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2A Hearing in Harrisburg
May 25, 2021 @ 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
MOST IMPORTANT!!!!!
If you can be in Harrisburg this Tuesday May 25th, PLEASE attend! If not, at the very least, contact your Representative, and the House Judiciary Committee members, and ask them to support HB 659 (constitutional carry) and HB 979 (strengthen preemption)!
These are two Bills that are NOW on the table in PA, that if passed would strengthen our ability to protect our GOD given Right to Keep and Bear Arms in PA!!!
Important Message from Kim Stolfer, President of Firearms Owners Against Crime:
This coming Tuesday May 25 at 10 AM (rm 140 of the capital building) the Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee will meet to consider two incredibly important 2Apieces of legislation that we have been working on for years, HB 659 (constitutional carry) and HB 979 (strengthening preemption). We are going to go over each bill below but now is the time that we need your help to reach out and contact members of the house Judiciary committee and your own state legislator to ask them to support both bills.
Contact information for the Pennsylvania house Judiciary can be found at this link: https://foac-pac.org/PA-House-Committees and then click on the tab for Judiciary committee.
Constitutional Carry (HB 659): Sponsor-Rep. Aaron Bernstine
Click here for the FOAC Constitutional Carry Fact Sheet: Here
Constitutional Carry is by definition the ability of law-abiding citizens to carry a firearm without a restriction (licenses/permits) in place by the Government. In Constitutional Carry States, there are no licensing or training requirements to legally carry a firearm.
It may seem somewhat odd that there is no government required training to carry a weapon, and I can understand why some could consider this as dangerous. However, in the States that have adopted Constitutional carry (20 thus far), there hasn’t been any increase in violence or firearms accidents. Vermont is one of the safest states in the Union.
On the subject of the ‘Sky is Falling’ Arguments from anti-gun groups, one of their claims is that, once again, we’re going to see “blood in the streets”! There have been a number of studies done, over the last three decades, on concealed carry and whether or not it has any impact on crime rates, especially murder. The majority of those studies have shown that there is generally a decrease in numerous types of violent crime from rape to homicide. Now there is new research through the academic study available at this link: Prof. Moody, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3850436 showing the weaknesses in past anti-gun studies and the importance of armed self-defense to a safer society.
There are many aspects to the importance of removing government impediments from the lawful carrying of firearms that rarely if ever get factored into the discussions on important public policy and this is where we come in because we can engage with our local legislators to bridge the gap and knowledge and understanding.
Below are links to Dr. Lott’s testimony to other states legislatures on Constitutional Carry:
Kentucky – 2019 (signed into law)
Tennessee – 2021 (signed into law)
Texas – 2021 – Senate / House Conference Committee
Louisiana – 2021 – Legislature
To be clear, concealed carry laws have never stopped a criminal from carrying without a license. All they do is prevent law abiding citizens from carrying a firearm. Concealed carry licensing systems can easily prevent people from carrying a firearm to protect themselves as we have seen in many states, especially Pennsylvania, over the last year and ½ due to COVID 19. They also leave people vulnerable during the often-long and unpredictable PICs process applying and being approved.
Another often ignored aspect of the licensing process is that for some lower-income individuals and families, it can be nearly impossible to miss two days of work to apply and pick up ones license along with the costs associated with parking in an urban area. When you take into account that lower income families are more likely to be the victims of a violent crime this is even more insane.
Another important component of HB 659 is that it will fix the horrible transportation of firearms laws that we maintain now and that have led to so many unintentionally violating and being prosecuted for transporting firearms who did not have a license to carry concealed firearms. Section 6106 of title 18 is horribly punitive and restrictive and this legislation would fix that and protect gun owners from unintentionally violating the law.
So, constitutional carry is just what its name implies: the full guarantee to carry a firearm within the exact wording of the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
As we have seen, confusion and manufactured controversy surround this guarantee throughout the nation, with ideological and passionate opinions for and against constitutional carry causing ongoing division. Even with the stark differences in opinion, constitutional carry is guaranteed by the Constitution and, even more so, if we believe in a safer society then the records show that of the top 10 safest states in the nation, 6 are Constitutional Carry states with 4 of the top 5 being Constitutional Carry.
Strengthening PA Firearm Preemption Law – HB 979 – Sponsor Rep. Matt Dowling
Click here for the FOAC Preemption Fact Sheet: Here
As I’m sure you know, Pennsylvania has a firearms preemption law (title 18, section 6120) that makes it a crime to pass a local gun law. FOAC continues to be in court defending that law when the district attorneys of the Commonwealth won’t. Neither Harrisburg nor the city of Pittsburgh nor the city of Philadelphia have faced any kinds of criminal sanctions for nakedly violating this section of law.
The basic concept is that there must be uniformity in any type of restriction on a constitutional right, it’s called the equal protections clause of the Constitution.
Anti-gun groups continue to commit criminal conspiracy by advocating for local officials to pass their own local gun laws and do whatever they want (today’s flavor is “lifesaving gun ordinances”) but the fact of the matter is until this law is either repealed or modified those actions are criminal in nature.
FOAC fights to defend preemption because we have seen what happens in other states where there is a patchwork quilt of laws and we feel it is critically important to maintain these protections.
HB 979 would reimburse anyone who legally challenges local gun ordinances (and is victorious in court) for their legal fees and expenses. It is a very simple concept and every local ordinance that has ever come before the courts has always been struck down except for a couple of poorly challenged legal efforts on ordinances regarding the mandatory reporting of lost or stolen firearms.
Please do everything you can to help us see this legislation moves through the Judiciary Committee in the house and to the floor for a full vote. You may be wondering if the outcome is a foregone conclusion because of the nature of Gov. Wolf to be in the back pocket of the anti-gun groups. The fact that a matter is, we need to put legislators on the record on this legislation and then if he does veto the bill, we need to push for veto override and that is something we will be doing should that happen.
For a number of reasons, veto overrides are often more difficult to obtain than the original votes suggest. Legislators may wish to go on record as voting for something, knowing the governor will veto it. Then they vote to uphold the veto. There is also party loyalty involved. Many are unwilling to override a veto of a governor of their party.
It is still a good strategy to attempt a veto override of a governor of the opposite party. It shows the base you are serious; it shows principle on the part of the legislators.