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
Pennsylvania lawmaker plans rare, days-long hearing on gun bills :: 04/16/2018
With the memory of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., still fresh, state lawmakers from across Pennsylvania will on Monday start the first of two weeks of hearings on bills related to firearms.
Advocates for a variety of gun bills say it’s a rare opportunity to air out arguments for — and against — bills on a topic that stirs deep passions.
“I’m thrilled just to even have the conversation,” said State Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh, who will testify Tuesday. To his memory, “it’s the first time we’ve ever had any hearings on any gun proposals for or against.”
Seven Republicans and seven Democrats are lined up to testify Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, said Ron Marsico, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. The hearings will be held in Room 140 in the state Capitol, and resume April 16 and 17, with the possibility of a sixth day April 18.
Marsico, a Republican with an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association who’s not seeking re-election, said the Parkland school shooting was the impetus for the hearings.
“I felt it was necessary for the members to come before the committee to discuss public safety, violence and guns,” he said.
Jeff Dempsey, program director for CeaseFire PA, said the Judiciary Committee historically has been a place gun bills are put to “languish and die.”
Some of the bills that will come up for discussion read like a gun control organization’s wish list: raising the age to buy long guns; allowing the seizure of guns when an individual raises concerns of a violent outburst; banning bump stocks and assault-style weapons.
For that reason, Kim Stolfer of Firearms Owners Against Crime, a gun-rights organization, said the hearings will be a “circus” stoked by an emotional reaction to the school shooting.
“From what I understand, the bulk of the people are going to be trying to advance more restrictive gun laws,” he said.
He said he has spoken to supportive lawmakers about the importance of testifying, but that “many of them feel that this is a stacked deck.”
Stolfer said gun-rights supporters will observe the hearings, but will not be testifying. Representatives of the NRA did not respond to a request for comment.
Marsico is taking testimony only from House colleagues. Advocacy groups or other experts are not on the witness list.
Marsico said he believes measures sought by both sides will get a hearing.
“I think gun control and NRA bills will be presented and discussed,” he said. “I anticipate a lively debate.”
Among the bills Marsico expects to be debated are:
- Senate Bill 501, which would require the subjects of protection from abuse orders and misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence to relinquish firearms to authorities within 24 hours;
- House Bill 194, a ban on assault-style weapons and House Bill 2120, which would prohibit the sale of assault-style weapons to anybody younger than 21;
- House Bill 2109, creating a firearms restraining order for potentially dangerous individuals;
- House Bill 1400, requiring background checks for all gun sales.
Some of the bills have widespread public support. A Franklin & Marshall poll released March 29 found that among registered voters in Pennsylvania, 86 percent support expanding gun-buyer background checks, 61 percent support banning assault-style weapons and 59 percent support raising the minimum age to buy firearms to 21 years old. The poll also found that majority of gun owners also supported those measures.
Supporters of regulating firearms said the hearings will be a good start, but not enough.
“Simply put, our plan is to demand a vote,” CeaseFire’s Dempsey said. “We’re tired of hearing ‘There’s nothing we can do about it.’ ”
In the year 2017 alone, Pennsylvania lawmakers have proposed more than a dozen gun-control and gun-rights measures – several in response to recent mass shootings. Here are some of those bills floating around the House and Senate chambers. None have been enacted.
The organization is holding a rally Wednesday at the Capitol demanding votes on gun-related bills, not just talk.
Stolfer says some gun-rights supporters will keep to the sidelines during the hearings, fearing gun-control advocates will “bludgeon” opponents of more regulation.
“I think we are in the midst of a Salem witch trial mentality in this country [with an] anti-American, anti-Second Amendment agenda,” he said.
Marsico said the hearings are a way of finding which measures can gain bipartisan support.
“It’s the right thing to do,” he said.
The hearings will begin at 11 a.m. Monday and be livestreamed at www.RonMarsico.com and www.PaHouseGOP.com. The hearings Tuesday and Wednesday will be 10-11 a.m.
Stoneman Douglas students have also called for town halls on preventing gun violence to be held across the country on Saturday. Greg Edwards, a Democrat running for the 7th Congressional District, is hosting one at 6 p.m. at the Third Street Alliance for Women & Children, 41 N. Third. St., Easton.
