proposed laws

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: Third consideration and final passage (104-97)

Last Action Date: Mar 27, 2024

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FOAC's April 2021 Newsletter and Meeting Notice w-Linked Agenda :: 04/10/2021

The general membership meeting of FOAC will be held this weekend, April 11, at 10 AM through the Zoom Conferencing option (details below).

Online Meeting Connection Details (also available at the end of the newsletter) are as follows:

Join the FOAC Meeting by Clicking this Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4122571099

**Please Note: To join this FOAC meeting you must RSVP by sending an e-mail info@foacpac.org and the Meeting Password will then be e-mailed to you by one of the officers. (Time: 10:00 a.m.)

You can view or download a copy of the Meeting Agenda at this Link: Meeting Agenda!

This past Thursday, America ‘was’ shown to be a laughing stock as a Constitutional Republic and very little is being said about that being the biggest tragedy of everything that was said our 'Commander in Chief'. By all appearances, we have exchanged the legislative process for a dictatorial one. We now have a self-imposed monarch in the Whitehouse who seems to feel he is ‘no longer bound’ by the constraints of the “separation of powers” and the Legislative Process and, most of all, the Constitution, calling those arguments - PHONY.

Perhaps what we heard on Thursday should not have come as a such a shock, but I guess there was a part of me that wished that Joe Biden would have rebuffed the lunatic fringe, anti-gun element within his administration. What I heard from His Highness Joe dashed any of my ill-conceived thoughts! Joe Biden opened the doors to his opening gun control assault by announcing a preliminary six incremental executive orders to advance into warp speed the Left’s efforts to deconstruct and repeal the 2nd Amendment and along with it irreparably weakening the entire Bill of Rights.

President Biden announced his administration will take the following unilateral actions:

  • Direct the Department of Justice (DOJ) to propose a regulation, within 30 days, to stop the proliferation of deadly, untraceable ghost guns
  • Modify multiple federal grant programs to increase available funding for community violence intervention programs
  • Publish a model Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) law within 60 days
  • Direct DOJ to issue a new, comprehensive annual report on firearms trafficking
  • Direct DOJ to propose a regulation ensuring the stabilizing arm braces that circumvent the law on dangerous short-barrel rifles are subject to the National Firearms Act

LIE #1: According to His Highness Joe Biden, “Nothing I’m about to recommend in any way impinges on the Second Amendment. They’re phony arguments suggesting that these are Second Amendment rights in what we’re talking about.” Furthermore, as Kamala Harris asserted, “Real people on both sides of the aisle want action.”

Biden declared, “No amendment to the Constitution is absolute. You can’t yell ‘fire’ in a crowded movie theater and call it freedom of speech.” Completely ignoring the fact that yes you can yell fire in a crowded theater if it is on fire! We don’t ban or regulate the use of the word fire in a theater, so Joe is wrong once again in his analogies! To be perfectly clear, the Bill of Rights enumeration of the fundamental rights of Americans absolutely is absolute, including Article 2, commonly called an “amendment.”

You ARE allowed to yell "fire" in a crowded movie theater - a pretty important thing to be able to do if a theater is on fire. This tortured analogy is a bastardization of an Oliver Wendell Holmes opinion about *falsely* yelling fire - which was partially overturned by Brandenburg v. Ohio anyway. If you yell “fire” in a theater ‘to cause criminal mischief or mayhem’, you should be arrested. If you shoot a gun in a theater, you should be arrested. Individuals are and should be held responsible for how they exercise their rights. But elected socialists we are facing today are determined to suppress rights, as they have incessantly demonstrated regarding the infringement of “the right to keep and bear arms,”.

LIE #2: His Highness Joe Biden says; you walk into a store and buy a gun, you have a background check. But you go to a gun show, you can buy whatever you want and no background check.

Biden and the Democrats have once again bowed to their anti-gun billionaire masters by rehashing this tired old lie that FFL-licensed dealers don’t have to conduct background checks at gun shows. This is another ‘sky is falling’ claim that isn’t grounded in reality or fact. EVERY FFL dealer has to conduct a background check on ALL SALES.

The Gun Control Act of 1968 doesn’t magically cease to exist once they leave their brick-and-mortar locations. Notice not ONE media outlet has fact checked the ‘Liar in Chief’!

Wherever FFL’s do business, background checks must be done. As for private sales, they do happen, most are among family members via inheritances, which is technically a transfer. In terms of all gun sales, private transactions conducted without background checks are guesstimated to not be rising above single digits.

