proposed laws

PA Bill Number: HB2109

Title: In terms and courses of study, providing for student mental health supports.

Description: In terms and courses of study, providing for student mental health supports. ...

Last Action: Referred to EDUCATION

Last Action Date: Mar 14, 2024

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FOAC's Weekly Message For Sunday November 3rd 2019 :: 11/03/2019

This past week has been a bad one for the City of Pittsburgh! Thanks to your donations and hard work, that has kept us in the legal preemption battle, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge James ruled ‘against’ ALL the gun control ordinances signed into law by Pgh. Mayor Peduto! THANK YOU!

It didn’t take long for several things to happen; the first was Mayor Peduto and council members to proclaim their intent to ‘appeal’ this ‘unfortunate’ ruling against them. Considering this is what the mercenary lawyers from the anti-gun group Everytown, who were/are representing Pgh., said in oral arguments before Judge James "we expected this and intend to appeal the decision".  This demonstrated that the City of Pittsburgh 'knew' that they would lose but chose to pursue this intentionally!

Second, and perhaps just as bad, was the number of groups taking credit for this preemption victory and/or ignoring the fact that this was FOAC’s case against Pittsburgh. We have spent tens of thousands of dollars fighting this illegal action and yet when reading about this case it is either FOAC doesn’t exist or we play 2nd Fiddle to every other group. Frankly, those who take unearned credit (in the military it is called 'Stolen Honor') should realize that this diminishes ‘all of us’ in empowering grassroots activism!  Some would consider this 'petty' BUT it is anything but!  As leaders in the fight for the 2nd Amendment we take our role seriously and that means we must show activists/citizens that they, too, can get involved and that their involvement/hard work matters and will be appreciated!  A cardinal sin, of political activism, is to diminish and/or fail to recognize, or take credit for, the hard work of others for 'whatever' reason.  Most of the time this is done to promote one's own reputation or agenda but in the end it tells average citizens who want to get involved that only the 'professionals' can make a difference!  That is simply wrong and drives many good people away!

The Future - Where We Go From Here

The next step will most likely be an appeal to the Commonwealth Court and when the City of Pittsburgh loses there (most likely) then on to the PA Supreme Court. This battle is likely to cost a great deal more money (which is part of the aim of Everytown) ‘and’ take at least two more years in the courts.

When you step back and look at this one cannot escape the thought that government has been and is acting as if the law doesn’t apply to them. We have decades of legal actions throughout Pennsylvania where preemption has won in every case ‘yet’ these actions are taken as isolated examples by the courts. Why can’t the organizations that advocated for local gun laws, knowing this violates preemption laws, be held under the same laws as the mafia – RICO laws? Is this NOT organized lawlessness? What about Philadelphia and Pittsburgh governments? 26 YEARS where both have been repeatedly smacked down in court and yet they violate PA Criminal Law with impunity? Then WE have to pay for the legal actions when DA’s and our Attorney General sit on their collective hands?

In the final analysis, we are in this fight and I thank EACH and EVERY ONE OF YOU for standing by our Constitution!

John Lott Exposes Media Lies Over Illusionary Violent Gun Crime ‘Epidemic

Dr. Lott had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, the most read newspaper in the US that pointed out that Mexico's murder rate is SIX times the US rate and then asked whether the solution for them might be more gun control. But that can't be because since 1972, Mexico already has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world and that its’ murder rate now has doubled since they passed their draconian gun control laws. Only about 1% of Mexicans legally own a gun. How much more can they reduce legal gun ownership?

Lott also noted that Mexico isn't unique. There are lots of countries with very low gun ownership rates that have high murder/homicide and mass public shooting rates, and that is true whether one looks at all countries or all developed countries.

Of course, staunch gun control advocates such as Media Matters and Bloomberg's gun control groups criticized the Wall Street Journal for even publishing Lott’s piece. Anti-gun Michael Bloomberg's Shannon Watts (Mom’s Demand Action) attacked Lott for supposedly being a 'gun lobby shill,' with no attempt to dispute anything that he wrote. Media Matters claims that his research has been 'repeatedly debunked,' with the implication: why would the Wall Street Journal ever want to publish such a researcher?

