PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
Gun control advocates eye background check measures in Nevada, Oregon, Arizona, Maine :: 11/15/2014
Gun control advocates, after orchestrating a successful ballot measure to expand background checks in Washington state, are mounting a similar "common-sense gun laws" campaign in Nevada.
On November 12, Nevadans for Background Checks delivered nearly 250,000 signatures to the Clark County Clerk in Las Vegas—they needed 101,667 signatures—to place an initiative on the November 2016 ballot asking voters to approve a proposal to require background checks on all gun sales and transfers, including at gun shows and online, similar to the measure Washington voters passed on November 4.
Nevadans for Background Checks says felons, domestic abusers, and people with severe mental illness can now buy guns in the state from unlicensed sellers with no questions asked because federal law only requires background checks for gun sales at licensed dealers.
Nevada's Democratic-controlled legislature last year adopted a bill to strengthen background checks that was later vetoed by Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval.
Groups like Americans for Responsible Solutions and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Everytown for Gun Safety, are also looking at lobbying for background check bills in Oregon, Arizona and Maine.
"There's no question that we are following in the heels of some other successful movements, like the marriage equality movement that first went to D.C. and found that it was much more profitable and effective to pivot to the states," Everytown President John Feinblatt told the HuffPost. "Our electoral strategy this year is driven by our plans to keep passing better laws that will prevent gun violence state by state, whether we're doing it through legislation or doing it through the ballot."
Although gun rights issues are often regarded as partisan, because conservative Republicans are more likely to care, Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, told the HuffPost on November 11 that Republicans are more moderate on proposals designed to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. Therefore, he said, the referendum approach to background checks could be successful.
"I think it's a very smart approach in states where it's not too difficult to bring a referendum directly to voters," Webster said. "I think when you boil it down and put it directly in front of the voters, as they did in Washington [state], you see a very clear win."
Elsewhere, state legislators in Ohio and Pennsylvania are expected to consider gun control bills.
In Ohio, lawmakers are likely to act on a House-passed bill making significant changes to the state's concealed-weapons law while, simultaneously, pondering adoption of a "stand your ground" provision that would do away with a state law requiring a person to retreat before using deadly force in self-defense.
In Pennsylvania, Democratic lawmakers are trying to block the implementation of pro-gun legislation that outgoing Gov. Tom Corbett (R) signed into law this year. CeaseFirePA, the cities of Lancaster, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, and state Democrat officials have filed a lawsuit to stop Act 192, which allows citizens to challenge municipal laws that curtail the exercise of their Second Amendment rights.
http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/gun-shots/gun-law-roundup-november-2014
