Anti-gun Democrat lawmakers in Pennsylvania and pushing forward a handful of measures that would greatly infringe upon the rights of lawful gun owners in the Keystone State. And all five are scheduled to be considered by the House Judiciary Committee very soon.
According to an alert by NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), one measure, House Bill 1593, would mandate so-called “universal” background checks, a holy grail item for gun-ban advocates. Of course, since criminals don’t follow gun laws, the only purchasers that would be subject to the “universal” checks are lawful citizens, who don’t use their guns for nefarious purposes anyway.
“This legislation is ineffective and unenforceable,” NRA-ILA said in the alert. “Instead, it results in more costly, bureaucratic red tape. The Commonwealth’s PICS check is notorious for lengthy delays, denying purchasers who have an urgent need for self-defense.”
Another measure, HB 837, would institute a one-handgun-a-month limit on firearms purchases. Such a gun-rationing scheme has proven ineffective at affecting criminal violence anywhere such a law has been passed. Additionally, several gun rationing laws have been struck down by the courts in recent months.
HB 1859 would create a state “red-flag” law ostensibly to remove guns from dangerous people before they use them to commit a crime. And according to NRA-ILA, these laws are susceptible to abuse, have no repercussions for making false accusations and can be granted with little to no care for the due process rights of gun owners.
Yet another proposal, HB 1866, would ban machine gun conversion devices, which, incidentally, are already illegal under both federal and state law. As NRA-ILA pointed out, the bill uses imprecise “rate of fire” language, which could potentially ban legal, commonly owned hardware such as competition triggers.
Finally, HB 1099 is labeled as “ghost gun” legislation, but according to NRA-ILA, that’s not even what the measure is about. Rather, it attempts to create state law mirroring federal “undetectable” firearms law, but it fails to do, creating additional legal issues.
“This bill is problematic because it would adopt a state statute with language differing from federal law potentially creating problems with interpretation and misapplied enforcement,” NRA-ILA wrote. “HB 1099 also lacks the exceptions present in federal law, leaving law-abiding citizens vulnerable to prosecution.”
Along with being critical of the measures, NRA-ILA also questioned the timing of the measures.
“The timing of this package is yet more proof that their legislative agenda is politically motivated,” NRA-ILA wrote. “These anti-gun politicians continue to blame inanimate objects like firearms instead of holding criminals accountable for their actions.”
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