One of Dr. Lott’s talks on gun control myths was also played on C-SPAN 2 this past Sunday. This link also shows another debate from PA where Dr. Lott is shown in a video of a talk that he gave at Widener law school on Red Flag Laws and Universal Background Checks. The talk was originally supposed to be a debate with PA State Senator Daylin Leach, but Leach backed out of the debate two hours before it was supposed to occur. Not a big surprise!

If you haven't seen it, I would also suggest you to take a look at Dr. Lott’s new research on what academics think about gun control. Also, for those who have missed it, please also see Dr. Lott’s two excellent videos that he did on the myth that the US leads the world in terms of mass public shootings and the bias of television shows against gun ownership.

Do YOU Think YOU are a Law-Abiding Citizen ‘OR’ Are YOU a Criminal and Don’t Know It?

Most Americans like to THINK they are law-abiding citizens, yet I think they would be shocked to discover they are most likely criminals, since the average American commits three felonies per day!

In their defense, the vast majority of these “criminals” have no idea they are breaking the law. How could they? When the federal government can’t even provide an accurate count of how many statutes and regulations carrying criminal penalties are on the books, how can the average American possibly know?

The current best estimate is that there are more than 300,000 laws and regulations carrying criminal penalties. Three. Hundred. Thousand. As Professor John Baker once said, “There is no one in the United States over the age of 18 who cannot be indicted for some federal crime. That is not an exaggeration.”

Thanks to Congress and its habit of passing laws with little or no requirement for mens rea (a consciousness of guilt, meaning the person knows that what they are doing is wrong), it is literally impossible for any American to know whether some action they take is violating the law.

This is wrong on many levels.

One, it creates anger and contempt for the law. James Madison warned of this in Federalist 62, declaring “It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what it will be to-morrow.”

Second, it is immoral to deprive a man of life, liberty, or property for an activity that he was not even aware was a crime. Yet it happens every single day in America.

There are literally countless cases that keep our courtrooms and prisons packed, even when the “crime” is simply a transgression of a statute that as often as not makes no sense, prevents no crime, and protects no victim. Consider Barbara Horst, the Ohio grandmother charged with a felony for having 14 scrap tires in her truck, when the legal limit was 10.

Thanks to these miscarriages of justice, innocent Americans are becoming criminals faster than ever, even though violent crime and property crimes have been steadily dropping for years.

Our laws should be simple and easily understood by people of average intelligence. They should deprive citizens of liberty or property only as punishment and restitution for depriving others of the same. The more laws we have on the books, the less likely we are to see justice prevail, and the more likely we are to see the laws used by those in power to oppress the innocent.

How to Tell That the News Media is Lying to US (besides their mouth is moving)

All of us expect politicians lie as they try to get what they want. We certainly don’t expect the truth from these undisciplined attention addicts who will say anything to get elected. The only thing that holds politicians in check is media scrutiny, and today, the press is in the tank for the Democrats. We know the media lies to us because the politicians are never shamed into telling the truth.

In one breath, California US Senator Kamala Harris, a Democrat candidate for president, says we should turn in our guns, yet she owns a handgun for self-protection. The senator thinks her life is more important than ours, and she knows the media won’t call her on her hypocrisy.

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, blamed oil companies for the frighteningly high price of gas, and then signed a bill to restrict exploration for oil and gas in California. Setting aside the insane environmental regulations in California, the state and local taxes on a gallon of gas in California are far larger than industry profits. The governor will blame anyone and anything to hide the fact that taxes and regulations make gasoline in California over twice the price we see in the rest of the country. The politicians know the media won’t shine a light on their political failures.

Anti-Gun New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that a pipeline company couldn’t build a needed natural gas pipeline to the New York City area. Then, the governor said the utility company had to connect customers to the gas pipeline the governor wouldn’t let the gas company build. The news media refuses to put two and two together.

We’ll know the media is doing its job when the politicians stop lying. Until then, we will have to put the pieces together on our own. We will have to read enough so that we can recognize truth from lies, separate hard fact from political fiction.

