PA Bill Number: HB2235
Title: Providing for regulation of the meat packing and food processing industry by creating facility health and safety committees in the workplace; ...
Description: Providing for regulation of the meat packing and food processing industry by creating facility health and safety committees in the workplace; ... ...
Last Action: Referred to LABOR AND INDUSTRY
Last Action Date: Apr 25, 2024
Wolf considering arming military recruiters after Chattanooga killings :: 07/25/2015
Gov. Tom Wolf is mulling the arming of Pennsylvania’s military members in response to last week’s mass killings in Tennessee and growing pressure from inside the Capitol, a spokesman says.
In a statement issued to The Era on Thursday, press secretary Jeff Sheridan said Wolf “shares the concerns of many about the safety of our military members and recruiters in light of the horrific act of violence in Tennessee” and would review efforts to arm them.
Those calls include, most recently, a letter sent to Wolf by state Rep. Stephen E. Barrar, R-Chadds Ford, calling on the Democratic first-term governor to take executive action allowing Pennsylvania National Guardsmen and recruiters to carry guns on-duty.
A Pennsylvania Army National Guard readiness center is located at Bradford Regional Airport in Lafayette Township.
A spokesperson at Barrar’s Harrisburg office said the letter had been issued to the governor on Thursday with 107 signatures from a bipartisan mix of lawmakers.
Sheridan said Wolf will take “Barrar’s letter and other input from the Legislature under consideration as he consults with General Joseph, other leaders from the National Guard, law enforcement and the Office of General Counsel.”
No timetable for a decision was given.
Included in the letter’s 107 signatures was that of Rep. Martin Causer, R-Turtlepoint, who said he feels military personnel need “the tools to protect themselves,” including firearms “for self-defense purposes.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Matthew Baker, R-Wellsboro, was another signee, citing elevated threats against U.S. military installations in the era of ISIS as the need for a new look at long-standing firearm bans for many stateside service members.
Those bans stem largely from a more than century-old law meant to ensure the military isn’t used for domestic law enforcement by the federal government.
But in the wake of last week’s shootings in Chattanooga, in which five servicemen were killed by a reportedly disturbed and possibly radicalized gunman, a growing number of states, eight at last check, had moved to repeal similar bans, saying restrictions on guns at some military facilities have left them a soft target.
Critics, meanwhile, say recruiting facilities, in particular, are meant to be inviting spaces for youth and should not include live-weapons.
The states now allowing guns at those locations include, Wisconsin, Indiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas and Ohio.
In his letter, Barrar, majority chairman with the senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee, asks that Pennsylvania become the latest, with National Guard recruiters and personnel allowed to carry firearms in the performance of their duties and guns made eligible under “uniform of the day” practices and policies.
In at least seven states, a gubernatorial executive order, like that being sought from Wolf, made the change possible.
In the absence of similar measures or political action, armed citizens in states including Tennessee have taken to guarding military recruitment centers, like that attacked in Chattanooga by a 24-year-old Kuwaiti-born gunman on July 16.
And while the military community mourns the resulting deaths, it also asks that service members be allowed to better protect themselves in similar situations.
Straddling both the government and military sectors, Rep. Matt Gabler, R-DuBois, himself a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard, said he, too, signed Barrar’s letter and hopes it pushes the governor to act.
“It is terribly unfortunate that members of our U.S. military face risk not only when deployed overseas, but also while working at their home stations within the United States,” Gabler said.
“With today’s environment and the recent tragic events in Chattanooga, it is clear that security precautions appropriate to today’s world must be taken to enable military personnel to defend themselves from terrorists and others who would do them harm.”
At the federal level, U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., said he’s also introduced legislation that would allow side-arms to be worn at recruitment centers across the country.
“They are called the armed forces for a reason which should not be confused,” Thompson said, citing a “complicated group of federal, state and local ordinances (that) has placed undue barriers to these commonplace protections.”
http://www.bradfordera.com/news/article_1b2e0124-31a1-11e5-9167-4f1c23d413b3.html
