The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
State Rep Sam Rohrer is asking Pennsylvania residents to sign his petition to oppose any new gun control laws in the Commonwealth. I would ask everyone to do so, if you are from Pennsylvania.
Plus, if my family is to be believed, this guy is a relative of mine. I don’t know him from Adam, but according to them, anyone with a name derived from “Rohr” is somehow related. Good to see I’m not the only gun nut in my “family”.
Kim du Toit, or one of his readers, rather, points to a bill that would bring gun registration to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This bill doesn’t stand a chance, but there’s something everyone in Pennsylvania should be aware of.
The Pennsylvania state police already operate handgun registration in conflict with the Uniform Firearms Act. Â Last year Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard a lawsuit bought against the state police over this section in the Uniform Firearms Act:
Notwithstanding any section of this chapter to the contrary, nothing in this chapter shall be construed to allow any government or law enforcement agency or any agent thereof to create, maintain or operate any registry of firearm ownership within this Commonwealth. For the purposes of this section only, the term “firearm” shall include any weapon that is designed to or may readily be converted to expel any projectile by the action of an explosive or the frame or receiver of any such weapon.
The Supreme Court ruled that the State Police database wasn’t, in fact, a firearms registry, even though they can easily find out what hanguns I own, but merely a record of sale. Because it was created from the sales data the state police collects, and wasn’t a comprehensive registry, it was no registry.
This surprised everyone, including legislators, who were pretty sure they had passed a prohibition on exactly this.  I was told by my state representative that there would be a legislative solution, but it didn’t make it through last year.  My guess is there’s no way it’s going to get past Ed Rendell.
So I hope Kim’s reader will not only write his state represenative and state senator about this registration bill, but ask that the legislature act to end the de-facto gun registry currently being operated by the state police.
I suspect the Governor may be doing right when I see things like this:
Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell’s initiative to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike was instantly panned by the state Turnpike Authority and union workers who operate toll booths on that road. A majority of New Jersey residents oppose Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine’s idea to lease the Garden State Parkway to cut the state’s debt or lower property taxes, according to a January poll.
People from New Jersey, the Turnpike Commission and the toll workers unions are against it? Sounds like it might be worth a try if you ask me. Personally, I’d rather just rip the damned tolls up entirely, but I’m willing to give leasing a try for a bit. They certainly would have a hard time doing a worse job of maintaining the Turnpike than the Turnpike Commission currently does.
Several spurned suitors for a coveted license to operate a gambling establishment in PA are suing to have the deliberations opened up.
The rejected applicants will get a chance to make those points in person on May 15, when the state Supreme Court hears oral arguments on challenges to the slots licenses awarded Dec. 20 by state gambling regulators.
Their arguments were outlined in briefs dozens of pages long filed Monday with the court. Separate confidential briefs were also filed, containing information from the applicant’s files that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has withheld from public view.
The gaming board will have a chance to respond in its own briefs to the Supreme Court, which are due April 23. A spokesman said Tuesday that the agency is confident it will prevail in court.
“The board is sure that the record will support its decisions and that the process used to determine awards was not only designed to assure fairness to all parties, but was applied consistently by us throughout the licensing process,” spokesman Doug Harbach said in a statement.
The record they are so sure is fair that they don’t want to open it to public scrutiny? I smell a rat.
DeNaples, a politically connected businessman with interests in landfills, auto parts and real estate, was repeatedly allowed to skirt rules designed to allow competitors to critique each other’s plans, Matzel’s group said.
Changes to DeNaples’ application continued practically up until the gaming board’s vote, almost a week after the panel was to have stopped considering any new material, Matzel’s group said.
Nothing to see here. Please move along.
Let me just clarify my position on Act 71. The way it stands now, I don’t think it’s acceptable, but I don’t want to go back to just making gambling flat out illegal, nor do I like the folks who are fighting it. The folks coming out against Act 71 are doing it because they think gambling is bad and immoral, at the root. I’m doing it, because I don’t appreciate Ed Rendell using legalized gambling to help line the pockets of his political cronies, and I’d like to see it being done differently so that’s there’s less government and less politics involved in the process.
I’ve never bought Ed Rendell’s justification for passing Act 71; that it’ll bring in enough revenue to offset other taxes. I have no problem with the state taxing gambling, or licensing establishments for gambling, provided the licensing requirements are objective and free from political influence of powerful people. But it was was about revenue for me. I would have been happy with a “because we’re not your fucking parents” justification for liberalizing the commonwealth’s gambling laws.
While I favor the legalization of slots within The Commonwealth, commonly referred to Act 71, I don’t really appreciate the fact that Ed Rendell seems to be using the act to pay off political favors:
Boyd Gaming Corp and its partners submitted an application to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board late December 2005 to open a Slots Parlor and high-rise hotel on a 125 acre plot in Limerick, PA, just off the Sanatoga exit of Rte. 422 and adjacent to an outlet mall proposed by Chelsea Property Groups. A major partner to Boyd in this proposal is David Sweet, the former campaign manager for Gov. Rendell. The site for the proposed casino is not currently zoned for such a use.
Now, I don’t agree with the folks I linked to that Act 71 ought to be repealed. I think it needs some reform, but I do favor gambling being generally legal, so I think it’s a step in the right direction. The problem with the act is, there’s not enough protection to keep politicians like Governor Rendell from milking the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for their own benefit.