Let’s talk a little more about “background checks” and crime. But FIRST let’s examine Constitutional Theory. To my knowledge, NO ONE has raised this thorny issue – Prior Restraint – and how it violates the very essence of the Bill of Rights by ‘mandating’ the approval of government ‘prior’ to exercising a Constitutional Right, in this case the 2nd Amendment.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics is part of the Department of Justice. In 2019 they published a study on criminal use of firearms and the source of those firearms. A copy of the original study is HERE and is the result of a 2016 survey of prisoners and was published just last year.

So, what percentage of criminals, do you think, got their guns at a gun show? 0.8%

Don’t you think His Highness, Joe, and his hundreds of personal assistants should have known this if there was ANY interest in being truthful with the American Public OR did the anti-gun groups write his script?

So, the big issue for Biden, Pelosi, Schumer and the anti-gun groups and their billionaire buddies, the sword they are willing to die on they claim will keep you and I safe-universal background checks, is involved in less than 1% of all shootings or didn’t even make a list!

So, the real agenda here is not about “gun shows” but about requiring background checks on any firearms sale or gift between individuals, thus establishing a permanent backdoor gun registration for all firearm transfers.

LIE #3: His Highness Joe Biden Says; The only industry in America — a billion dollar industry — that can’t be sued, has exempt from being sued, are gun manufacturers. … This is the only outfit that is exempt from being sued. 

In 2005, George W. Bush signed into law the PLCAA. It was probably one of the most consequential pieces of pro-gun legislation passed in recent memory. Gunmakers could no longer be sued for frivolous reasons. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand what the number of wrongful death suits there would be if this law was NOT in place to protect legitimate firearm manufacturers today and that those lawsuits would have most likely led to the collapse of the gun industry in America. The billionaires and the Left would have been merciless, and with no gunmakers around, it’s just a legal backdoor in shredding our Second Amendment rights.

Just to be clear, gunmakers are ONLY exempt from lawsuits in which their products were used unknowingly in the process of a crime being committed (via Congressional Research Service).

LIE #4: Once again, His Highness stretches the ‘truth’ like taffy by claiming The Assault Weapons Ban Reduced Gun Violence!

Just for the record, on Sept. 13, 1994, President Bill Clinton signed an assault weapons ban into law. It barred the manufacture and sale of new guns with military features and magazines holding more than 10 rounds. But the law allowed those who already owned these guns and magazines - an estimated 1.5 million of them at the time - to keep their weapons.

IF the ‘Liar in Chief’ had ANY intentions on being fair and truthful he could have just asked the NY Times for the data is quite clear, even to them, that the "assault weapons" ban did not reduce gun violence. You think I’m kidding? Liberal NYT reporter Lois Beckett, who covers gun politics and has many nuanced takes on gun violence without banning firearms, ripped apart this myth in The New York Times seven years ago.

LIE #5: Pinocchio Joe added substantially to his list of flubs, gaffs and outright lies by manufacturing another boogeyman – Stabilizing Braces.

Before we dive into the true stupidity of Uncle Joe’s lies, let’s take a look at braces and get a solid understanding of what they are and how they differ from a buttstock.

A pistol brace, also known as a stabilizing brace, is an accessory, that attaches to the rear of the gun and allows the firearm to be fired one-handed and has been thoroughly reviewed and approved by the BATFE.

It basically slips around the forearm of the shooter and, using Velcro, secures to the arm. The goal is to stabilize the gun as you’re firing and has NO effect on the lethality of the firearm it is ‘attached’ to!

It gained acceptance, especially among disabled shooters, because it allowed them to control and fire AR and AK carbines more comfortably and safely.

In fact, the inventor of the brace, SB Tactical’s Alex Bosco, came up with the idea in 2012 after shooting at a range with a disabled combat veteran and witnessing the struggles disabled shooters face. Braces actually help gun owners who struggle using full-length, shouldered rifles enjoy AR-style firearms comfortably.

Biden, using another well-worn tactic of citing a tragedy (that wouldn’t have been stopped at all by this change), used the recent Boulder mass murder (in a gun free zone no less) as a backdrop, announced his executive order to essentially reclassify guns (rifles and handguns) with stabilizing braces. This regulatory scheme would make firearms stabilizing braces subject to the National Firearms Act, which requires certain weapons, such as sawed-off shotguns and machine guns, to be registered with the federal government and a $200 fee to be paid. Precisely how this would be implemented, since someone could just take them off, is mystifying at best. What’s worse is that there is very LITTLE discussion of the Ex-Post Facto aspects of this applying to individuals who legally purchased these devices prior to any determination.

