PA Bill Number: HB1472
Title: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contributions ...
Description: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contrib ...
Last Action: Referred to STATE GOVERNMENT
Last Action Date: Apr 22, 2024
Rothfus: Law-abiding Americans need semi-automatic guns because 'the bad guys are going to get these guns' :: 02/21/2018
BRIDGEWATER — With the Florida school massacre igniting a national debate over access to high-powered guns, U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus said Tuesday that semi-automatic weapons such as the one used in the mass shooting should still be available to law-abiding Americans.
“You have millions of people who are responsible citizens,” Rothfus, R-12, Sewickley, said in an interview at The Times building in Bridgewater. “If there is ever civil disorder you should have a right to protect your family and your community. The bad guys are going to get these guns.”
On Feb. 14, Nikolas Cruz, 18, used an AR-15 rifle to kill 17 people, mostly students, at a high school in Parkland, Fla. Student survivors of the shooting have publicly called on President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress to address the availability of guns.
Pointing to Chicago — and Mexico — as places where gangs terrorize residents, Rothfus said Americans have Second Amendment rights and should be able to respond to criminals with similar firepower.
“If you have to wait five minutes, 10 minutes for the police to get there, do you have a right to defend your family with the same weapons that the bad guys have? I think you do,” Rothfus said.
“The key,” he said, “is to make sure that people like Nikolas Cruz shouldn’t have these.”
In an hour-long interview, Rothfus touched on several issues, including guns, congressional redistricting and the GOP tax plan.
Rothfus said he would ask his House colleagues to review safety measures at all public buildings and make sure that school districts have the resources for equipment and upgrades to tighten security; pinpoint “gaps” in law enforcement that could help police identify possible shooters with troubled pasts; and look at the implementation of former U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy’s mental health bill provisions.
Semi-automatic weapons have been around for decades, Rothfus said, but only recently have they been used in mass shootings. “These are broader cultural issues,” he said. “We have to take a look at violence generally, the sociological, the psychological roots of, ‘Where is this coming from?’”
There has to a way to identify people who should not have access to high-powered guns, Rothfus said. “The alarm bells were going off with this kid for years,” he said, noting that teachers and former classmates had concerns about Cruz’s behavior.
Rothfus said the congressional redistricting map ordered by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday had created “chaos right now” with the May 15 primary less than three months away. The state’s highest court overstepped its bounds, he said, because the U.S. Constitution clearly says that redistricting is an issue left to state legislatures.
In Pennsylvania’s case, the Republican-controlled Legislature was not given a map to vote on after the state Supreme Court tossed the current map out because it ruled the 2011 map unfairly favored Republicans through gerrymandering.
Republican legislative leaders submitted a map proposal as did state House and Senate Democrats, Gov. Tom Wolf and others involved in the lawsuit that led to the court’s ruling.
The 12th Congressional District stretches from the Ohio-Beaver County line to Johnstown and parts of Somerset County. Under the court’s map, Rothfus would be in the 17th Congressional District covering Beaver County, part of Cranberry Township in Butler County and much of Allegheny County north and west of Pittsburgh.
Beaver and Cambria counties have issues in common, such as economic and workforce development, Rothfus said, so it makes sense to have the same legislator represent them. Now, though, Johnstown has been “orphaned from Cambria County,” he said, and that raises questions about fair representation.
“Where is the accountability?” Rothfus asked.
A deficit hawk for his entire political career, Rothfus supported the Republican tax plan that multiple studies show could balloon the deficit by $1.5 trillion. However, Rothfus said those were based on “static analysis” that does not take into account economic growth spurred by tax cuts.
If the United States showed 2.6 percent annual growth or above over the next 10 years “then you will pay for this $1.5 trillion in lost revenue,” Rothfus said, arguing that the last decade has seen “relative anemic growth” in the economy.
“I do believe that with the tax cut we will get the kind of growth that will more than pay for itself,” he said, stressing that the federal government still has “a spending issue” that must be addressed.
Rothfus said he might propose taking several billion dollars from $700 billion in proposed defense spending to put toward battling the opioid crisis.
