‘Cultural divide’ stalls gun law debate
Lehigh Valley lawmaker pushes bill for Pa. under-21 assault weapons ban
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s deep geographic and cultural divisions may be causing the latest logjam involving gun bills in the state House, but a pair of representatives — one Democrat, one Republican — aren’t giving up.
Reps. Pete Schweyer, an Allentown Democrat, and Todd Stephens, a Montgomery County Republican, said Thursday they will keep pushing for gun-related bills even as the main focus in Harrisburg turns to passing a state budget.
Schweyer filed a new resolution to force action on his long-stalled bill to outlaw possession of assault weapons by people under 21. He said he has a “reputation of being able to work with folks” and hopes he can use it to reboot bipartisan discussion of guns.
Stephens, meanwhile, said he hasn’t given up on his so-called “red flag” bill that was part of a nasty back-and-forth in Harrisburg early in the week.
“There is a very deep cultural divide as it relates to firearms, between rural and urban and suburban Pennsylvanians,” Stephens said late Thursday. “We have got to figure out a way to bridge that gap.”
Nonetheless, it appeared four gun safety bills in the House — including one long promoted by Stephens — were stalled.
Republican Rep. Jerry Knowles of Schuylkill County, who runs the Local Government Committee that has control of the bills, said they would not get a debate before the Legislature takes its long, post-budget summer recess
“I take it very seriously,” Knowles said of the gun debate.
But, he added, laws that are already on the books are not being enforced, and more attention must be paid to mental health needs.
The four bills that stalled this week are:
One on safe storage of firearms. One proposing a ban on “assault weapons” that provides a long list of specific models included in that definition, like the Colt AR-15.
One allowing counties,
townships and municipalities a greater ability to regulate guns.
One co-sponsored by Stephens that lays out a ‘red flag’ law, allowing loved ones, family members, or police to ask a judge to hold a hearing to temporarily disarm someone in crisis.
Accusations made
Democrats in recent weeks tried to jump-start dormant gun bills following the visceral public reaction to numerous mass shootings.
One in Uvalde, Texas, saw 19 children murdered by gunfire, and another in Philadelphia left three people dead and 11 wounded.
Republicans control the House and Senate, as well as the committees where bills are vetted and moved, or shelved.
When Democrats arrived for a Judiciary Committee meeting
Monday, they learned the four bills would likely be rerouted to the Local Government Committee — effectively delaying any debate.
Rep. Tim Briggs of Montgomery County, the top Democrat on the committee, lashed out at Republican Rep. Rob Kauffman of Franklin County, who controls it.
“If something happens between now and whenever the Local Government Committee convenes, blood’s on your hands,” Briggs said.
Kauffman responded, “The blood is on the hands of the criminals who illegally obtain and use firearms in the city of Philadelphia and in other places around this country that are unfettered by the out-of-control district attorneys who fail to prosecute the crimes.”
Subsequently, all four bills wound up in Knowles’ committee.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, two attempts by Democrats early in
the week to push forward two stalled bills — one on universal background checks and the other a red-flag-law proposal — were voted down by Republicans.
Schweyer initiative
Democrats had tried unsuccessfully to move all six stalled bills via a seldom-used “discharge resolution” that essentially uses a petition to force action on a dormant bill.
Despite that, Schweyer on Wednesday filed a discharge resolution on a seventh bill — his own, calling for a ban on possession of assault weapons by people under 21.
He hopes to prompt the Judiciary Committee or even the full House to discuss that concept. He said he has already talked to some House members about starting a new conversation, but he would not identify them.
Knowles, who also is a member of the Judiciary Committee, said he is open to talking to Schweyer. At the same time, he said Democrats appear to be trying to “take advantage of some catastrophic situations” when there are no simple solutions and current laws are not being enforced.
Stephens said he would talk to Knowles about the red flag bill.
The gun-death problem, he said, is more complex than the debate makes it seem. Urban gun violence often takes the lives of young Black men, he said, while in rural areas many guns deaths are suicides of older white men.
Stephens said, “They are very different issues that demand very different solutions.”