Category: Pennsylvania

Looks like a bill might finally be introduced, but some have issues, needless to say:

But firearm foes say that the state database includes records that the federal database doesn’t, such as protection-from-abuse orders and 580,000 mental-health records that would prohibit gun ownership. They say that a mere federal check could allow violent or mentally ill people to buy guns, opening the door to such calamities as the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings or the 2011 attempt to kill former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Um, if they can go next door and buy a shotgun or rifle, shouldn’t it be a concern to gun control supporters that there are 580,000 mental health records that Pennsylvania is keeping to itself? It seems to me the solution here isn’t keeping PICS, it’s making sure those records end up in the federal system.

Further, PICS isn’t as inefficient as Krieger claims, Henry said. The state database was operational for 510,000 hours last year, yet experienced problems for just 69.9 hours, or 1.4 percent of the time, Henry said. He said that his bureau plans to add new technology that should erase such outages.

As an IT professional, I’d be utterly embarrassed at 69.9 hours of downtime a year. For a 24/7/365 operation, 99.97 is about what I’d consider to be the minimal target. It’s not hard to go beyond that either. The state is getting 99.20% uptime, if the 69.9 hours is correct, rather than the 1.4% number (which represents 122.6 hours a year, and would be totally unacceptable for that type of operation. 1.4% downtime and it’s time to fire the IT staff).

Of course, the real reason the powers that be will oppose trashing PICS and going with the federal system is because it’ll make it harder for the Pennsylvania State Police to maintain their registry of firearms that should be in violation of state law, but have gotten around by claiming in court that it’s a record of sale, which isn’t a registry. Unfortunately the courts have agreed with this. It’d be nice if the bill could fix the definition of “registry” in state law, so the courts don’t have a lot of weasel room.

UPDATE: A reader points out that PICS is not a 24/7 operation, and they are down outside of business hours. That means the 1.4% is correct, and that’s just pathetic. That’s fire the IT staff time.

Following up on the last post, I think the real importance of HB1523, which will give real teeth to preemption in Pennsylvania, is that it shuts down one avenue MAIG can use to attack us, namely creating momentum for gun control by getting cities and towns to buck preemption. MAIG has been very smart strategically, or at the least very lucky in how they chose to approach the problem.

MAIG’s strategy is actually somewhat of a trap. It would spread NRA very thin to have to get involved in tens of thousands of local races, in order to make a serious effort to get rid of MAIG mayors. NRA has tried some cheap, half-hearted efforts to urge members to get their mayors to quit, but have, so far, and wisely in my opinion, resisted full blown and expensive campaigns against them. The smart counter-strategy to MAIG is to play whack-a-mole with the Mayors; when they run for higher office, swing the mallet on their political ambitions; make MAIG membership a liability for higher office. When MAIG mayors come into the arena where NRA knows how to play the game well, that’s when we whack the mole.

But using small towns and Mayors as pawns in the chess game MAIG is playing was a brilliant calculation, and if it was a deliberate decision on the part of Mayor Bloomberg, I have to hand it to him for the evil genius of it. That strategy also enabled pushing gun control from the local communities up, as long as there wasn’t any consequence to bucking preemption. But NRA, able to wield significant power in most state houses, can counter MAIGs strategy by shutting down this avenue to Bloomberg.

This is the 10,000 foot view of why I think HB1523 needs to be the top legislative priority we have this year. As much as we might like to see some other things as gun owners, from a strategic point of view, HB1523 will counter a major components of MAIG’s strategy, and prevent them from growing as a threat to the Second Amendment.

According to NRA, 13 anti-gun amendments have been filed in attempt to scuttle a bill to strengthen Pennsylvania’s pre-emption law. The House may take it up today.

It will be interesting to see how many get any votes outside of the standard liberal strongholds.

UPDATE: They adjourned until Monday.

NRA reports that the Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee passed the pre-emption bill today by a vote of 19-4. All of the Republicans who voted went in our favor, and six of the Democrats joined them. Politically speaking, the only name that jumps out at me as odd to want to pick a fight on gun rights in 2012 is Rep. Eugene DePasquale. He’s running for a statewide office, though one that NRA doesn’t grade on (to the best of my knowledge).

In the alert, NRA notes that the bill could be on the House floor as soon as Wednesday. They are asking people to call their state representatives to make sure that no poison pill amendments are added to the legislation.

If enacted, House Bill 1523 would help eliminate the need for litigation by gun owners who have been unduly burdened by local ordinances which violate the current state firearm preemption law. Citizens with no criminal intent should not be placed in jeopardy of running afoul of local restrictions they don’t even know exist simply because they have crossed from one municipality to another.

That would be nice. What a crazy concept that citizens won’t bear such a high burden of pointing out that a government shouldn’t be making illegal laws.