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: When it comes to guns, we have forgotten ourselves :: 09/24/2019
This week in Harrisburg, we have a spate of hearings regarding gun control in the Pennsylvania State Senate. The fact that red flag laws that violate the Second, Fourth and Sixth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and Article 1 Section 21 of the Pennsylvania State Constitution are even being discussed in the Commonwealth must have the founders spinning in their graves. It’s a Bill of Rights, not a Bill of Suggestions. How could Pennsylvania, the birthplace of our founding documents, have degenerated into a repository for such legislative flotsam usually reserved for liberal states such as New York and California?
First off, we have opportunist politicians who are preying on the ignorant and the grief-stricken in order to show “bipartisanship” so as to build their respective profiles and advance to higher offices. There’s an old saying about bipartisanship; there are two parties, the evil party and the stupid party. And every now and again, they get together and do something both evil and stupid, and they call it “bipartisanship.”
Such actions are nothing new on the Left. However, it’s particularly egregious from so called “Republican” members of the Legislature. We see you. If you continue to press these red flag laws in spite of the inviolable nature of our constitution, you either have not the capacity to understand our founding documents (which makes you unfit for the office you hold), or you do, and you are pressing this anyway for political gain (which definitely makes you unfit for the office you hold). In fact, you’ve got some on the Right that are inclined to vote Democrat in 2020 just to throw you out.
Second, we supposedly have poll after poll showing that suburban women are turning away from the Republicans in droves and that is the primary driver behind this sudden urge to “do something” on guns. Now, I don’t give former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie credit for much, but he had one great line during the 2016 presidential campaign that I’ll never forget. He said, “leaders don’t follow polls, leaders change polls.” Any half-wit can stand in front of a mob and parrot their demands. But it takes real character and courage to stand before that mob and tell them that you think they might be wrong, and that maybe they should count to 10 and think things through before making decisions based on emotion.
To those suburban women affiliated with the GunSense and Moms Demand Action crowd, I would challenge you to delve deeper than the canned (and misleading) talking points and really educate yourselves on not only firearms, but also why we have a Second Amendment in the first place. Prove the misogynists wrong when they grumble that the 19th Amendment was a mistake. Above all, internalize the fact that nobody is as vested in your self-preservation as you are. Outsourcing your safety to others is a risky strategy. Take it upon yourselves to talk with some gun owners and hear their perspective or take a firearms course. You can do it! I believe in you ... why don’t you?
To the law enforcement community that might be called on to enforce such unconstitutional garbage should it pass, you have a duty to ignore unjust and unconstitutional laws. I know it’s a tough ask, but hear me out. First, it has been done successfully both in Washington state and Colorado. This shows there is a difference between merely being an nforcer and being a lawman. Strive for the latter. Additionally, there is historical precedent for such measures. In fact, it’s part of the fabric of our history and the system of checks and balances within our republic. I’m speaking of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, which essentially declared that subsidiaries of any political entity had the right and duty to nullify unconstitutional acts of a sovereign.
Third, you are part of a brotherhood. Not just of law enforcement personnel, but one of citizens within the American body politic. Given the heft of the duties you are charged with, to be devoid of morality, unable to determine what is just and unjust on your own, is certainly bad. But to outsource that morality to your political masters that obviously have none? That is even worse. I implore you all, don’t wait to come to this realization when it’s too late, when you are in a stranger’s living room face to face with an armed and scared civilian whose only crime was defending his home and his family from other armed men in the middle of the night.
It does not end well for anyone. And know this; in that scenario, you are the very agent of tyranny you are supposed to be protecting the people from.
Here’s a modest proposal. To ensure any debate within the Legislature of the breadth and scope of the people’s right to defend themselves is an informed one, make it a rule that any legislator that wishes to submit gun-control legislation for consideration must take and ace the most stringent and intensive firearms course available within the Commonwealth. If they refuse, we are forced to ask why they are so comfortable legislating something that they admittedly know nothing about. The citizens of the Commonwealth deserve as much. We await your response, representatives.
Kim Stolfer is president of Firearms Owners Against Crime an all-volunteer organization focused on ensuring that the Pa. Constitutional Right (Article 1, Section 21) and the U.S. Constitutional Right (the Second Amendment) continue to be protected and that law-abiding citizens have the freedom to choose to exercise these rights.
Greg Archetto is a former State Department and Defense Department official who specializes in security cooperation issues in the Middle East. He was also foreign policy advisor to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in 2013-14. He currently resides in Bucks County.