The great news is that with social media today, you have the means to spread the truth among your family and friends as never before. The media should be afraid of you.

Oklahoma Joins the Constitutional Carry Club - 16 and Counting

On Friday (Nov. 1), Oklahoma’s Constitutional Carry law went into effect having already withstood several attempts by anti-gun groups to derail it. Concealed carry permits are now optional for adults in Oklahoma who can legally possess firearms. (Pennsylvania’s Constitutional Carry Bill is waiting – HB 1412)

To recap, in February, this year, Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed HB 2597, upholding a campaign promise made last year. The measure institutes a two-tiered concealed carry law leaving the state’s current concealed carry licensing program intact while recognizing that an adult aged 21 and up and is lawfully able to possess a gun can carry one concealed without such a permit. It also allows military service members at least 18 years of age to carry. The law will become effective Nov. 1 after shrugging off a legal challenge that made it all the way to the state Supreme Court and a petition drive backed by Moms Demand Action.

Despite contention by the anti-gun groups against constitutional carry that firearm-related deaths will rise in Oklahoma under the new law, there is little to suggest that states, where similar policies have been adopted, have witnessed such a phenomenon. In fact, just the opposite has been witnessed.

According to data from FBI Uniform Crime Reports, Arizona, a state which adopted permitless carry in 2010, saw homicide rates decline from 6.4 per 100,000 to 5.1 by 2018. Mississippi, which adopted permitless carry in 2016, saw homicide rates fall last year to the lowest numbers in decades.

Three of the four states with the lowest murder rates in 2018 are all constitutional carry states (Vermont, Maine & New Hampshire). Maine became a Constitutional Carry state in 2015. At the time, those opposed claimed that Constitutional Carry would increase street violence. From pressherald.com:

Tom Franklin, president of Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence, predicted that passage will lead to more street violence and deaths. The group works to prevent gun violence through gun safety and education.
“I believe this bill reflects the current state of dysfunction in Augusta,” Franklin said Monday night during a telephone interview. “It does not reflect the wishes of Maine people.”
He said his group is deeply concerned about allowing people to carry handguns without a permit.

It hasn't happened. Maine followed the same regurgitated script as has happened in other states that restore Constitutional Carry. Mostly, nothing but a restoration of personal freedom.
New Hampshire restored Constitutional Carry in 2017.  Opponents said the law would result in dead kids. From nhpr.org:

Although those in favor of the legislation argued the bill would not be a safety hazard, Rep. Wayne Burton of Durham told his colleagues it was too risky.
“I think a few inconvenient people is far less important that 12 dead kids,' Burton said Wednesday.

It did not happen. New Hampshire continued to be a very safe state.
Of the top ten states on the US News and World Report list, five of them are in Constitutional Carry states. Those states are shown in bold print.  The top ten are:

  1.  Maine
  2.  Vermont
  3.  New Hampshire
  4.  New Jersey
  5.  Idaho
  6.  Virginia
  7.  Rhode Island
  8.  Connecticut
  9.  Wyoming
  10.  Massachusetts

New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts are 'may issue' states. Carry permits are issued in those states at the discretion of the authorities. Virginia and Connecticut are 'shall issue' states.  Idaho restored Constitutional Carry in 2016. Opponents said it would endanger the public and law enforcement officers. From freebeacon.com:

'If signed into law, SB 1389 would dismantle our current system and put Idahoans at risk, including law enforcement officers who risk their safety to protect us,' Sharp said. 'Moms across Idaho will continue to fight against this bill and to advocate for safer gun laws—our families’ lives depend on it.'

Idaho followed the same script as New Hampshire. Nothing much happened. That has been the story across the United States as 13 states joined Vermont as Constitutional Carry States. The right to keep and bear arms is restored back to what it was at the nations founding. People who are not prohibited from owning arms can carry them most places without worrying about being arrested, fined, and jailed.
Other than an increase in personal freedom, a greater respect for the Constitution and the rule of law, and greater safety for citizens, very little happens.
According to this poll, about 20% of United States registered voters oppose any limits on government power. The Second Amendment is all about limits on the power of government.

