Category: Pennsylvania

NRA has a list of who did and who didn’t vote in favor of the gun control bills before the House Judiciary Committee this morning.

Please contact the members of the House Judiciary Committee TODAY and thank those that voted “No” to these anti-gun measures. Also, please contact those committee members that voted “yes” and ask them why they voted to restrict the rights of Pennsylvania’s law-abiding gun owners.

I agree, it’s important to follow up with the legislators. It’s important to let our allies know their support is appreciated, and to let our foes know we’re paying attention. Follow the link to get contact info, and to find out how house members voted.

UPDATE: Looking back at my predictions, there were a few surprises:

Representative Chelsea Wagner (wow, she may be in favor of gun control, but she’s pretty cute), who replaced NRA A rated Mike Diven, voted against us on both bills.   That’s really disappointing.

Representative Kate Harper voted with us on weakning preemption and against us on one-gun-a-month.  She keeps her C rating for that, I think.  I thought she’d cave to Rendell completely.  Glad I was wrong.

Representative Mackereth I put down as maybe, and she voted with us.  She responded to me:

Please know that I will NOT be supporting HB 18, 22, or 29.  I feel the focus should be placed on prevention programs that have been proven to work rather than band-aid measures that are ineffective.  I am continuing my efforts to focus on crime prevention, while protecting the rights of gun owners.

Good show.  NRA should upgrade her B+ to an A rating.

Representative Bernie O’Neil voted with us on preemption but against us on one-gun-a-month.  That’s disappointing, because he’s from my county.  He’s A- rated.  I might suggest that after this he deserves to lose a whole letter grade and go to B-.

Here’s how the votes came down.

1. HB 18 on weakening preemption.  10 Yeas, 19 Nays
2. HB 22 on rationing gun sales.  12 Yeas, 17 Nays
3. HB 29 on reporting lost/stolen guns.  Tabled

The message: Pennsylvania is an overwhelmingly pro-gun rights state.  I hope Bryan Miller and Ed Rendell enjoy their holidays.  I certainly will spend it savoring their sound defeat.

H.B. 29, the lost and stolen provision, was tabled by the legislature:

The committee tabled a measure that would have required gun owners to report to police immediately any gun that was lost or stolen. Owners could face fines or even jail time if they failed to do so. Mr. Rendell said such a reporting requirement would go a long way toward stopping “straw purchasers,” people without a police record who are paid money by criminals to buy guns for them.

Technically, tabling the bill keeps it alive. Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, who supported all the bills, said there was some concern among some members that a law-abiding gun owner could face jail time if he or she unintentionally misplaced a gun or failed to report a lost weapon to police. He said the bill may be amended and brought up for a vote sometime later.

There’s very little way they could change this bill to make it acceptable to me.  The more protections for lawful gun owners that get put in it, the weaker its usefulness is as a tool to go after people suspected of straw purchasing, and the case for this bill is already very weak.  If someone is guilty of straw purchasing, they should be charged with that.  This bill will always have the potential to punish honest gun owners along with criminals.

We have successfully killed Rendell’s gun controlling ambitions in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the time being.  The “Lost and Stolen”, H.B. 29 was tabled.   The remaining two, H.B. 18 weakning state preemption, and H.B. 22 “One-Gun-a-Month” were outright voted down.

Don’t tell me it’s because our justice system is weak. It’s because there are too many guns out there in the hands of the wrong people, And putting those people in jail is one of the answers, but it is not the only answer.

– Governor Ed Rendell, 11/19/2007

In Ed’s world, the other part of the equation is putting you in jail, which is exactly what his bill on reporting lost and stolen guns will have the potential to do if the innocent gun owner gets caught unaware if this obscure law ends up on the books.

Remember, they want this law to punish people they suspect of straw purchasing, but can’t prove it. You just better hope the authorities never suspect you of being a straw purchaser after someone uses one of your stolen firearms in a crime.  You could be caught unaware like a dolphin in the Governor’s tuna net of a bill.

“To some extent, we need to create a public policy saying we want to cut down on the availability of guns,” Rep. Myers told The Bulletin. “I really can’t even imagine where I would store 12 guns in my house in a year.”

