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
PA Republican lawmaker plans hearings following mass shootings :: 08/07/2019
State Sen. Lisa Baker, the chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said she is planning public hearings following the mass shootings this weekend in Texas and Ohio.
Baker, a Luzerne County Republican, did not specify any dates for the hearings. But she said in a statement the Judiciary Committee “will be holding a series of public hearings intended as a prelude to action.”
Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne County, said the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold public hearings on the issue of gun violence. Baker is the committee's chairwoman.
“Advocates and opponents will have the chance to make their respective cases in full spotlight and answer the hard questions about their positions,” Baker said in her statement.
Baker expressed a willingness to consider changes in state law. However, she said she wanted to do more than simply send a message. Baker said she wanted to find solutions that would withstand legal challenges and offer real protection.
“The rising and devastating toll from mass shootings obligates officials at every level to determine potentially effective remedies," Baker said. “That means not only examining what can be constitutionally accomplished in respect to weapons and ammunition, but the dire need to upgrade mental health services and to confront the climate of hate and bias that encourages supremacists and others to act in violent and destructive ways.”
Some Democratic lawmakers have been urging Gov. Tom Wolf to hold a special session on gun violence. On Tuesday, the PA Safe Caucus, a group of 70 lawmakers who support gun control measures, called for a joint legislative session on gun violence.
“The vast majority of residents are calling for action on legislation to prevent gun violence, but their voices are being stifled by legislative leaders who refuse to bring these bills up for a vote in Harrisburg,” Sen. Steve Santarsiero, a Bucks County Democrat and co-chair of the Safe Caucus, said in a statement. “It is our moral duty to come together in a special session this fall and make these voices heard by enacting commonsense gun safety measures.”
After the shootings, Wolf called for a ban on assault weapons and stronger background checks. The governor and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. will be holding an event at the Capitol Wednesday evening to remember the victims of the mass shootings and urge changes in state and federal law.
Some lawmakers have questioned what a special session can accomplish. Many in the Republican-controlled General Assembly are staunch supporters of the rights of gun owners. Baker acknowledged the wide range of opinions on gun rights across the commonwealth.
Last year, Wolf and lawmakers managed to come together on an issue involving guns.
Wolf signed a new law requiring those convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence or subject to protective orders to give up their guns within 24 hours. The law, which took effect earlier this year, ended the practice of allowing those individuals to turn over their guns to family members or friends.
Saturday’s mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas claimed the lives of 22 people, nearly all with Latino last names. Early Sunday, a gunman killed nine people at an entertainment district in Dayton, Ohio, including a graduate student from the Pittsburgh area.