Of course, none of this will stop Biden since the Bump Stock scheme set precedent and forced well over a half a million owners to be criminals if they don’t destroy them or turn them in.

For the final coup de gras, His Highness Joe nominated a radical gun control advocate to head the BATFE (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) - which Biden repeatedly embarrassed himself by calling them the “AFT.” Biden announced, “Today, I’m proud to nominate David Chipman to serve as the director of the AFT. David knows the AFT well…

David Chipman is a lunatic. Chipman testified in Harrisburg on behalf of Giffords (anti-gun group) in support of PA ERPO (Red Flag) laws as Constitutional, denying that the clear language of the legislation did ‘not’ impact Due Process. Let’s not forget that this is the nutjob who recently declared that the Branch Davidians shot down helicopters in Waco. They did not.

Chipman’s resume cements his bonafides as an ideologue: After leaving the ATF in 2012, Chipman became a senior adviser at Everytown for Gun Safety, where he was "consulted frequently" by lawmakers considering gun control legislation, according to his Linkedin.

Chipman then served as senior vice president of Public Safety Solutions for almost three years before arriving at Giffords as a senior policy adviser in 2016.

And then there’s the eye-popping advice Chipman recently offered in a Reddit Q&A: “While at ATF I conducted studies involving people who failed background checks to determine how many later committed crimes with a gun – many did. This is a perfect opportunity to arrest people before committing crimes rather than responding after the fact.” So, in other words, if somebody fails a Form 4473 background check to purchase a firearm, it’s a “perfect opportunity to arrest them” because they might commit a crime later just like in the movie Minority Report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQWbMSdhCw4.

Can you imagine what the MSM would have done if one of Donald Trump’s appointees would have deleted thousands of social media posts before his appointment was announced, as Chipman has just done? Proving that he is not the ‘brightest bulb in the candelabra', Chipman overlooked his Reddit page! If one were to extend out his logic, and given that a grossly disproportionate number of crimes are committed by black Americans, shouldn’t we just arrest all black Americans now? Considering his attitude on ‘Pre-Crime’ arrests and ignoring the Constitution, perhaps that’s not as unlikely as it sounds.

On the other hand, if you are the son of His Highness Joe and lie on a Form 4473 when buying a handgun, no problem! Secret Service, Hunter Biden ‘hey nothing to see here, move along’ – gun laws are for all us little people!

Here’s another biggie; His Highness Joe announced that he is asking the DOJ to develop a national ERPO (Red Flag) law, which takes away the 2nd Amendment and property (guns) of people accused of being dangerous to themselves or others, at the lowest standard of evidence. Never mind that the recent mass public killings in Colorado and California took place in states that already had such laws. 

Curiously, the cabal of Biden, Pelosi and Schumer are ignoring a much more effective alternative already in place. They are commonly known as Mental Health Procedures Acts or, as in the case of Florida, Baker Act statutes, and have been around since the early 1970s. EVERY state has them already! They allow police, doctors, and family members to have someone held for a 3-5 day period during which a mental health examination is conducted.

These laws focus on mental illness, and they require that mental health care experts evaluate the individual. If a person can’t afford a lawyer, they get a public defender. While judges can involuntarily commit an individual, they believe is a danger to themselves or others, they also have a range of less draconian options to start with.

ERPO laws are primarily focused on suicide prevention. Right now, though, only one state’s law even mentions mental illness. Neither currently proposed federal bills nor any existing state laws require that a mental-health expert be involved in evaluating the person.

And, unlike Mental Health statutes, Red Flag laws don’t offer safeguards such as providing a public defender for individuals who can’t afford a lawyer. Few people can afford to pay the $10,000 or more in lawyer fees associated with trying to defend oneself against false allegations in ERPO actions.

Under these laws, initial confiscations of firearms often require just a “preponderance of the evidence standard,” which is little more than a guess or a hunch. Judges rely on a mere piece of paper in front of them when they decide to take away a person’s guns. When hearings occur 10-30 days later, about a third of these initial orders are overturned. But, as lawyers are rarely present, the actual error rate is undoubtedly much higher.

If someone TRULY is a danger to themselves or others, then simply taking away their legally owned guns isn’t enough. When people really pose a clear danger to themselves or others, confine them to a mental-health facility. Guns are only one way they can do harm, and if they are intent on hurting others or themselves, they can find a way.

