PA Bill Number: HB777
Title: In firearms and other dangerous articles, further providing for definitions and providing for the offense of sale of firearm or firearm parts without ...
Description: In firearms and other dangerous articles, further providing for definitions and providing for the offense of sale of firearm or firearm parts without ...
Last Action: Referred to JUDICIARY
Last Action Date: Apr 12, 2024
Adams County lawmaker pushes back on latest federal gun control initiatives :: 01/07/2016
An Adams County lawmaker has introduced a bill designed to blunt the impact in Pennsylvania of President Barack Obama's latest executive orders on gun regulations.
Obama on Tuesday unveiled a set of measures that many observers have described as fairly limited in scope, but that are designed in part to apply a finer filter to what gun sales are subject to federal background checks.
Advocates for gun owners' rights, however, have expressed concerns that the president's actions are an executive branch over-reach designed as an end run around a Congress that has refused to strengthen gun control laws.
Rep. Will Tallman, R-Abbottstown, stands with them with his new proposal.
"Our president has taken action by executive order that may infringe on our rights," Tallman wrote in a co-sponsorship memo that went out to his House colleagues Wednesday. "I consider this patently illegal."
Tallman's bill would seek to make enforcement of any of the rules changes announced by Obama illegal for any guns manufactured in Pennsylvania and sold in Pennsylvania.
The state border clauses are important, Tallman said, to keep his bill from violating federal supremacy powers regarding interstate commerce.
While he concedes that that leaves his bill taking a smaller bite out of Obama's proposals, "It's still a bite out of what Obama wants," Tallman said.
Tallman said Thursday he is particularly worried about two aspects of the rules changes announced by the president at a White House ceremony:
A broadening of the definition of who can be deemed a gun dealer, and therefore required to run sales through federal and state background check systems.
While all handgun sales in Pennsylvania are already subject to such checks, private sales of most long runs (rifles, shotguns, etc.) can be concluded here without a background check.
The new federal order seeks to clarify that people maintaining a website to sell guns, use business cards, or who sell guns at a flea market every weekend - among other guideposts - would need to be licensed and run background checks.
Tallman, however, says the order is so vaguely worded that it could become a precursor to universal background checks, which he opposes.
A rule requiring the Social Security Administration to enter into the federal background check system the names of approximately 75,000 people each year who have a documented mental health issue, receive disability benefits, and are unable to manage those benefits because of their mental impairment.
Tallman said he worries that rule could force violations of medical privacy rights, and infringe on the ability of older Pennsylvanians to protect themselves.
Tallman's bill - if it gets any traction in the state House - could wind up being more symbolic than practical.
Gov. Tom Wolf's press secretary Jeff Sheridan said the administration is reviewing the new federal measures to gauge their implications for Pennsylvania.
But Sheridan also noted Wolf "believes we must have sensible background checks and close loopholes in existing laws to ensure guns do not end up in the hands of criminals and terrorists."
For Tallman, a fourth-term Republican from New Oxford who is a National Rifle Association member and served as an NRA hunter safety instructor in the past, that symbolism is meaningful in itself.
He said he believes the orders Obama signed wouldn't have stopped any of the well-publicized mass shootings in America over the past several years, but they could start a slippery slope toward erosion of rights for lawful gun owners.
Tallman said he stands with those who argue the best way for the federal government to attack gun crime is to better enforce the 200-plus pages of gun laws and regulations that are already on the books.
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/01/adams_county_lawmaker_pushes_b.html#incart_river_mobile_index
