The House Democrat Majority leadership carried through on one of their agenda items late Monday afternoon – attacking law-abiding gun owners. There were only a couple of sticking points for the gun-grabbers leading the Pennsylvania House. One of their bills went down to defeat, and the other was pulled back before a vote was taken, presumably for lack of support. These bills will do nothing to enhance public safety and only serve to ensnare law-abiding gun owners.
House Bill 1018 passed on a narrow vote of 102 to 99. Incredibly, this bill provides for “red flags” for simply purchasing a firearm. We highlighted serious due process concerns, but that argument fell on deaf ears.
House Bill 338 was up next, and this bill would threaten prosecution for those who had a firearm lost or stolen and failed to report it. Rather than go after the thieves, House Democrats want to focus their attention on punishing the victims of theft!
House Bill 714 creates Mayor Bloomberg’s “universal” background check and gun registration scheme. This legislation passed by a vote of 109 to 92.
Finally, House Bill 731 is a mandatory storage bill, and it was never brought up for consideration despite being on the calendar.
Interestingly, bill sponsors declined to answer questions about the bills; that was left to the House Majority Leader. One might logically presume the sponsors were simply incapable of defending these infringements.
While this package of bills passed the House, it still must pass the Senate. It is uncertain whether or not the Senate will even bring these bills up, but we are taking nothing for granted. These bills do nothing to enhance public safety and are full of pitfalls for law-abiding gun owners. How do we know this? We are certain because we have seen the results in neighboring New Jersey and New York!
We thank our members for contacting their Representative. It should be noted that one Democrat in the House, Rep. Frank Burns, broke rank with Majority Democrats and voted to support the Second Amendment. Please continue to follow these NRA-ILA alerts for the latest developments, as we work to defeat these bills in the Senate!
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