So his goal is to make guns less available to you and me. At least he’s honest. I’ve run afoul of a potential one-gun-a-month law a few times in my life. I’m not interested in seeing that which shall not be questioned be questioned by the likes of Representative Myers so he and every other Philadelphia politician can continue to deflect blame for their own failures.   If that wasn’t enough, the article I got that from has more:

“My bill would tell people that they must be responsible to report their guns lost or stolen,” the bill’s sponsor Rep. Jewell Williams (D-Philadelphia) said. Gun owners “should be thankful” for it, he said, because it will extricate them from liability for paying a victim’s medical bills or punitive damages if their gun was used by another individual.

If my firearm is stolen from me by a criminal, can Mr. Williams explain to me under what theory in a just and fair legal system I would be liable for the actions of that criminal?  I should be thankful to Mr. Williams to be relieved from liability I shouldn’t have in the first place?  Does Mr. Williams believe the victim of the crime is more responsible than the criminal that perpetrated it?

This is what the Philadelphia politicians think of you.  You are lower than a common thief in their eyes.  Give them nothing.   Make some phone calls.

All the state reps on the Judiciary Committee have been contacted.  There are groups in Pennsylvania that are asking folks to show up in Harrisburg, which is a good idea if you can go.  Unfortunately, I cannot.  Other people in my group are out this week, and we’d be down too many people if I were gone, so it’s not an option for me.  I feel like I owe it to everyone to report on this, but I get paid to fix computers, not to blog.

Click here for more information on tomorrow’s events.  This is no time to get complacent.  I understand folks can’t easily make it to Harrisburg this close to the holiday, but try to make it if you can.  But definitely, if you do nothing else, make some phone calls opposing these bills.  It would be a sweet sweet victory, after Governor Rendell has pulled out all the stops, and taken extraordinary steps to go to bat for these bills, we still hand him a defeat.

CQ Press has it’s ranking of most dangerous cities out. Bryan Miller loves to talk about how Pennsylvania’s gun laws are inadequate to helping Philadelphia solve its crime problems, and speaks glowingly of New Jersey’s gun laws.

Philadelphia is ranked 21st. Ahead of Philadelphia on the list of most dangerous cities is Newark, New Jersey, Camden, New Jersey, Baltimore, Maryland. Maryland already has the one gun per month law that Pennsylvania apparently needs so very badly to fight crime. Let’s look at the numbers:

New Jersey Cities with Populations Over 80,000. Crime Rate Per 100,000

City	Violent Crime Rate	Murder Rate
Newark	1011	37.38
Jersey City	1205	9.17
Paterson	1115	10
Elizabeth	710	13.5
Trenton	1504	21.25
Camden	2114	39.96

 

Pennsylvania Cities with Populations Over 80,000. Crime Rate Per 100,000

City	Violent Crime Rate	Murder Rate
Philadelphia	1562	27.72
Pittsburgh	1070	17.25
Allentown	1009	14.94
Erie	539	1.95
Reading	1237	12.36

For all Bryan Millers praise of New Jersey gun control laws, it doesn’t seem to have made New Jersey’s largest cities much safer than Pennsylvania’s largest cities. But I suppose surrendering liberty is worth it if it saves just one life right? It’s for the children after all. Also worthwhile is looking at stats for cities already using one-gun-per-month laws to combat crime:

City	Violent Crime Rate	Murder Rate
Baltimore, MD	1697	43.29
Richmond, VA	1043	38.83
Oakland, CA	1905	36.36

Clearly these cities are in need of more gun control. If it doesn’t work the first eight times you try it, just keep trying!

Melody Zullinger of Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmans Clubs debates Bryan Miller of CeaseFire New Jersey Pennsylvania debate new gun control in Pennsylvania (mp3 podcast) on NPR here in Philadelphia. I have to say, I don’t think Melody made a very good case for our cause. In fact, I think Bryan Miller mopped the floor with her. We have to be better prepared for this kind of thing.

Bryan seems to be big on this “personal privilege” thing. Owning a gun is not a privilege. It’s a constitutional right. Both under the federal and Pennsylvania constitutions. Melody had ample opportunity to turn the tables on Miller, and she dropped the ball every time.

UPDATE: Melody in the comments says:

I won’t deny that I was in way over my head with Miller and I’m sorry I left our side down. When I agreed to be on the program, I had no idea I’d be on with Miller or that it was to be a debate. If I had known so, I would have turned down the offer and tried to find someone else who is a good debater to represent firearm owners.

No hard feelings.  It all worked out the way we wanted in the end.

Great fisking of Governor Ed Rendell’s plans over at Fighting for Liberty.