Pennsylvania: Time Changed for Hearing on Proposed Anti-Gun Bills!

Please Contact the Members of the House Judiciary Committee IMMEDIATELY!

The Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee has changed the time of tomorrow’s meeting to consider three anti-gun bills.  These bills will have a disastrous effect on the Second Amendment rights of Pennsylvania’s law-abiding gun owners.  The Committee is now scheduled to meet tomorrow, Tuesday, November 20 at 11:00 am in Room 140 of the Main Capitol Building. This meeting is being held at the special request of Governor Ed Rendell (D), who will be testifying and urging members to pass some of the most onerous firearm restrictions in the state’s history, including a “one-gun-a-month” gun rationing scheme, a requirement that individuals report lost or stolen firearms, and overturning Pennsylvania’s preemption law.

• House Bill 18, sponsored by State Representative Dwight Evans (D-Philadelphia), would permit local municipalities to place further restrictions on the sale, possession, carrying, and use of firearms by gutting Pennsylvania’s preemption law.  State preemption regulating firearms was enacted by the legislature to avoid the possibility of thousands of separate firearm laws across the Commonwealth.  Without preemption there would be countless local firearms laws, making compliance impossible for law-abiding gun owners. In addition, this proposed legislation may also be in conflict with Article 1, Section 21 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania which states "The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned."
  
  
• House Bill 22, “one-gun-a-month” legislation, sponsored by State Representative John Myers (D-Philadelphia), will prohibit law-abiding citizens from purchasing more than one handgun at a time, and impose a 30-day waiting period between single handgun purchases.
  
  
• House Bill 29, “Lost or Stolen Firearms” legislation, sponsored by State Representative Jewell Williams (D-Philadelphia), would make it a crime to fail to report the loss or theft of a firearm to police within 24 hours of discovering the firearm missing.  This proposal would criminalize victims of crime and is ineffective.