1 1 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA 2 * * * * * * * * * * 3 House Bills 20, 22, 29, 784 4 * * * * * * * * * * 5 6 House Judiciary Committee 7 Irvis Office Building 8 Room G-50 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 9 10 Thursday, April 26, 2007 - 10:00 a.m. 11 --oOo-- 12 BEFORE: 13 Honorable Thomas Caltagirone, Majority Chairman 14 Honorable Kathy Manderino Honorable John Pallone 15 Honorable Chelsa Wagner Honorable Jewell Williams 16 Honorable Ron Marsico, Minority Chairman Honorable Tom Creighton 17 Honorable Will Gabig Honorable Glen Grell 18 Honorable Carl Mantz Honorable Todd Rock 19 20 21 KEY REPORTERS [email protected] 22 1300 Garrison Drive, York, PA 17404 23 (717) 764-7801 Fax (717) 764-6367 24 25 2 1 ALSO PRESENT: 2 John Ryan 3 Majority Executive Director 4 David McGlaughlin 5 Majority Senior Research Analyst 6 Jetta Hartman 7 Majority Committee Secretary/Legislative Assistant 8 9 Chris Winters Majority Legislative Assistant 10 11 Dana J. Alwine, Esquire Minority Executive Director 12 13 Rod Corey, Esquire Laura Evans, Esquire 14 Minority Counsel for Committee 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 C O N T E N T S 2 SPEAKERS PAGE 3 PA League of Cities & Municipalities Thomas McMahon, Mayor.................... 7 4 City of Reading J. Richard Gray, Mayor................... 12 5 City of Lancaster 6 Colonel Jeffrey Miller, Commissioner....... 38 Pennsylvania State Police 7 Diane Edbril, Executive Director........... 85 8 CeaseFire PA 9 John Hohenwarter, Jr., State Liaison....... 112 National Rifle Association 10 Walter Phillips, Chairman.................. 147 11 PA Commission on Crime & Deliguency 12 Ann Schwartzman, Director of Policy........ 169 Pennsylvania Prison Society 13 Melody Zullinger, Executive Director....... 185 14 PA Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs Kim Stolfer, Chair, Legislative Committee.. 195 15 Allegheny Co. Sportsmen League 16 Joe Bielevicz, Detective................... 220 Firearms Tracking Unit 17 Pittsburgh Police Department 18 Calvin Johnson, M.D........................ 256 PA Secretary of Health 19 David Freed, Esquire....................... 272 20 District Attorney, Cumberland County 21 Edward Marsico, Jr., Esquire............... 280 District Attorney, Dauphin County 22 Doctor Alan Krug.......................... 311 23 Firearm Legislation Consultant 24 25 4 1 C O N T E N T S (CONT'D) 2 SPEAKERS PAGE 3 Dauphin County Robert Martin, Chief of Police........... 333 4 Susquehanna Township William Smith, Chief of Police........... 339 5 Derry Township 6 7 Written testimony submitted by: 8 Tom Corbett, Esquire, Attorney General State of Pennsylvania 9 Lake Research Partners 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 SUPPORT INDEX 2 REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS 3 4 Page Line Page Line Page Line 5 219 3-10 247 2-6 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6 1 CHAIRMAN CALTAGIRONE: I'd like to 2 call the House Judiciary Committee meeting to 3 order for today. 4 We do have information that was 5 submitted by the Attorney General, Tom Corbett 6 for the record. I'd like to so submit that at 7 the opening of the proceedings. The Attorney 8 General couldn't be here, but he did want to 9 submit his remarks, so the members have that 10 and the court reporter, of course. 11 I'm state Representative Thomas 12 Caltagirone, Chairman of the House Judiciary 13 Committee. I'd like the members of the panel 14 starting from my right to introduce themselves 15 for the record. 16 REPRESENTATIVE WAGNER: Chelsa Wagner 17 of Allegheny County. 18 REPRESENTATIVE MANTZ: Representative 19 Carl Mantz, Lehigh and Berks County, 187th 20 legislative district. 21 MR. RYAN: John Ryan, Executive 22 Director for the Democratic Judiciary 23 Committee. 24 REPRESENTATIVE MARSICO: 25 Representative Ron Marsico, Dauphin County, 7 1 Republican Chair for the Judiciary Committee. 2 MR. COREY: Rod Corey, House 3 Republican legal staff. 4 REPRESENTATIVE GABIG: Will Gabig 5 from the 199th legislative district, which is 6 part of Cumberland County. 7 REPRESENTATIVE ROCK: I'm Todd Rock, 8 Franklin County, 90th district. 9 REPRESENTATIVE GRELL: Good morning. 10 Glen Grell, 87th district, also part of 11 Cumberland. 12 MS. ALWINE: Dana Alwine, Executive 13 Director, House Judiciary Committee for the 14 Republican Caucus. 15 CHAIRMAN CALTAGIRONE: And with that 16 I'd like to start the hearing with my mayor 17 from Reading, Tom McMahon, and he's being 18 joined by Mayor J. Richard Gray from the City 19 of Lancaster. Good morning, Tom. 20 MAYOR McMAHON: Yes, thank you. Good 21 morning, everyone. Thanks for inviting us and 22 giving us the opportunity to give two things; 23 first, the perspective of the Pennsylvania 24 League of Cities and Municipalities; and 25 second, Mayor Gray and I each would like to 8 1 give you our own personal perspective from 2 what's happening in our cities. 