PA Bill Number: HB829
Title: In preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;
Description: An Act amending the act of April 12, 1951 (P.L.90, No.21), known as the Liquor Code, in preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;
Last Action: Signed in House
Last Action Date: Jul 3, 2024
Anti-Gunners: 26 states have passed gun violence laws since Parkland shooting. Where's Pa? :: 07/25/2018
It's been more than five months since the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., claimed the lives of 17 people and sparked a nationwide push for stricter gun laws.
Since then, lawmakers and governors in 26 states (including 15 with Republican governors) have passed - and signed - some 55 laws aimed at addressing America's gun-violence crisis, according to data released Monday by the Giffords Law Center.
Despite advancing a number of bills this spring, Pennsylvania remains among the 24 states that did not take action on such legislation.
The Republican-controlled Pennsylvania House of Representatives broke for the summer without taking a vote on legislation, unanimously approved by the majority-GOP Senate, that would keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.
The $32 billion state budget that lawmakers passed - and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law - in June, did include $7 million in school-safety and violence prevention measures, however.
Extreme risk protection orders will keep Pa. safe | Opinion
The Pa. House should approve this bill as soon as it can.
Pennsylvania, with a deeply embedded culture of gun-ownership and hunting, has traditionally been resistant to any changes in its gun laws. The National Rifle Association mobilized its own membership ahead of votes by the House Judiciary Committee in June.
"Pennsylvanians are polarized about gun control along party and ideological grounds - as indeed they are today along so many other issues ranging from health care to taxes to education to minimum wage to immigration ... and on and on," political analysts Terry Madonna and Michael Young wrote in a July 5 column for PoliticsPA.
"This polarization in the electorate helps explain the Pennsylvania paradox on guns as well as the almost total paralysis preventing the legislature from taking even simple measures on gun control. Pennsylvanians are deeply divided along party and ideological lines," they observed.
Meanwhile, here's a sampling of some of the bills that moved in other states, based on Giffords Center data:
- "Domestic Violence: Laws to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers passed in 9 states (KS, LA, MD, OH, OR, NY, UT, VT, WA).
- Bump Stocks and Trigger Activators: Laws to ban bump stocks and trigger activators were enacted in 8 states (CT, DE, FL, HI, MD, NJ, RI, WA).
- Extreme Risk Protection Orders: Extreme risk protection orders, measures that allow law enforcement, a family member or others in the community to petition for a temporary order removing access to firearms for at-risk individuals, were enacted in 8 states (DE, FL, IL, MA, MD, NJ, RI, VT).
- Background Checks: Laws that add a background check requirement or improve an existing background check law passed in 6 states (FL, LA, NJ, OR, TN, VT).
- Concealed Carry Requirements: Laws that regulate the carrying of concealed firearms in public were tightened in 5 states (MD, NJ, OK, SD, WA).
- Urban Gun Violence Reduction: Laws to provide state funding to evidence-based urban gun violence prevention and intervention programs passed in 8 states (CA, CT, FL, IL, MD, NE, NY, RI)"
"Legislatures have responded to the communities they represent even as the gun lobby continually resists attempts to strengthen our nation's gun laws. Increasingly, lawmakers are understanding that inaction in the wake of tragedy is no longer acceptable," Allison Anderman, managing attorney of Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said in a statement.
"These victories build on the life-saving bills we've helped pass and because of that progress, more Americans in all areas of the country will be better protected from gun violence. This momentum will strengthen with our continued calls for leaders to stand up and protect their communities from the deadly threat of gun violence," she said.
https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2018/07/26_states_have_passed_gun_viol.html#incart_2box_opinion
