, ammo or firearm accessories from citizens just when they need them.
- There are currently no specific protections against this kind seizure of firearms in Pennsylvania law.
- Provides for the emergency issue of a License To Carry Firearms (valid for 45 days) with a letter from law enforcement or a police report. (House Bill 1160 as amended by AO9226)
- This bill authorizes the issuance of immediate temporary non-renewable concealed carry license to qualified individuals who are in imminent danger. This license will be issued, by the Sheriff in the County of residence, only after the individual provides evidence of imminent danger. As amended by AO9226, this bill has the support of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association. The PCADV (PA Coalition Against Domestic Violence) sent a letter to the Senate asking them to remove this amendment from the bill, citing the Kellerman Studies as justification. The PCADV forgot to mention that the Kellerman Studies were reviewed and discredited by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and the NAS (National Academy of Sciences).
- Open Records. This
will enable a citizen to challenge inaccurate criminal history records
information if used to deny the purchase of a firearm (originally
House Bill 1235).
-
- Without this legislation, the procedure for appealing a denial is almost Soviet like in its unfairness. The state police do not have to tell you or your lawyer exactly why they have denied your
- application to purchase a firearm until the moment you appear in court to argue your case. By then it is too late for you and your lawyer to investigate the claims of the state police and prepare a defense.
-
Deepest Appreciation and Thanks For Your Help!!
Legislative Committee, Chairman Legislative Committee, Chairman
Allegheny County Sportsmen's League Pennsylvania Sportsmen's Association
E-Mail -- activist@fyi.net P.O. Box 2227
Website -- www.acslpa.org Cranberry Township, PA 16066
(412) 221-3346, Home Phone psa@pagunlaws.com
(412) 257-1099, Home Fax
Senator Contact Information:
|
Name |
|
Harrisburg-Phone |
Harrisburg-Fax |
|
Gibson E. Armstrong |
|
(800) 235-1313 |
|
|
Lisa Baker |
|
(717) 787-7428 |
(717) 787-9242 |
|
Lisa M. Boscola |
|