The House Speaker has announced there will, in fact, be a voting session before the end of this legislative term. This offers us an opportunity to get Castle Doctrine passed. Please, please, contact your state rep, contact the leadership in the House, and tell them you want this done. See here for contact info.
We are down, but perhaps not out.
Well hot damn!!! People, we need help calling the following people:
– Rep Eachus; call him and ask him to move HB1926 out of the Rules Committee
– Rep McCall; call him and ask him to work with Rep. Eachus on HB1926, and schedule it for a vote
– Call your reps and ask for their support in favor of legislation!!!
Megan’s Law and Castle Doctrine seem like two different subjects to me. If I were an anti-gunner, I would push to have this castle doctrine passed now, and then challenge it on PA constitutional grounds when the Dems have control again.
It seems like it would be better to have a bill that would stand up to a constitutional challenge better. IMHO.
Also take a look for here for the PAFOA’s efforts in this:
http://forum.pafoa.org/pennsylvania-10/114292-hb1926-push-concurrence-vote-nov-8th-page-31.html#post1394151
This bill has passed germane-ness already. Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground are relevant to the bill, because they and Megan’s Law both deal with use of force guidelines in the event of a kidnapping. That’s the common link that makes it relevant.
“Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground are relevant to the bill, because they and Megan’s Law both deal with use of force guidelines in the event of a kidnapping.”
I want this as much as the next guy, but that seems like a bit of a stretch. I’d hate to have a lousy bill now that might now stand up to constitutional scrutiny, instead of a good one later that will.
I think there’s a good argument for germaneness.
Will be calling Eachus and McCall tomorrow morning from work. This is good news, although Fast Eddy will probably lay a turd for us as a parting gift and probably veto Castle Doctrine. But one never knows what surprises lay ahead. I also thought that CD was dead since there were supposedly no more voting sessions in the House. Maybe he’ll come around..but kind of doubt it. I will call a few of my friends that live in Philly proper with me to make sure they call Eachus, McCall and their Reps as well. Read all of the comments in the “Ask our NRA Lobbyist” piece and there are some quite interesting and good comments by ChamberedRound and others in there. In essence, I agree that without NRA in PA we would be up a creek but to the counterpoint is that cooperation with FOAC along with other grassroots groups could be stronger…i.e. a few more “work with your PA Grassroots movements in PA” mailers rather than the “we need more money because your gun-rights are in danger now more than ever…” Sebastian, Thanks for organizing the “Ask our NRA Lobbyist” piece and questions – which had alot to do with CD. Its better to get these things out in the open and present them to NRA rather than contiually getting frustrated with no outlet or seemingly very little outlet at all.
Hopefully, NRA will take these to account and start to change a bit…
I don’t know what PA’s rules are, but I found this in a few interweb explanations of germaneness for the US House:
“If any portion of the amendment fails any of the germaneness tests, the entire amendment is considered non-germane”
I think this bill has the potential to bite us in the ass. It would suck to be bitten by this bill when you’re relying on it to keep you out of prison.
Mike,
– Both HB1926 and the Alloway Amendment which was added to it are Title 18 bills
– Title 18 includes codes for justifiable force, in which preventing and/or stopping a kidnapping/abduction is an affirmative defense for the actor using said force
– HB1926 involves, in part, a modification of existing codes related to kidnapping
– The Alloway amendement modifies the aforementioned use of force codes
I’m not a lawyer, but I believe the link between the use of force codes, kidnapping/abduction, and their relationship via Title 18 to be strong enough to make the Alloway Amendment germane to the bill.
It seems we’ll have to agree to disagree.