proposed laws

PA Bill Number: HB2170

Title: In assault, further providing for assault of law enforcement officer; and making editorial changes.

Description: In assault, further providing for assault of law enforcement officer; and making editorial changes. ...

Last Action: Referred to JUDICIARY

Last Action Date: Mar 28, 2024

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FOAC's Weekly Message For Sunday December 29th 2019 :: 12/29/2019

As 2019 draws to a close, and we look ahead to 2020, I hope you have been closely following what's going on in Virginia! More than 100 Virginia cities and counties have declared themselves to be "Second Amendment Sanctuaries," and thousands of outraged gun owners have shown up at government meetings to demand this action. This is not organized. It's a true grassroots movement.

Pennsylvanians must realize that our neighbor to the South is ‘not’ the first state to go ‘full stupid’ (Washington, California, New Jersey, Maryland are a few) and that our state is surrounded on three sides with these same attitudes! All of us need to heed the words and capture the spirit of their two most distinguished founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. These resolutions referred to the federal government but are just as applicable to state governments in principle. They said: "Resolved, That the several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government ... and whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force."

I’m sure many gun owners tire of being told to get involved BUT failing to be involved results in outcomes like Virginia, Washington, Nevada, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, etc.! But let’s be clear, we (Pennsylvania gun owners) have ‘NOT’ shown our true power for decades and that same kind of apathy resulted in, in Virginia, the loss of control the General Assembly and the governor's office to Democrats who have wasted ‘NO’ time filing bills to not only ban the sale of many guns, ammunition and magazines, but to actually confiscate guns.

These Virginia measures go MUCH further and include wide selection from the gun-ban lobby wish list, including "Red Flag" confiscation plans, gun rationing (one gun per month) and others. All of this could have been avoided if gun owners had rallied before the November elections and defeated the gun banners, but they didn't. Now they are fighting a desperate defensive battle, trying to hold onto their rights, rather than pushing forward bills supporting their rights.

To add insult to injury, the governor has issued a veiled threat of using the National Guard against citizens and law enforcement officers to enforce new gun laws. It has just come out this week that additional government funding has been set aside to cover the mass incarceration of gun owners who DEFY these laws. Let that sink in for a moment!! Additionally, these VERY same politicians are turning violent career criminals loose upon this very same citizenry.

Citizens in Virginia are forming militias.  I want you to think about this for a minute. Gunowners did not have the time to get involved politically but are going to have the time to confront government as our founding fathers did (see the 'butts' paragraph below)?

Here-in lies the lesson.

We all have to get off our butts. And our buts. You know what I mean. "Yeah, those people show up to protest, BUT we have jobs." BUT we don't have Bloomberg money behind us. BUT the media is against us. BUT it's a three-hour drive to the capitol. BUT the NRA should be doing this. 

Excuses. Excuses for poor performance.

It is our view that we will see more action on the Second Amendment front in 2020 than we have anytime in the past. Will you be on the sidelines, or will you be helping us to win?

To quote Sean Connery’s character in the movie "The Untouchables," what are you prepared to do?

Democrats, Disarmed Citizens, Kent State, and Why the 2nd Amendment Exists

Every Democrat Presidential candidate has voiced support for radically restricting the 2nd Amendment in various ways. It seems that ‘hoof and mouth disease’ is running rampant and these seasoned politicians still haven’t learned that here are some venues you simply ought to avoid when talking about certain subjects. As an example, former Presidential Candidate, Beto O'Rourke, found one such venue when reiterating his call for gun confiscation: Kent State University. Reason’s Eric Bohm nails it, writing:

Kent State is, of course, the location of the infamous 1970 shooting that left four students dead and nine others injured. The shots were fired not by private citizens but by members of the Ohio National Guard, who shot at a crowd protesting America’s involvement in the Vietnam War.

Invoking armed agents of the state gunning down unarmed civilians is an interesting way to argue that Americans would be better off if the government forcefully disarmed private citizens. But hey, I guess that’s why we keep being told Beto’s an “unconventional” candidate.

The Washington Examiner’s Becket Adams adds, “If you are going to advocate for the forcible confiscation of an estimated 16 million rifles from lawful American citizens, it is probably best not to do it against the backdrop of one of the most famous incidents of unarmed citizens being shot to death by government forces.

O'Rourke, and his fellow Dems, seem oblivious to the reality that their proposals, if they involved actual door-to-door confiscation, as would needed for effectiveness, would be deadly. But ironically, that fact as well as the Dems carelessness only serves to highlight the most fundamental point of all when it comes to the 2nd Amendment: The Founders didn’t write it to protect hunting, and it’s not even primarily about defending yourself against criminals. The Second Amendment is meant as a means to stop government tyranny.

Democrats know that in order to truly carry out their tyrannical ideas of “social justice,” they must first confiscate the firearms of American citizens. But the British found out at Lexington and Concord — and all the way to Yorktown — that Americans value our God-given Liberty far too much to succumb to confiscation, dressed up though it may be as “buybacks.”

