With the role of Attorney General, there are a number of ways in which decisions will impact gun owners. The most direct is through the power to sign & maintain reciprocity agreements with other states to honor concealed carry licenses. As Attorney General, Gov. Tom Corbett signed a number of these agreements. Whether Patrick Murphy would do the same, or even if he would consider revoking or revising agreements remains to be seen. Hopefully this is an issue the press & voters will have the chance to ask him about during the next 12-19 months of the campaign.

Another power of the Attorney General is to write or sign briefs going before the Supreme Court representing the interests of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In the landmark DC v. Heller case which clearly articulated a right to own a handgun in your home for self-defense, then-Attorney General Tom Corbett joined 30 other states in defending the right to own a firearm. When it came to the similar brief filed by more than 300 members of Congress, then-Representative Patrick Murphy refused to sign. In fact his refusal to support an individual right to bear arms before the Court stands in contrast to the 13 Pennsylvania colleagues from both sides of the aisle who signaled their support. He also accepted campaign donations from the Brady Campaign who sided with the Washington, DC government officials who said there was no individual right to arms.

Though often a far less official role, the Attorney General may signal support or opposition to legislative positions. With Murphy’s record, we should question what this could mean for Pennsylvania. In 2008, he signed on to co-sponsor a gun ban that was so broad, it would have banned all semi-automatic shotguns. He may also influence policy in a more official role by refusing to get involved when local governments push the limits of the state’s preemption statute.

Fortunately, with a year to go before the party primaries, there’s plenty of time for conversation & action when more candidates have announced their intentions on running. However, if you’re a gun owner, especially a Democratic gun owner who plans to vote in next year’s primary, it’s not too early to start asking questions.

Of highest importance, S. 941and H.R. 2296 rewrite the system of administrative penalties for licensed dealers, manufacturers and importers of firearms. Today, for most violations, BATFE can only give a federal firearms license (FFL) holder a warning or revoke the license. S. 941and H.R. 2296 would allow fines or license suspensions for less serious violations, while still allowing license revocation for the kind of serious violations that would block an investigation or put guns in the hands of criminals. This will help prevent the all-too-common situations where BATFE has revoked licenses for insignificant technical violations—such as improper use of abbreviations, or filing records in the wrong order.

The Senate bill currently has 13 sponsors from both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, neither of Pennsylvania’s Senators have signed on to the reform package. Contact Sen. Bob Casey at 1-866-802-2833 and Sen. Arlen Specter at 202-224-4254 to request their support for this important reform.

The House bill currently has 175 sponsors from both parties, and it includes 11 Pennsylvania Representatives. Residents of Pennsylvania’s 19th district should thank Rep. Todd Platts for his support at 1-877-902-1919. Unfortunately, Representatives Patrick Murphy and Allyson Schwartz have not signed on to support the bill yet. You can contact Rep. Murphy at 202-225-4276 and Rep. Schwartz at 202-225-6111 to suggest they sponsor the bill.

This year, the August recess is scheduled to run from August 3 to September 7.

If you would like to schedule a meeting to air concerns about any issues, check out the area district office contact information:

U.S. Senators
Arlen Specter
Upper Bucks/Montgomery Counties: Allentown
504 W. Hamilton, Suite 3814, Federal Building
Allentown, PA 18101
Phone: 215-597-7200

Philadelphia and Lower Bucks/Montgomery Counties: Philadelphia
600 Arch Street, Suite 9400
Philadelphia , PA 19106
Phone: 215-597-7200

Adams/York/Cumberland Counties: Harrisburg
228 Walnut Street, Room 1104, Federal Building
Harrisburg , PA 17101
Phone: 717-782-3951

Bob Casey
Upper Bucks/Montgomery Counties: Allentown
840 Hamilton Street, Suite 301
Allentown, PA 18101
Phone: 610-782-9470

Philadelphia and Lower Bucks/Montgomery Counties: Philadelphia
2000 Market Street, Suite 1870
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: 215-405-9660

Adams/York/Cumberland Counties: Harrisburg
22 S. Third Street, Suite 6A
Harrisburg, PA 17101
Phone: 717-231-7540

U.S. Congress
Patrick Murphy, PA-8
Philadelphia, Lower Bucks Counties: Bristol
414 Mill Street
Bristol, PA 19007
Phone: 215-826-1963