My proposal would be getting the gaming control board out of the business of approving casinos. They should be licensed the same way liquor establishments are, and whether they ought to be approved for zoning left up to the local communities. I’d like to see the GLCB merely implementing regulations and taxes on gambling establishments as authorized by the state legislature. Anything more is going to invite cronyism.
State Representative Paul Clymer, who wants to be everyone’s mom and dad, whether you asked for it or not, seems to have other pet issues that involve treating responsible adults in our Commonwealth like well cared for children:
Although Governor Rendell has signed legislation legalizing 61,000 slot machines in Pennsylvania, Clymer continues to lead an anti-gambling coalition in the Commonwealth. Made up of legislators, church, community and pro-family groups, the coalition seeks to have some oversight on casino gambling and is also working to repeal the gambling bill.
This is from his very own web site. OK folks, pay attention, because this will be one of those rare moments when I have something nice to say about Governor Rendell: he was right to loosen restrictions on gambling in Pennsylvania, not because they will pay for all the programs he wanted, or because they’ll pay for property tax relief. It’s clear now he was full of crap on that count. No, Governor Rendell was right to loosen restrictions on gambling because there’s no good reason for adults to be told how they can and can’t spend their own money. If the state can tax it and regulate it, why the hell not? Any extra money flowing into the treasury is welcome, and if people have a good time doing it, it’s a win win situation.
Representative Clymer should spend less time fighting Ed Rendell about how grown adults choose to spend their money and spend more time fighting Ed Rendell on his rampant tax and spend policies, his support for gun control, and support for a massive health care overhaul that will be damaging to businesses in the Commonwealth.
… to the list of Pennsylvania politicians who can go to hell. Why?
A bill introduced last week in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives would mandate that every car sold in the state be equipped with a breath testing device. State Representative Paul I. Clymer (R-Bucks County) insists that every motorist must prove that he is not drunk before starting a vehicle. Clymer’s proposal would require that, by 2009, all new cars sold in Pennsylvania have a device installed to estimate the amount of alcohol on the breath of a driver. If the machine believes the driver’s BAC is greater than .025 percent — significantly less than the legal limit of .08 percent — the car will not start.
So does that mean that Paul Clymer will give me a ride to work or pick me up on days when the interlock device decides to read a false positive, as they are prone to do sometimes? Paul Clymer obviously has no respect for the citizens of this Commonwealth, as he apparently believes we are all, even those of us who are responsible drinkers, or who don’t drink, such a risk to become drunk drivers that we have to be parented over by the state.
If Pennsylvania wants to retain educated young professionals, which everyone keeps saying we’re doing a sorry job of these days, then they need to make this bill die a very quick death, because it’s so bad, I’d likely leave the state over it, and go to a place like Arizona that treats people more like adults. If you live in Representative Clymer’s district, I urge you to vote against him in the next election, or if you’re a Republican, unseat him in the primaries. You deserve better representation than this.
Hat Tip: Nobody’s Business
Ed Rendell is crapping all over Keystone State gun collectors again:
Speaking on a day when Philadelphia recorded its third gun killing in 24 hours, Rendell said that if lawmakers’ terms were limited, they might be less fearful of the gun lobby and more likely to support a long-stalled proposal to limit handgun purchases to one a month.
“That law should be passed,” Rendell said. “No one who is sane and rational would vote against one handgun a month.”
I guess I’m crazy them, because as a collector, this law will affect me. And I still ask “How is this going to help things?”. They’ve been completely unable to demonstrate that this kind of straw purchasing is a major source of crime guns. Straw purchasing is already illegal, and multiple gun sales are tracked by the ATF and County Sheriffs. If we’re not going after these types of gun traffickers now, how is adding an extra law going to help anything?
I should also point out that term limits will ensure that Ed Rendell does not serve a second term as Pennsylvania’s governor. I guess they are useful for something then.
h/t: Jeff Soyer
The Pittsburgh Penguins have become the latest sports franchise to hold the state of PA hostage so they wouldn’t have to get their own financing for a new arena. Today, Gov. Ed Rendell announced a deal that would keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh. The Penguins had threatened to leave to Kansas City, MO if they could not secure a new arena when their lease with the 40 year old Melon Center expires at the end of this hockey season. In this new deal, the Penguins will get help from PA slot parlor revenue.
A Pennsylvania law signed last year allowed for a certain number of slot parlors to be built in the state. A percentage of the revenue from the slot machines will go towards reducing property taxes. Another portion of the revenue is slated for other economic stimulus projects. However, there is absolutely no evidence that a stadium provides any sort of economic boost. In fact, studies have shown that, on average, they reduce workers’ incomes by $47 per year. Further more, a 2004 study showed that teams never need help in financing the stadiums. The stadium generate enough revenue to cover construction costs and more.
People can try to spin this, saying that it’s slot machine money and not taxes that will go towards financing the arena. I contend that with Pennsylvanians looking down the barrell of a 1% increase in the state sales tax and other ills such as our crumbling transportation infrastructure and our awful inner city crime rate, the slot machine revenue could be put to better use than helping to keep hockey, a second-rate sport, in Pittsburgh. I also contend that slot machines are just another tax, one that disproportionately affects the poor – you don’t see people with a lot of money habitually gambling at slot parlors.
Lastly, Mario Lemieux completely disrespected the people who paid money to watch him play for the Penguins during his career. The Penguins have some of the best attendance figures in hockey, and it’s a sham that he would even consider giving up standing room only crowds 17,000 strong to play rent free in front of 7,000 “fans”.