3 So, let me start it off by saying, 4 again, welcome and thank you, Chairman 5 Caltagirone, Chairman Marsico and members of 6 the Judiciary Committee. My name is Mayor Tom 7 McMahon, Reading. With me is Mayor Rick Gray 8 of Lancaster. It's our pleasure to be here 9 representing the Pennsylvania League of Cities 10 and Municipalities to discuss the very 11 important and very pressing issue of gun 12 violence in our Commonwealth and in our 13 communities. 14 By way of background, the leadership 15 of the league began to discuss the issues 16 surrounding gun violence last year when the 17 House held its three-day Committee of the Whole 18 to address gun violence. At that time a number 19 of our member municipalities were dealing with 20 gun violence crimes within their communities on 21 a daily basis. 22 As you're all aware, crime and gun 23 violence are not just, quote, big city 24 problems. Our small and mid-size cities, and 25 even for some of our suburban and rural 9 1 communities, have faced challenges brought 2 about by violent gun crime. The victims of 3 violent crime and their family members are not 4 the only ones affected by this troubling trend. 5 Violent crime affects the entire community. 6 People feel less safe in their own 7 neighborhoods; workers and visitors in a 8 community don't want to stay after dark; and 9 residents that can afford to leave, move away. 10 For these reasons, the issue of crime 11 and gun violence came to the forefront last 12 fall, and PLCM began looking for ways to be an 13 active participant in finding solutions. 14 Based on our initial discussions, our 15 president, Mayor Chris Doherty of Scranton, 16 named a special task force to review the 17 league's policy concerning gun violence in 18 order to be engaged in discussions with the 19 legislature. I'm pleased and proud to be chair 20 of that task force. 21 Our task force held its first meeting 22 in January and focused on finding common ground 23 among our varied members in terms of what we 24 believe would make a difference in our 25 communities. Our goal is not to infringe on 10 1 constitutional rights. Our goal is to make our 2 communities safer with measures that make sense 3 and can be accomplished. As such, the 4 following policies were adopted by our task 5 force. 6 PLCM supports mandatory sentences for 7 violent crime repeat offenders. House 8 Bill 785 provides mandatory sentencing for 9 repeat offenses committed with firearms. The 10 bill provides for five years of jail time for a 11 second or subsequent offense if a person 12 visibly displaces or poses a firearm during the 13 commission of a crime. 14 Additionally, the bill provides a 15 minimum sentence of seven years if a person 16 discharges a firearm during a crime or 17 possesses a gun that was stolen or illegally 18 obtained. We believe placing a mandatory 19 sentence on repeat offenses involving guns 20 raises the seriousness of such crimes and 21 begins to provide a punishment that matches the 22 offense. 23 PLCM does support limiting handgun 24 purchases to one in any 30-day period and 25 controlling straw purchases. House Bill 22 11 1 limits handgun purchases and sales to no more 2 than one in a 30-day period for any one person. 3 We do not believe that this concept infringes 4 on the rights of sportsmen to purchase firearms 5 because this is a limitation on handgun 6 purchases only. We believe such a law will 7 control or reduce the trafficking of guns in 8 Pennsylvania. 9 We're not convinced that it is 10 necessary for a person to purchase more than 11 one handgun a month. It's our belief that bulk 12 purchases are most likely straw purchases that 13 result in illegal resale and criminal activity. 14 The league also supports defining 15 criminal-gang activity. House Bill 326 creates 16 the offense of criminal-gang activity. By 17 defining criminal-gang activity, the 18 legislature will be elevating certain gang 19 activity to that of a crime and providing 20 penalties. 21 And lastly, the PLCM supports 22 requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen 23 handguns within 24 hours. House Bill 29 24 creates a registry for lost or stolen firearms 25 and provides penalties for gun owners who do 12 1 not file a report within 24 hours of 2 discovering that their guns are missing. This 3 type of legislation places responsibility on 4 gun owners to be responsible for their 5 firearms, but also allows the Pennsylvania 6 State Police the ability to track guns used in 7 crimes or sold illegally.