Montgomery, Upper Bucks Counties: Doylestown
72 North Main Street
Doylestown, PA 18901
Phone: 215-348-1194

Allyson Schwartz, PA-13
Montgomery County: Jenkintown
706 West Avenue
Jenkintown, PA 19046
Phone: 215-517-6572

Philadelphia County: Philadelphia
7219 Frankford Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19135
Phone: 215-335-3355

Todd Platts, PA-19
Adams County: Gettysburg
22 Chambersburg Street
Gettysburg, PA 17325
Phone: 717-338-1919

Cumberland County: Carlisle
59 West Louther Street
Carlisle, PA 17013
Phone: 717-249-0190

York County: York
2209 East Market Street
York, PA 17402
Phone: 717-600-1919

Top concerns about the gun issue for Senators Casey and Specter are the confirmation of anti-Second Amendment Sonia Sotomayor and the appointment of anti-hunting Cass Sunstein to the office of Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (aka Regulatory Czar). In the House, Congressmen Murphy, Schwartz, and Platts should be questioned on opposition or support for the DC gun rights amendment to the DC voting rights bill. At this time, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has refused to bring up the bill for a vote out of fear that the House might support basic gun rights for residents of the District of Columbia.

If you would like to meet with other gun owners to conduct a meeting with Congressional staff, please let your local EVC know. You can contact us via this web form.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has specifically made noises that he will not try to bring the bill forward again. Hoyer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi would like to vote for the voting rights portion of the bill, but they would rather remove any mention of gun rights for the same DC residents. Pelosi recently called the amendment “a draconian gun bill” and reiterated her support for keeping the residents of our nation’s capital disarmed. However, the votes are not in her favor, as a majority of the House believes in basic Second Amendment rights. Should the bill come up again, you can find information here.

Pelosi’s Gun Owner Registration & Transportation Ban Proposals
Though Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi took to the airwaves to discuss gun control on Good Morning America in the spring to propose new restrictions on gun owners, she has not acted upon any of her own proposals. As you may recall, she reiterated her support for registering guns and their owners, a step that has historically lead to confiscation.

In addition, Speaker Pelosi she suggested that the Congress & Obama Administration should ban guns from crossing state lines. She wanted to put an end to competitions such as NRA’s Camp Perry, hurt hunters who prefer to take to the fields in a neighboring state, and potentially even restrict whether or not gun owners can take their firearms with them if they move.

Concerned by her close ties to Bucks County Congressman Patrick Murphy, we asked you to contact him and remind him that we are not San Francisco anti-gun extremists in Pennsylvania. Again, there has been no legislation moved since that time. Hopefully, we can keep it that way.

However, Nancy Pelosi is so frightened to allowing a bill that gives DC residents the right to keep firearms in the home like the rest of us that she actually pulled the bill from the calendar to avoid having a pro-gun amendment added. The pressure is on in the House. We need to remind Congressman Patrick Murphy that he represents us and he should cast votes that reflect the will of his constituents and not another politician from San Francisco.

This morning, the Washington Post published an article that gives us an idea of what Pelosi’s game plan is to allow DC City Council to keep thumbing their nose at the Heller decision by the Supreme Court. Left-leaning groups who want to see another anti-gun vote (assuming Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is re-elected to the new seat) in the House are putting pressure on 60 moderate Democrats to try and pull away the 28 votes they need to avoid having the amendment attach on the House floor. Cong. Murphy is likely in those targeted groups. He’s being told that people back home aren’t watching and don’t care about gun rights enough to care whether DC residents may own them or not.

This battle over a local Second Amendment issue will have repercussions on the entire country, and will definitely effect the 2010 elections. The leadership in the House is twisting the arms of lawmakers in an attempt to get the D.C. Voting Rights Act passed without the amendment requiring DC to honor the Bill of Rights and Supreme Court decision. Pelosi, along her allies Norton and Steny Hoyer, are running around trying to convince Democratic lawmakers that the NRA is no threat to them. It is our duty as NRA members to remind them that it simply is not true.

Call Cong. Murphy to tell him that you want his vote for a gun rights amendment if the DC Voting Rights is to be heard. His phone number is (202) 225-4276.

First, of our endorsed incumbents, gun owners should congratulate State Reps. Paul Clymer and Gene DiGirolamo and Attorney General Tom Corbett. Tom Corbett’s re-election is particularly noteworthy to concealed carry license holders in the our district given the control over license reciprocity for the state’s gun owners. His opponent was F-rated and could have done significant damage to our progress on the issue. (Both opponents of the endorsed state representatives refused to return questionnaires.)