Consider, also, the impact that Red Flag laws can have on people who need and want help. Absent such laws, a person contemplating suicide might speak to a friend or family member and be dissuaded from that dire course of action. With the laws, they may fear that speaking out will result in a report to authorities – and their ability to defend themselves or loved ones would be restricted.

The research shows that Red Flag laws don’t reduce suicide or crime, and there is evidence it might actually increase crime.

And then there are those nefarious so-called “ghost guns,” the small number of handguns and rifles that hobbyists build themselves, including those scary “assault rifles.” (Somebody get Alfred Hitchcock on the line.) For the record, according to annual Department of Justice records, in an average year more than four times as many people are murdered with knives than a rifle of any description.

All of Biden’s disjointed ramblings aside, here is a reality check on both the violent career criminals who use firearms and their victims: If you’re not a career criminal, or affiliated with gangs or drugs, your chances of being a victim of violent crime drop dramatically, in fact below some European Union nations with the strictest gun control laws. If you’re not involved in criminal activity, your statistical probability of being killed by a drunk driver is exponentially higher than being murdered.

Further, Biden had an opportunity to lead on the criminal misuse of firearms but chose not to. His emotional tugging at the heart strings, without connection to reality, makes one wonder if he cares one wit about curtailing violent crime. You CAN’T fix something if you can’t identify the problem, for instance:

  • 80%+ of ALL shootings are gang and drug-related.
  • 53% of all shootings are by black men under 30.
  • 69% of guns used by criminals are purchased on the black market or acquired by family and friends.
  • Most shootings happen in cities run by democrats.
  • Closing gun shows will not affect gun deaths.

Democrat-run cities destroyed the minority community family and the local economy, forcing young black men to turn to gangs and drug dealing as a way of getting by; it is these liberal policies that are directly responsible for 80%+ of all shootings in the U.S.

Please consider that the most dangerous 5% of counties, with the Democratically run big cities, account for 68% of all murders!

For more Statistics on gun violence go HERE!

In the Left’s insatiable quest for power and control, which really fuels its zeal for deconstruction and repeal of the Second Amendment, what the socialist Democrat Party leaders don’t want to discuss is that the deadliest grounds in America are their inner cities — where the vast majority of murders and violent crimes are black-on-black.

The Dems objective is to keep the focus on inanimate objects – guns – in order to keep it off their failed socialist policies, the result of which is an epidemic of decayed cultural devolution in the urban centers they have systematically and generationally controlled.

Finally, as most gun owners already know, there are tens of thousands of federal, state, and local gun laws on the books. Fact is, however, where there are more guns, there is less violence. Whenever Dems invoke the words “common sense” in reference to gun control, you can be certain that is a deception to deflect the debate onto guns and not the perpetrators.

Violence is a cultural problem mired in the mix of government failure, incompetence and negligence. More “gun control” regulation is not the solution for systemic violence. As I have no doubt you are aware, criminals don’t abide by gun regulations now, and they most assuredly won’t abide by any new regulations. Only law-abiding citizens obey the law.

Here is the rub! The purpose of these new laws is NOT to save lives or keep people safe but to destroy the firearms culture in America and punish those who disagree with them.

These new laws proposed by the Harris/Biden administration will not save one life; all they will do is further separate all of us from our rights!

Interesting Videos:

"Americans use firearms to defend themselves between 500,000 and two million times every year. God forbid that my mother is ever faced with a scenario where she has to stop a threat to her life. But if she is, I hope politicians protected by professional armed security didn't strip her of the right to use the firearm she can handle most competently." – Amy Swearer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZmkv-5jnW0

Dr. John Lott on the Mark Levin Radio Show: Discussing Biden’s lies about guns

Dr. John Lott talked to Mark Levin on his national radio show about President Biden’s Thursday, April 8th talk on gun control. Lott and Levin go through a few of Biden’s many lies. Some of his other false claims are available here.

https://crimeresearch.org/2021/04/on-the-mark-levin-radio-show-discussing-bidens-push-for-more-gun-control/

FOAC in the News: FOAC Interviews: Biden’s ‘Opening Salvo’ in His Attack on the 2nd Amendment

ABC27: https://www.abc27.com/news/this-week-in-pennsylvania/pa-advocates-disagree-on-whether-bidens-gun-control-actions-will-address-violence/

KDKA: Delano - Politics of Gun Control: https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2021/04/08/politics-of-gun-control-pennsylvania/

