Pa. lawmakers look to adopt stronger concealed carry laws. What would change - GoErie.com
Two gun-related bills from Republicans expected to be voted on in the state Senate this week would expand concealed carry rights and allow anyone to sue Pennsylvania municipalities that enact firearm ordinances that are stricter than state law.
Gun-control groups warned the changes would pose a “deadly risk” to Pennsylvanians amid escalating gun violence. And Gov. Tom Wolf has said he would veto the measures. if the bills pass the Senate and then the House
There is already a state law that prohibits municipalities from trying to trump state gun rights, but the legislator behind the bill, state Sen. Wayne Langerholc Jr., R-Cambria County, has said the bill is necessary because localities continue to pass such ordinances.
Gun safety advocates are lobbying against both bills, which are expected to be taken up by the Senate by Wednesday. Republicans control both the House and Senate.
Both bills were sent back to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday.
Adam Garber, the executive director of CeaseFirePA, said there have been about 4,600 gun-related deaths in Pennsylvania over the last three years.
“The General Assembly should be looking for solutions, not policies that will make our communities and children less safe during a time of rising gun violence,” he said.
Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa of Allegheny County added that, “This is the time when we should be looking at reasonable gun violence prevention measures, like emergency risk protection orders, not a wide, unregulated expansion of concealed firearms. It’s totally inappropriate.”
On Tuesday, Wolf released a statement on both bills, and again pledged to veto them if they reach his desk.
"We need to stop this nonsense — we should question why we would want anyone who hasn’t undergone a background check to carry a concealed weapon," said Wolf. "We should question politicians who turn a blind eye to the fact that states without concealed carry permits have an 11 percent higher rate of homicide than those with discretion.”
Wolf offered several legislative priorities, including bills on safe storage of guns, stricter reporting requirements for lost or stolen guns, extreme risk protection orders (red flag laws) and state-level universal background checks on gun purchases.
"Pennsylvanians deserve safety," Wolf said. "Republicans are dealing them peril with this irresponsible bill.”
What the bills would do
Both of the gun rights bills have been introduced by rural Republican legislators.
Senate Bill 565, sponsored by Sen. Cris Dush of Clinton County, would allow for concealed carry in Pennsylvania without a permit, including dropping the legal age from 21 to 18, and allow open carry without a permit in Philadelphia.
“Citizens who pass a criminal background check to purchase a new firearm are the least likely to commit an offense with a firearm,” Dush wrote in a co-sponsorship memo in January.
A similar bill from state Rep. Aaron Bernstine, R-Lawrence County, passed the House Judiciary Committee in May, but has not yet received a floor vote.
Langerholc’s Senate Bill 448 would preempt local efforts to enact gun control policies by allowing anyone to sue municipalities or counties for approving firearm ordinances more restrictive than state law and seek compensation for legal expenses.
Opponents argue that Langerholc’s bill would let groups from outside of Pennsylvania, such as the National Rifle Association, sue municipalities and pass costs on to local taxpayers.
Langerholc has been pushing for his bill since at least 2017.
“Where no uniform state laws are in place, the result can be chaotic, as restrictions change from one local jurisdiction to another,” Langerholc wrote in a January memo seeking co-sponsors.
A bill by state Rep. Matt Dowling, R-Fayette County, that would allow outside groups to sue Pennsylvania municipalities that pass their own gun restrictions was approved by the House in June and is now with the Senate Judiciary Committee.
More:Pa. legislators set to pass concealed carry without a gun permit. Will it become law?
"Deadly risk"
CeaseFirePA said either bill “poses deadly risk to the lives of Pennsylvanians” as an FBI report showed that homicides increased by 27% in Pennsylvania last year.
The group warned that allowing permitless concealed carry led to a 44% increase in gun-related aggravated assaults in Arizona over the six years after permitless carry was approved there in 2010.
CeaseFirePA said the impact in Pennsylvania could be worse because Arizona limited concealed carry to those 21 and over.
In Missouri, gun-related suicides increased by more than 7% among those 19 to 24 years old after the age limit was dropped to 19 for concealed carry, said CeaseFirePA.
Second Amendment supporters “are searching for a problem that does not exist,” said CeaseFirePA, explaining that the state’s current concealed carry permit process does not affect the rights of those police approve for concealed carry.
More than 311,000 concealed carry permits were issued in Pennsylvania in 2020, a 25% increase from 2019, the group said.
As for the preemption bill, CeaseFirePA said it “reveals a glaring inconsistency in the Senate majority’s ideological commitment to local control.”
During the school mask debate, Republicans have repeatedly argued that local control is best and that masking decisions should be left to school boards rather than the state.
CeaseFirePA also said that the state’s preemption law current bans municipalities from passing gun ordinances, noting that Pittsburgh City Council approved an assault weapons ban after the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in 2018 only to have it blocked.
Susquehanna County resident Carol Lastowka, a hunter, said during an Oct. 26 press conference that allowing permitless concealed carry “would turn us all into targets for the next hothead who decides they don’t need a permit to carry.”
More:Thousands of kids experienced, saw gun violence last year. How are we dealing with trauma?
J.D. Prose is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Pennsylvania State Capital Bureau. He can be reached at [email protected].
source: https://www.goerie.com/story/news/2021/11/09/pa-concealed-carry-law-changes/6348003001/
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