However, our non-incumbent endorsed candidates did not fare as well. Both happened to be Republican, and it was not a year where the stars were lined up for Republicans at the federal level. Tom Manion was defeated by anti-gun Patrick Murphy and John McCain was defeated by the most anti-gun presidential candidate in our history. We will spend the next two years informing gun owners of Patrick Murphy’s terrible record on our issue.

In at least one race with no endorsement, we seem to have improved our representation in Harrisburg for the residents of 142. Frank Farry, who forgot to return the questionnaire to NRA but sent a personal statement to NRA members that included a pledge to create a sportsmen’s council to advise him on our issues, defeated incumbent Chris King. King’s grade had dropped from an A- to a C- during his term. (Gun owners who may have contacted King over his short term in the PA House may recognize his treatment of constituents on display last night – he refused to attend his own watch party and thank his supporters or congratulate Frank Farry.)

The only other district to change hands was 31, and that was due to the retirement of an endorsed candidate. Unfortunately, for those residents, neither Pete Stainthorpe nor Steve Santarsiero returned questionnaires earning an endorsement. In fact, Stainthorpe did not return it at all. The eventual winner, Santarsiero, was given a B rating. Now it’s up to gun owners to let him know that they would like to see that grade go higher through his votes.

Our next election in 2010 will not only give us another opportunity to return the 8th District back into a pro-gun Congressional seat, but we will also be looking at a race for the Governor’s Mansion, as well as state Senate seats in the area, and all of the state House seats again. For the next two years, my focus will be on outreach and education. In speaking with many gun owners from Quakertown to Philadelphia, I found that many simply did not realize how lower ticket candidates had voted on their rights. Next time, we will educate even more gun owners for even higher turnout.

In the meantime, check back here for reports on how our local representatives are involved in all of the big gun news from the DC Beltway back to Harrisburg.

Citing his support of a measure forcing the District of Columbia, a federal district, to comply with the Supreme Court decision in DC v. Heller, Bryan Miller of CeaseFire NJ is unhappy with Congressman Patrick Murphy. He claims that the young Representative’s relationship with Cong. John Murtha as a sign that Murphy is pro-gun.

Bryan Miller, executive director of Ceasefire NJ, expresses outrage. “As I understand it, Murphy is joined at the hip to [U.S. Rep.] John Murtha, and Murtha is a tied-at-the-hip NRA [National Rifle Association] guy,” Miller said. “I don’t see any other reason why a suburban Philadelphia Democrat, with Philadelphia going through the horrible throes of gun violence, would sign onto a bill making the availability of guns so much greater in D.C. I think, frankly, [Murphy] should be ashamed of himself.”

Alas, while Miller may be upset that the Brady Campaign investment in Patrick Murphy isn’t paying the legislative dividends they had hoped, Murphy is hardly supportive of the right to keep and bear arms.

Oddly, Murphy is trying to mix up his record in order to appear middle-of-the-road, according to quoted staff members.  His idea of middle-of-the-road?  Allow DC residents to own handguns for self-defense in their homes, but ban semi-automatic shotguns and rifles used for sport at the range.

They city maintains a ban on semi-automatic handguns, considering them machine guns under current rules. Public officials have also made clear that even if District residents manage to get through the hoops of registering a firearm legally, they are still restricted in home storage and defensive uses, despite clear statements from the Court in support of easing the burden on a citizen’s right to self defense.

Unfortunately, plaintiff Dick Heller must go to the federal courts in order to force the city to comply with the historic ruling confirming our individual Second Amendment rights because Congress has refused to act on legislation that would ensure the District’s gun laws allow law abiding citizens like Dick Heller, a government security guard, to purchase and keep firearms for self defense in the home. (The District has a City Council that governs only with the approval of Congress. Congress retains Constitutional authority over the city since it is not a state.)

Since the Congressional leadership has refused to release the bill for a vote, over 100 members of the House of Representatives have signed a discharge petition in order to allow the legislation to come to the floor. The importance of the petition and allowing a vote on H.R. 1399, “To Restore Second Amendment Rights in the District of Columbia,” that would clarify DC’s gun laws cannot be overstated. At this time, Pennsylvania’s Congressman Patrick Murphy has refused to sign the petition and refused to co-sponsor the legislation. The bipartisan bill currently has 249 sponsors, including 13 from Pennsylvania.