Overall Status of 2nd Amendment Legislation Filed to Date in PA and the US:

2021-2022 Session PA State Bills (updated)

  • Pro-Gun Bills: 13
  • Anti-Gun Bills: 40
  • Unrated (Watching): 6
  • Legislative Memos: 92

2021-2022 Session Federal Bills (updated)

  • Pro-Gun Bills: 23
  • Anti-Gun Bills: 47
  • Unrated (Watching): 17

Upcoming Events: The event situation continues to be fluid. Please check the FOAC website for updates https://foac-pac.org/Events 

  • Washington County Gun Shows – April 10-11, June 19-20, September 25-26. 9am to 4pm. Washington County Fairgrounds 2151 North Main Street Washington Pa 15301. FOAC needs volunteers to work our table. Kevin Jackson has been coordinating the FOAC gun show tables. Should you want to lent a hand send him an email rubyred933@hotmail.com or call him: 412-302-3544.
  • North Fayette Satellite License to Carry Event - SAT, APR 17th AT 8 AM EDT

Allegheny County Sheriff's Office - 580 Donaldson Rd, Oakdale, PA 15071-3704, United States – More Info: https://fb.me/e/1ewQSVuSA

Allegheny County Sheriff's Office - 2675 Brownsville Rd, South Park, PA 15129-8525, United States – More Info: https://fb.me/e/28KANhI74

Academics on Guns: Dr. John Lott Update on Constitutional Carry

On a positive note: it is now possible to walk from West Virginia to Idaho and from the Mexican to the Canadian borders and carry a concealed handgun without a permit. Four states have now passed the bills this year, and serious efforts are underway to pass bills in Texas, Louisiana, and Nebraska. See this interview of Dr. John Lott on One America News.

https://crimeresearch.org/2021/04/on-one-america-news-the-move-to-constitutional-carry-20-states-now-have-these-rules/

Founding Father’s Statement on Freedom:

"The defense of one's self, justly called the primary law of nature, is not, nor can it be abrogated by any regulation of municipal law. This principle of defense is not confined merely to the person; it extends to the liberty and the property of a man . . . it extends to the person of every one, who is in danger; perhaps, to the liberty of every one, whose liberty is unjustly and forcibly attacked." James Wilson (1791)

A Celebration of the Heart of America: The Oldest Recruit to Ever Join the Marines

The average age of a United States Marine Corps recruit is 21 years old. When Paul Douglas enlisted in 1942, he left behind his wife, child, and career and reported to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island at the ripe age of 50.

http://www.militaryspot.com/news/oldest-recruit-history-parris-island

Forgotten American Heroes: Thank You T/Sgt. Charles Coolidge

The word “hero” is too often misapplied by today’s media outlets because most of those reporting don’t have any reference point for genuine heroics.

However, in the case of T/Sgt. Charles Henry Coolidge, the word applies in full.

Charles Coolidge was the last living WWII European Theater Medal of Honor recipient — survived by only one remaining WWII recipient, Hershel “Woody” Williams, who was recognized for his service in the Pacific Theater as a young Marine in the battle of Iwo Jima.

https://patriotpost.us/alexander/79008-thank-you-t-slash-sgt-charles-coolidge-2021-04-08

Closing Thoughts:

What Joe Biden has foisted on America is an existential threat to our Constitution. It is a calculated move to evade the Constitution and to manipulate the legal process, through regulations, to implement draconian and unconstitutional edicts. As I have said before, this process of using Executive Orders to bypass Congress and the Constitution has negated nearly all of the safeguards put into place by the Founding Fathers!

IF there is anyone out and about in America who thinks that ‘anything’ in our country is safe after what happened on April 8, 2021, then they are living in a fantasy world. ALL of this has happened in just 2 ½ months of the Biden Administration.

Stay Free!

Kim Stolfer, President

**As a reminder, all FOAC members and, indeed, every gun owner can participate in the April 11, 2021 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 by Clicking the Link Below:

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Meeting ID: 412 257 1099

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Remember: FOAC is fiercely independent. We are not affiliated with, nor do we receive any money from, any national organizations. No sugar daddies. No New York billionaires. Memberships and individual donations are our only source of income.

If your friends are not a member - why not? The more members we have committed to making a difference, the greater FOAC’s impact in the legislature. By working together and making our voices heard, not only can we show the billionaires and their lapdogs that they don’t stand a chance in Pennsylvania, we can push through legislation that further restores and protects our rights.