Allegheny County Sportsmen's League Legislative Committee Report
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Allegheny County Sportsmen’s League Legislative Committee Report July 2010 Issue 189 ALLEGHENY COUNTY SPORTSMEN LEAGUE ON THE INTERNET http://www.acslpa.org Contacts : Legislative Committee Chairman , Kim Stolfer (412.221.3346) - [email protected] Legislative Committee Vice-Chairman, Mike Christeson - [email protected] Founding Fathers: “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge; I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers.” -- John Adams, Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law, 1765 House Bill 40 – Castle Doctrine –Update individual citizen's right to bear arms! The decision in the McDonald case regarding the Chicago handgun ban that has Leadership Sends HB 40 to the House been in effect since 1982 is, make no mistake about it, a Appropriations Committee to Die: landmark decision that will transform the issue of gun ownership. In addition, the coupling of this decision with the While the public's attention was distracted and captivated by Heller decision from two years ago regarding the Washington the torturous budget debate, House Bill 40 (Castle doctrine) was DC ban provides for an amazing level of clarity on such a quietly spirited into the House Appropriations Committee to controversial issue. what some political observers believe is to be left to a slow and If for no other reason , it will be amusing to watch the quiet death at the hands of the Pennsylvania House of American Civil Liberties Union try to wiggle out of being Representatives Democratic leadership. involved in cases wherein citizens are denied 2 nd Amendment In choosing this parliamentary maneuver and tactic it may rights now that it is a recognized constitutional freedom (civil be accurate to say that this is backfiring on the political power right). As is usual, the anti-gun spin doctors were out within brokers. The sponsor, Rep. Scott Perry , and some in the media minutes trying to minimize the impact of this decision on the (PA Self Defense Bill Appears Dead ) have expressed growing gun control movement. Unfortunately, for Sarah Brady, Josh frustration at the fact that this legislation, that has 126 Sugarman and the rest of their ilk, the lies they have told cosponsors, would most likely pass if it was brought to the floor incessantly for the last 40 years regarding the Constitution, our and that this is a clear attempt at silencing the will of the people heritage and the basis of the freedoms protected therein have and the rank-and-file legislators. finally been exposed for the duplicitous and self-centered Gun rights activists continue to pressure the House and the ramblings of individuals who are unwilling to retrace their steps Senate to take up the mantle of this legislation and bring it to or admit they are wrong! the floor for a full vote. Not only do gunowners deserve the Disclosure Bill – H.R. 5175 opportunity to present this matter to the full legislature but so do Hot on the heels of the McDonald decision is the effort, by the tireless advocates on both sides of the aisle who have the Obama administration and the Leaders in the House of continued to sponsor and cosponsor this legislation. Representatives, to enact what is called the "disclosure bill". We encourage you to continue to keep up the pressure and This is an attempt to reinstitute the limitations that the Supreme focus on the members of the Pennsylvania House of Court (Citizens United case) said were unconstitutional in the Representatives Appropriations Committee members to petition McCain/Feingold legislation. Even more to the point, this is a and beseech the majority chairman of this committee, Rep. naked attempt to silence the American citizens who have Dwight Evans , to release this bill from the clutches of his expressed their growing resentment towards a government and legislative dungeon. an administration that is increasingly oblivious to their voices and their concerns. Swirling array of gun constitutional In fact this Disclosure Bill has direct ‘historical’ connections going back well over 200 years to the widely reviled President issues at the Federal and State levels John Adams statute known as the " Alien and Sedition Acts "! overwhelm the senses All one has to do is read history to realize that some in First and foremost we finally have some clarity from the government (especially the Federalists at the time) have always United States Supreme Court on the Second Amendment and an chafed at the unbridled criticism of Americans who feel that Page 2 their freedom of speech guarantees them the ability to criticize realm of political struggle and legal battles to preserve our government where they believe they are wrong. Now desperate liberties we discuss philosophy and principle and we offer incumbents are singling out citizens and most organizations platitudes suited to further our cause, but in the midst of all our (under 500,000 members) for legal duct taping of their 1 st quotations of law, founding fathers, and men of reason we amendment rights. This is ALL about control and protecting cannot lose sight of what gave men pause to discover the nature incumbents against the growing resentment of the American of man's rights and the cause which made men run into battle in people to an isolationist federal legislature who have forgotten the name of this notion we call individual liberty. I think, who they ‘work’ for! tonight, I saw more clearly than ever the tangible motive that Pennsylvania Gun Rights Issues provoked men to challenge kings and tyrants from the times of Throughout the last 7 1/2 years and, in particular, the last ancient Egypt to colonial America. It was not wealth or power three years Pennsylvania has been squarely under the these men sought; although they did wish to prosper...it was microscope of the anti-gun organizations at the national level something far simpler and yet something not considered and within the state on a variety of issues. The main reasoning principle in the argument for freedom by many politicians and behind this is the desire not to lose Pennsylvania to the scholars. conservative movement that is sweeping across the country in a Before I became a father I always talked of liberty and the political sense thus bringing power politics from the national rights of man but it was purely intellectual. I never really felt level and to gun rights issues and others. The real loser here are such passion as I do now to actively preserve the essential the citizens of this commonwealth who desperately need liberties granted to us by nature and secured by our Constitution. changes to the gun laws in this state if they are to avoid When I first held my daughter in my arms my whole world becoming a prosecutorial and political ping-pong ball! changed. As time passed and another beautiful little girl entered Issues such as House Bill 2536, which is representative my life I began to ponder on not just the intellectual side of my Lentz's so-called license to carry a concealed firearm loophole belief but the reality of how eroded the concept of essential bill that is nothing but a façade for his congressional aspirations. liberty has become in our country and what it might mean for Or Rep. Kessler who is also a supervisor of Oley Township that the future of my children. enacted an ordinance violating Pennsylvania preemption law, I often hear the arguments by those who seek to remove which bans firearms on Township property (you would think a more and more freedom that I must think of the children and state representative would know that this was illegal)! that we must keep them safe so please, if you will, hand over Another hot button ticket item is the continuing pressure of this right or that right. Then they return a little while later and Cease-Fire Pennsylvania to enact local ordinances that also request with aid of some tragic event if I would not mind violate Pennsylvania preemption law. Of course Joe Grace of handing over another liberty because after all you don't really Cease-Fire PA refuses to admit that this is a violation but clearly need that and it would make our job so much easier to keep you the Philadelphia legislators to core operating with this anti-gun and your family safe. Time and again the people of this country organization fully understand the import and reasoning by virtue buy into that same line of thinking and willingly tighten the of what Rep. Thomas said at a May 25 Judiciary Committee noose around our collective necks. Not many stop to think of hearing. At this hearing Rep. Thomas admitted that the where these requests will end or what they are giving up until it enactment of local ordinances was a case of civil disobedience is too late. As I sit here tonight and feel my heart beating with clearly indicating that these anti-gun state representatives and such pride and love as a father for the two most precious people Cease-Fire PA were conspiring to break in violate Pennsylvania in the world to me and of my wife who is my life and love I law. These individuals are not ones to let ethics or reality get in cannot fathom handing their safety and well being over to the way of a good public relations spectacle since not one of another.