The Tyranny of the Judiciary Continues the Assault on the 2nd Amendment

One sometimes has to wonder ‘how’ some judges graduated from law school since they exhibit such ‘reading comprehension’ issues regarding the Bill of Rights. In August, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Cook County, Illinois’s ban on so-called “assault weapons.” Last year, a U.S. district judge dismissed a lawsuit brought against the 2006 Blair Holt Assault Weapons Ban, which means a fine for Cook County residents of up to $10,000 and sentences of up to six months in prison if they are found to be in possession of so-called “large-capacity magazines” or “assault weapons.” The fact of the matter is that the law intentionally misclassifies common semiautomatic weapons like the AR-15 as “assault weapons” and misleadingly labels these firearms’ standard-capacity magazines (20 to 30 rounds) as being nefariously “large capacity.”

In its unanimous ruling, the court’s three-judge panel wrote, “We have stated repeatedly, and recently, that, absent a compelling reason, we will not overturn circuit precedent.” The precedent was the Highland Park ruling, wherein a three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that municipalities have the leeway to regulate firearms if it makes people “feel safer.” The majority wrote, “If a ban on semi-automatic guns and large-capacity magazines reduces the perceived risk from a mass shooting, and makes the public feel safer as a result, that’s a substantial benefit” [emphasis added]. So, feeling safe trumps Americans’ Second Amendment right to take action to actually be safe? As Rush Limbaugh famously observed of the Left, it’s “symbolism over substance.”

This ruling once again supports Justice Clarence Thomas’s argument that the Supreme Court needs to stop this erosion of Americans’ Second Amendment rights. As Thomas recently wrote, “The Framers made a clear choice: They reserved to all Americans the right to bear arms for self-defense. I do not think we should stand by idly while a State denies its citizens that right, particularly when their very lives may depend on it.” Justice Thomas may get the opportunity he’s been calling for, as the Illinois State Rifle Association, which sued Cook County over this “assault weapons” ban, plans to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Activist judges are ignoring not only the Constitution but Supreme Court rulings in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago. It’s time for the Supreme Court to rectify that rogue behavior. Thomas Jefferson once warned, “The opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves, in their own sphere of action, but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch.” He was right.

2020 Is Shaping Up to Be All About YOUR Freedom

Gun Owners are notorious procrastinators but, as is being shown in Virginia, will only stand so much before they'll get up with their backs straight and jaws set firm to defend their freedom.

Now, as we enter 2020, we see a Congress FULL of Democrats who ‘promised’ to get something done to their constituents in this session but concealed from them that they want gun bans, confiscations, new onerous restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms. Thus far, in this session Dems have filed a whopping 118 ‘gun control bills’ to add the aforementioned restrictions on the 2nd Amendment!

Additionally, Senate Democrats have attempted to block ‘all’ of President Trump’s Federal Court nominees for open judicial seats.

It clearly isn't exaggeration to say that your Second Amendment will be on the ballot in November 2020.

This is why we must be prepared to speak loudly and clearly now. After all, even in America's Revolutionary War period, it took visionaries such as Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to plainly articulate to the public what needed to be done to win freedom from tyranny. Now, to paraphrase Franklin, all we have to do is keep it.

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." -Thomas Paine, 1776

Achieving this means understanding and communicating the importance of this moment. It is possible for even freedom-cherishing Americans to become weary in this struggle. That is what keeps me up at night. The media lies and the threats from politicians who want to blame law-abiding Americans for the actions of criminals all in a quest grow government to control the citizenry are outrageous.

So this year, we will trying our best to inform you, as you must know what's going on with your rights, and we will be encouraging you to not just vote for your freedom, as you no doubt will, but also to talk to your friends and neighbors to tell them how important this fall's election is so they will also vote to protect their rights.

This year, our rights are in danger of being diminished into something that would make the Founders of this nation cringe and angry. We must be resolute and clear by standing together at the ballot box and voting for our freedom.

Anti-Gun Bloomberg Puppet, Shannon Watts, Propagandizes Stand on 2nd Amendment

In a truly laughable moment, Shannon Watts says that America's gun-rights supporters have her and her gun-control group all wrong during an October appearance on CBS' ‘The Takeout’. The Moms Demand Action founder told host Major Garrett, "Often people think that because we're doing this work, we're anti-gun or we don't support the Second Amendment. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Sometimes one has to wonder if the leaders of this group are even connected to the political and legislative efforts they engage in!? Could she really be this clueless or is this intentional propaganda? It’s our view that her ludicrous statement is just the latest in a decades-long effort to intentionally distract the public debate and obscure gun-control advocates' real goals.