However, this is not a completely unexpected move on the part of Pennsylvania’s 8th District Representative. When the original case of DC vs. Heller was before the court, 250 Representatives and 55 Senators signed a bipartisan amicus brief emphasizing the support in Congress that the Second Amendment protects an individual right.

As Federal officials, we have a fundamental interest in protecting the constitutional rights of our constituents and the American people in general.

The Congress has a long history of protecting the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Like the rest of the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment was proposed to the States by the Congress in 1789. On several occasions, in different epochs of American history, the Congress enacted statutory texts which explicitly declared its understanding of the Second Amendment as guaranteeing fundamental, individual rights.

When presented with the opportunity to sign the brief, Congressman Murphy refused to take a stand for individual liberty. He may well have been influenced by the $1,000 donation from the Brady Campaign whose litigation wing authored the following brief in support of the DC gun ban during the original case:

Contrary to the lower court, the Framers did not envision the guarantee of a right to possess guns for private purposes as the means of arming the militia. The arming of the militia was a matter of government command, not individual choice, and was regulated by statute.

By contrast, 13 of Rep. Murphy’s colleagues representing Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives signed on to the brief and made clear their belief that the Bill of Rights actually does protect individual rights.

Recently, Congressman Patrick Murphy signed on to sponsor legislation which would outlaw hundreds of commonly owned guns here in the Commonwealth. The ban makes no exceptions, not even for law-abiding owners who use them for competitions, hunting, or defense of the home every day in Pennsylvania.

Similar to the 1994 ban on semi-automatic firearms pushed by then-President Bill Clinton, Murphy’s bill would go much farther. It would ban forever:

• All semi-automatic shotguns. (e.g., Remington, Winchester, Beretta and Benelli, used for hunting, sport shooting and self-defense. H.R. 1022 would ban them because they have “any characteristic that can function as a grip,” and would also ban their main component, called the “receiver.”)
• Any semi-automatic shotgun or rifle an Attorney General one day claims isn`t “sporting,” even though the constitutions of the U.S. and 44 states, and the laws of all 50 states, recognize the right to use guns for defense.
• All detachable-magazine semi-automatic rifles-including, for example, the ubiquitous Ruger 10/22 .22 rimfire-because they have “any characteristic that can function as a grip.”
• Target shooting rifles. (e.g., the three centerfire rifles most popular for marksmanship competitions: the Colt AR-15, the Springfield M1A and the M1 “Garand.”)
• Every gun made to comply with the Clinton ban. (The Clinton ban dictated the kinds of grips, stocks and attachments new guns could have. Manufacturers modified new guns to the Clinton requirements. H.R. 1022 would ban the modified guns, too.)
• Guns exempted by the Clinton ban. (Ruger Mini-14s and -30s, and Ranch Rifles; .30 cal. carbines; and fixed-magazine, semi-automatic, center-fire rifles that hold more than 10 rounds.)
• 65 named guns (the Clinton law banned 19 by name); semi-auto fixed-magazine pistols of over 10 rounds capacity; and frames, receivers and parts used to repair or refurbish guns.

Boy Scouts would not be able to shoot one of the most common .22 rifles at camp. All of your fellow trap shooters who prefer semi-automatic shotguns could never buy a new one again.

Congressman Murphy defends his effort to ban these common rifles by citing the tragic shooting of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski by criminals who had rap sheets that totaled 26 pages. The criminal responsible for the murder had 13 arrests for unlawfully carrying a firearm that the District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute. In a further 11 arrests for violations of Pennsylvania’s firearms laws, the charges were either withdrawn or dismissed. In only three cases was he prosecuted and either plead guilty or was found guilty. On weapons charges alone, he could have done 12 years in prison, in which case he would not have been on the streets. The criminal records of the other two participants in the crime have similar records that would have landed them all behind bars had they been prosecuted or forced to carry out their sentences as career criminals. None of them should have been on the street that tragic day.

Rather than asking local leaders to address the very serious problems that plague the city’s ability to process and punish criminals, Congressman Murphy has decided to target the law abiding gun owners across the country and ban their sporting firearms.

***

Additional Pennsylvania Representatives joining Congressman Murphy’s gun ban include: Robert Brady (1st District), Chaka Fattah (2nd District), Allyson Schwartz (13th District), and Joe Sestak (7th District).