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.
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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,
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.