One has to wonder why she is so eager to avoid the term "gun control" when her organizations efforts demonstrate that's what she fundamentally wants? Could it be that the term "gun control" is unpopular and is correctly associated with efforts to register, ban and confiscate entire classes of firearms? Just as the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives used focus groups on the impeachment effort for president Trump, gun-control advocates and their media lackeys have rebranded long-sought-after gun-control measures as "common-sense gun safety" or "gun reform." A 2012 anti-gun messaging guide instructed gun-control advocates to "DO talk about preventing 'gun violence but "DON'T talk about 'gun control."'

But even in this climate of constant deception, Watts stands out for her duplicity. Her Twitter account is ceaseless anti-gun screeching bordering on paranoia from time to time. Watts has used this platform to express her support for nearly every conceivable gun-control measure—up to and including the confiscation of guns from law-abiding gun owners. In 2018, Watts criticized an online gun retailer for the lawful sale of bolt-action .22 rimfire rifles. Last May, the gun-control advocate appeared to endorse a ban on all center-fire rifle ammunition.

Given the record, it is obvious she is anti­gun. However, Watts was speaking for more than herself during her interview with Garrett. With her use of "we," she was also speaking for her gun-control group.

Moms Demand Action is a component of billionaire Michael Bloomberg's gun-control organization Everytown for Gun Safety. Bloomberg created and funded Everytown in 2014, as what The New York Times called "a $50 million Challenge to the NRA," In the same way that Everytown is inseparable from Bloomberg, Shannon Watts and her group are inseparable from Bloomberg.

Everytown has consistently participated in litigation with the goal of restricting Second Amendment rights. The group's own website explains that Everytown "regularly files amicus briefs defending state and federal gun safety laws against Second Amendment challenges." In 2019, Everytown has sent their top legal team to Pittsburgh to defend the city as they passed three ordinances that intentionally violate Pennsylvania preemption law.

Anti-gun advocates like Shannon Watts misrepresent themselves intentionally because they truly believe deception works and is worth it. We need to inform all gun owners and others who value individual liberty about the true underpinnings of the threat facing our Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

VIDEOS OF THE WEEK:

  • Tucker Carlson interviewed Nikki Goeser (CPRC Exec. Dir.) on Fox News about her new book “Stalked and Defenseless: How Gun Control Helped My Stalker Murder My Husband in Front of Me.” The case illustrates how gun-free zones disarm law-abiding citizens who obey the law and not criminals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpkJShQj0aI&feature=emb_logo

  • The Good Patriot talks about how ‘patriots’ need to know their enemy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=J0xDxFdAbSg&feature=emb_logo

Quote of the Week: Anti-Fa on Virginia Gun Control push; Gun control has a racist past indeed.

We are avidly against Virginia democrats gun control measures. Ralph Northam’s threats of violence of using the national guard to take weapons from the people for laws that haven’t even passed yet is reprehensible. Meanwhile, he continues to make us all extremely unsafe by constantly licking the boots of Dominion Energy.

We stand with working class and other marginalized people thathave the right to arm and defend themselves against a myriad of very real threats. Democrats are creating a very unsafe scenario for many in VA as tension across the state builds.

We do not believe the state exists to protect us.

https://www.facebook.com/AntifaSevenHills/posts/1411756002332143

1st Point to Ponder: From earlier this year – Medical Bias Alert:  The Virginia Commonwealth University/Saint Mary’s Hospital/Virginia Department of Health Gun Violence Symposium’s featured speaker was none other than Lori Haas from the Virginia Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. She tried to convince medical attendees that guns were killing 1,000 Virginians each year in a widespread “epidemic” of gun violence.

2nd Point to Ponder: 2ND Amendment Sanctuaries: Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said the resolutions wouldn’t hold water in a court of law.

“These resolutions, they are just part of an effort by the gun lobby to stoke fear,” Herring told Northern Virginia radio station WTOP last week. “When the General Assembly passes new gun safety laws, they will be enforced, and they’re going to be followed.”

New Mexico officials had a similar response. Tripp Stelnicki, a spokesman for the governor, told the AP in February that “commonsense firearm safety measures” would not infringe on New Mexicans’ constitutional rights.

3rd Point to Ponder: Background Check Failure Alert: A new academic study has found that, once again, gun laws are continuing to fail all around us yet the media and most medical researchers remain oblivious.

A joint study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of California at Davis Violence Prevention Research Program found that California’s much-touted mandated background checks had no impact on gun deaths, and researchers are puzzled as to why.

Gun Control Quote to Remember: Shannon Watts, Moms Demand Action founder, told CBS' "The Takeout" host, Major Garrett, in October that "Often people think that because we're doing this work, we're anti-gun or we don't support the Second Amendment. Nothing could be further from the truth."  (ed. Sounds like a New Years Resolution that was meant to be broken)

Founding Father’s Statement on Freedom: “Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.” - Patrick Henry (1788)

Yours in Freedom!

Kim Stolfer, President

As a reminder, every gun owner can participate in the January 12, 2020 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/709303479?pwd=T2w4dERnb3k4NUtpWi9ZRS9FY1lkUT09

One-tap Mobile: US: +19292056099,, 709303479# US (New York)

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

Meeting ID: 709 303 479

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