Kim Stolfer: Time to restore gun freedoms

Last month Gov. Tom Wolf railed against two commonsense pieces of legislation, Senate Bill 565 (improves citizen safety) and Senate Bill 448 (stops illegal actions by local municipalities). He then went on to show his connection to the well-financed anti-gun community by advocating for their unsafe and unrealistic agenda which included measures that have failed everywhere they’ve been tried.

On Nov. 3, the United States Supreme Court heard testimony regarding the century-old Sullivan act (1911) in New York City that prevented citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights because of a power-hungry bureaucracy. Pennsylvania is not immune to that kind of bureaucracy because in 1931, Pennsylvania began the long journey of violating citizens’ rights by passing a sweeping package of gun control laws that allowed the bureaucracy at the time to avoid responsibility for not controlling criminals, a problem that continues to this day as evidenced by Wolf’s diatribe.

Constitutional carry removes restrictions for law-abiding citizens to possess and carry loaded firearms whether concealed or openly, within Pennsylvania. This measure also repeals Pennsylvania’s restrictive and complicated firearm transportation laws (Title 18, Section 6106). This legislation would retain the license to carry firearms (LTCF) as a voluntary process so that citizens could take advantage of reciprocity with other states that provide for citizens to carry firearms.

Four of the top five safest states in America (Vermont, Maine, Utah and Wyoming) all provide for constitutional or permitless carry. All 21 states that have constitutional carry have seen their violent crime rates go down. The study “Do Right-to-Carry Concealed Weapons Laws Still Reduce Crime?” demonstrates an “inconvenient truth” on the efficacy of self-defense and the gaps in research by some academics on the gun-control side.

In 2019, Pennsylvania had 11 rifles and 11 shotguns used in murders. In the same year there were 46 murders committed with cutting instruments. Of the long guns used in murders in Pennsylvania, nearly all of them were stolen and not purchased privately. Simply put, you must be a law-abiding citizen to legally “possess” and own a firearm. Criminals already disobey the law with impunity; just ask any cop. In addition, criminals do not apply for LTCFs. In a 2012 blog, former Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams reinforced that reality: “85% of the homicides in Philadelphia are caused by handguns, with 99% of those being committed by individuals not licensed to carry and after having obtained the handgun illegally.”

Let’s clear the air as to how heavily regulated Pennsylvanians are when it comes to purchase, possession and carry of a firearm (concealed or openly). Anti-gun groups rate Pennsylvania as the 11th most restrictive state in the nation. Yet Wolf and his anti-gun cronies demand and support even more gun control laws, 75 introduced in the current session, that prosecutors too frequently plea bargain away.

The governor also vilifies the Senate over SB 448, which would strengthen our Pennsylvania preemption law (Title 18, Section 6120). This law would empower citizens, who could be affected by these laws, to take independent legal action against them. This standard still requires that the legal action must be upheld in a court of law prior to the payment of any legal fees.

CeaseFire PA and other anti-gun groups are intent upon using local municipalities to create a confusing and dangerous patchwork quilt of laws that would inhibit the lawful exercise of Second Amendment rights. The passage of this legislation would open a new chapter in accountability for local municipalities who act as if the law doesn’t apply to them.

After 90 years of many failed Pennsylvania gun-control experiments, it’s time to restore citizens’ freedoms and give them the right to make a choice on how they defend themselves without government restrictions and bias.

By all legitimate accounts, this constitutional carry legislation recognizes that Pennsylvanians have a fundamental constitutional right to keep and bear arms (Article 1, Section 21, Pennsylvania Constitution). It is morally, ethically and constitutionally questionable to continue to maintain or add layers of bureaucratic regulations on those who are least likely to commit a crime.

Kim Stolfer is president of Firearms Owners Against Crime.