What Does the Constant Harangue, by Anti-Gunners, for Real Gun Reform Mean?

Lately, anti-gun groups spokesmen have taken to using the phrase “gun reform”, similar to when they hijacked the term ‘Gun Safety’, when it comes to their agenda. What they are proposing is not reform.

Why is that? Well, the American Heritage Dictionary defines reform as “to improve by alteration, correction of error, or removal of defects; put into a better form or condition.” So, it seems fair to ask what would constitute true reform, in their eyes, in terms of our Second Amendment rights. It should go without saying that while Congressman Eric Swalwell said he was for reform during his campaign, his gun ban agenda is anything but that.

Why would ANY politician, much less a fellow citizen, punish millions of Americans who had nothing to do with shootings like Parkland, Las Vegas, the Tree of Life Synagogue, or Newtown by infringing on their Second Amendment rights? HOW is this reform?

Instead, the proper term for what these infringements are is criminal injustice. Those who carry out those horrific acts are the ones who should be penalized – those who have not misused their Second Amendment rights should NOT be disenfranchised from the free exercise of them.

So, we have a sense that when anti-Second Amendment extremists call for reform, it’s really about stripping away our rights.

When it come to the carrying of firearms, there is room for reform there. In this case, it will be in the sense of abolishing “abuse or malpractice” in the carry laws of some states, such as Maryland and New Jersey to mention a few. “May issue” jurisdictions are in particular need of this type of reform, since they allow the arbitrary denial of the right to bear arms. And national reciprocity should also be included as well – after all, a driver's license is valid in all 50 states, why shouldn't a carry permit be valid?

The fact of the matter is, when it comes to “gun reform,” mercenary anti-gun advocates and their groups are gaslighting the American people. When it comes down to it, Second Amendment supporters are the ones who are pushing the real “gun reform” in America.

FOAC in the Media: https://www.facebook.com/1525032110/posts/10220675594509501?sfns=mo

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: How to Create a Gun-Free America in 5 Easy Steps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnoFKskvSq4

Quote of the Week: “These kinds of guns—the auto versions of these guns—they are not coming from El Paso,” Ed Head, a firearms instructor in Arizona who spent 24 years as a U.S. Border Patrol agent, told Fox News. “They are coming from other sources. They are brought in from Guatemala. They are brought in from places like China. They are being diverted from the military. But you don’t get these guns from the U.S.” 

https://crimeresearch.org/2019/10/in-the-wall-street-journal-mexicos-soaring-murder-rate-proves-gun-control-is-deadly/

1st Point to Ponder: “There was more coverage of Trump posting a meme of a dog getting a fake medal than there was of Trump giving an actual war hero the Medal of Honor… That tells you everything you need to know about the Mainstream Media. They hate Trump more than they love America.” - Charlie Kirk

2nd Point to Ponder: In 2018, Detroit had 25 times the national average of reported justifiable homicides. The police chief of Detroit, James Craig, supports the residents' right to self defense. He supports the issuance of concealed carry permits. From detroitnews.com:

3rd Point to Ponder: Anti-gun Actor Michael Douglas’ gun stance reeks of hypocrisy: Despite profiting from guns in his films, he’s been attacking the 2nd Amendment and gun ownership off-screen for years and, as an example, his remarks when John Lennon was murdered by a lunatic ignoring strict New York City gun laws. Several years later, he lent his name and image to the Brady Campaign’s “Light a candle/Too many victims” campaign yet he ‘continued’ to use guns in his movies.

Founding Father’s Statement on Freedom: 'I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.' - Thomas Jefferson (1800)

Yours in Freedom!

Kim Stolfer, President

As a reminder, every gun owner can participate in the November 10, 2019 FOAC Monthly meeting from any PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android phone by clicking on the link below:

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/363424497

One-tap Mobile: US: +19292056099,, 363424497# US (New York)

Dial by location:  +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)

Meeting ID: 363 424 497

Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/adSioEAVyf