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

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Updated: No great loss to 2A advocates as Harry hits the road…except :: 03/30/2015

This morning’s announcement by 75-year-old Nevada Sen. Harry Reid that he will not seek re-election in 2016 will be no great loss to Second Amendment advocates, except for one very ominous concern as described by Bloomberg News’ Richard Rubin: anti-gun Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) as Reid's replacement for party leadership in the Senate.

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UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times is now reporting that Reid has endorsed Schumer to take over as the Senate Democratic leader. "Schumer, in 22 months if he plays his cards right, should be able to do it," the newspaper is quoting Reid as stating in an interview. “I told him if you need my help, you got it."

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“This is the opportunity Chuck Schumer has been waiting for,” Rubin writes in this morning’s Bloomberg Politics. “He’s known for his support of gun control, tax increases on high-income households and environmental protection.”

New York’s senior senator ranks right up there with Dianne Feinstein, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as a threat to the right to keep and bear arms. He may even out-rank the others, as a perennial advocate of all manner of restrictive gun controls since he hit Congress in 1981, representing New York’s 16th congressional district.

Schumer is the man who infamously announced Nov. 30, 1993, after Congress passed the Brady Handgun Law that year, “We’re here to tell the NRA their nightmare is true.” A week later, he told a press conference, “We’re going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy. We’re going to beat guns into submission!”

With some liberal pundits suggesting that Republicans could lose the Senate back to Democrats next year, Schumer is just the guy gun owners do not want as Senate majority leader or minority leader if the liberal pundits are wrong, as they frequently are. Schumer sponsored the Brady Law, and he also pushed the Clinton ban on so-called “assault weapons” and magazines.

Considering that passage of those laws in 1993 and 1994 cost Democrats control of Congress for a decade, one would think the party would want anybody but Schumer as their Capitol Hill leader, but then, again, Democrats didn’t earn their reputation as “the party of gun control” for no reason. Every gun control measure that has come before Congress, and certain every one at the state level in Washington, Oregon, California and all points east – including Colorado – has had Democrat DNA all over it like the stain on a blue dress.

Reid has been warm and cold on gun issues. But last year, when anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg put his money where his gun prohibitionist desires are, with Reid’s apparent support, the National Rifle Association went after him. In an article from the Institute for Legislative Action, NRA said “Michael Bloomberg and Harry Reid are not telling the truth to the American people.”

Where Reid may have given Second Amendment groups headaches, Schumer in the leadership role will give them migraines. Reid’s machinations may have been seen as an erosive threat, but Schumer’s agenda would be nothing short of an aggressive cancer.

Speaking of gun control, in Washington’s Democrat-controlled House, today was supposed to have seen a hearing on the proposed Democrat budget, but that’s apparently been postponed until Monday afternoon. This buys time for Second Amendment activists who are fired up about “rumors” that the budget will include an additional $400,000-plus for the Department of Licensing’s firearms division.

In an e-mail alert sent out late yesterday, Protect Our Gun Rights (POGR) Washington warned, “They are proposing hiring 7 more full time employees to input firearms sale and ‘transfer’ information as they are over a year behind.” What’s wrong with that?

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UPDATED (Friday evening): In a Facebook post, Robert Arco with the American Rights Movement stated, "I reviewed the 428 page proposed WA budget. I see nothing to indicate a gun registry or funds allocated for such. That's good news

"The bad news is if passed as is, higher taxes are a sure thing. The Dems want to improve the state and keep holding out the education funding need as a hostage."

Whatever else Washington gun owners may be, they are taxpayers.

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“Due to a combination of preexisting law and the passage of I-594,” the Thursday POGR alert asserted, “all private gun owner information on any sale or transfer is kept by DOL forever, and creates a de facto centralized government registry or ‘database’ of law abiding gun owners and every single detail about you.

“The DOL saves all of your personal information on firearms purchases even though it is already held by Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL’s)," the message further stated. "Information held by FFL’s is available to law enforcement agencies with a proper warrant or court order. The DOL database on the other hand is available to ANYONE they give access to.

“Supporters of this type of needless government overreach are quick to point out that the database was accessed ‘thousands’ or ‘millions’ of times, but don’t have much to point to when asked about actual crime they’ve solved with it," POGR contended. "Canada recently wisely got rid of its gun database as it costs ran into the millions and was never used to solve a single major crime.”

If Arco could not find the budget item, perhaps the "rumors" reported by POGR were just that, and nothing more. However, it could be a long weekend, and Monday's hearing could offer some amendments or changes to the proposal.

Proponents of I-594, the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility (make that “Gun Control’) was out yesterday with yet another fund raising appeal. They want another $18,000 for their “Hold Them Accountable Fund.” This money is being amassed to use as a threat to unseat state lawmakers who vote against their gun prohibitionist agenda.

UPDATE: Friday afternoon, WAGR released its own e-mail alert stating the following: "It’s time to hold the politicians accountable – and we aren’t waiting around to do it.

"Starting tomorrow (Saturday), voters in Washington’s 30th House district will begin seeing a powerful new TV message calling out Representative Linda Kochmar for her role in trying to gut Initiative 594 in the Legislature."

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