Three state representatives from Lancaster County have signed onto a bill that would try to block any new federal gun-control laws in Pennsylvania.
Co-sponsors of the Right to Bear Arms Protection Act include Bryan Cutler, Gordon Denlinger and Dave Hickernell. The chief sponsor is Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of Butler County. …
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The bill would render unenforceable any federal law, regulation or order that “attempts to register, restrict or ban the ownership or purchase of a firearm, magazine of a firearm, firearm accessory or ammunition.”
The bill would make it a felony for any federal employee to attempt to register, ban or restrict the purchase or ownership of guns or gun accessories that currently are legal in Pennsylvania.
The bill also instructs the Pennsylvania attorney general to defend any state resident prosecuted by the federal government.
For all its tough talk, Cutler, of Peach Bottom, conceded the bill is more of a preemptive protest against promised federal gun-control laws, rather than an enforceable blockade against any such restrictions.
“This is a political statement to tell those in D.C. that we take our Second Amendment Rights very seriously,” Cutler said. “Our state constitution says our right to bear arms should not be questioned.
“I would certainly hope that cooler heads prevail in Washington and they realize that gun bans don’t have an appreciable impact on crime.”
Said Denlinger, “My view is we have plenty of laws on the books, some of which are unenforced.
“The desire in this bill is to reassert Pennsylvania state sovereignty in the face of continuing challenges to gun-owner rights and gun ownership.”
State sovereignty!
Do tell, what existing laws are unenforced?
Your Pennsylvania firearms laws are here. Which ones aren’t we enforcing? I hear those who oppose new regulations say this all the time. So tell us what we could be doing under existing law!
Or is that just an excuse?
What is the Republican plan in the wake of Sandy Hook? Is it the NRA’s plan of armed guards in schools?
Pray tell, shall Republicans actually allocate money to school districts to pay for this? Will they – gulp – raise taxes in order to generate the necessary funds?
Or maybe we can pass down another unfunded mandate to the schools, who will just have to “cut waste” in order to pay for these new armed guards?
I ask Cutler, Denlinger and Hickernell – if what Obama and the feds want to do is so onerous, what’s your plan to try and ensure that no Sandy Hook could happen in Pennsylvania? And no harrumphing about “personal responsibility” and the need for better psychiatric evaluation/care unless you also plan to allocate money to pay for that care. As I said in an e-mail correspondence yesterday – you think Adam Lanza’s mother wasn’t being “personally responsible?”
(Yeah, I’d say she wasn’t being “personally responsible” because she kept firearms in the same house as a very troubled kid, but I haven’t heard too many Second Amendment advocates make that argument).
So really – given that the public rightly fears the prospect of further mass shootings, and given that the legislature ought to be responding to the public’s fears and desires – what’s the plan? If we’re going to enforce unenforced laws – identify those laws.
Or, if your preferred course of action is to do nothing – tell us that, as well.
Or maybe you already are.
