Pennsylvania’s House Republicans gave a first approval to a bill that would end the state’s longstanding requirement of a separate license for all handgun owners to carry a concealed weapon on their person or in a car, reported PennLive.com.
Rep. Aaron Bernstine’s bill passed it’s first test
on a 14-11 vote in the House Judiciary Committee, with 14 of the 15 Republican
members voting yes, and all 10 Democrats plus Rep. Todd Stephens, R-Montgomery
County, voting no.
The Pennsylvania measure, in some ways, mirrors a
bill that just was signed into law in Texas, which became the
21st state in the nation to adopt the so-called “constitutional carry” language
earlier Tuesday. Supporters use the term constitutional carry because they
argue that it’s just as much a fundamental right to bear arms as it is to own
them.
But in some ways, the change to the Pennsylvania law
is a smaller step.
Unlike in some states, where a permit to carry
carries requirements for training, a written exam and a shooting proficiency
test, all Pennsylvanians need to get the permit is to have a clean background
check, two character references and $20 for the application fee.
As such, Bernstine argued Tuesday, the current
requirement only creates unnecessary hoops for law-abiding citizens, who
already have to pass a background check when they purchase their gun.
“This is not going to affect non-law abiding
citizens because, to be honest with you, they just don’t care about the law
anyway,” the Lawrence County Republican.
That argument carried little weight with gun control
advocates on the committee, who expressed concern about relaxing any gun
regulations at a time when gun homicides in some of the state’s urban areas is
on the increase.
The a spate of gun violence in Philadelphia this
weekend pushed the city’s homicide count as of Monday morning to 185 victims,
according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. That was more than 30% higher than at
this time last year, and 2020 was a year when the city’s police reported more known shooting victims than at any time since it started
keeping separate records on that in 2007.
Stephens, the lone Republican dissenter Tuesday,
said he believed there were easier ways to make the permit requirement
less-onerous for handgun owners, like requiring the state to notify permit
holders that it’s time to renew their five-year permits, just like the state
Department of Transportation does now for vehicle registrations and driver’s
license renewals.
Stephens said he was especially concerned about
seeing an explosion in the number of people who would might decide to carry
guns in their cars.
Other Democrats said they see nothing particularly
burdensome about the permit requirement, noting that about 1.3 million state
residents have the permits now.
“We can have a right that is protected, but that is
also protected in a way that is responsible and respectful of others’ rights,”
said Rep. Joe Hohenstein, a Philadelphia Democrat.
House Judiciary staff said the bill is opposed by
the state District Attorneys Association and the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police
Association, while the municipal police officers union and county sheriffs’ are
neutral.
Bernstine has bigger things to worry about, however.
If his bill would eventually get through the full
House and the state Senate, it would almost certainly face a veto by Gov. Tom
Wolf.
In a statement Tuesday night, Wolf’s Press Secretary
Lyndsay Kensinger said “The governor urges the General Assembly to join him in
prioritizing addressing gun violence; specifically, take up safe storage
legislation to reduce the number of shootings by people who should not have
access to guns, including accidental shootings by children; to tighten
reporting requirements for lost or stolen guns; to swiftly pass the Extreme
Risk Protection Order Act, also known as the red flag law; and to pursue
state-level universal background checks on all gun purchases.”
Pennsylvanians are already generally allowed to
openly carry loaded firearms, although the law is silent on it. Only in
Philadelphia is a permit required for that.
To read more CLICK HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment