You think it's bad here?

If you think your state legislature is Down On Guns, check out the website of a Pennsylvania Republican Representitive: Samuel E. Rohrer, 128th Legislative District:

(H/T - Geek With A .45)

Recently, I’ve been hearing from many sportsmen and other Second Amendment rights advocates who are rightfully concerned about the deluge of gun control bills being introduced in the Democrat-controlled state House.

As the Republican Chairman of the House Game and Fisheries Committee, I am committed to defeating any proposal that further infringes on a law-abiding person’s right to bear arms while doing nothing to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

How You Can Help

Take a minute to sign my anti-gun control petition available at my Web site or at my district office.

We need to stand together in the fight against legislation like House Bill 760, which:

• Creates a statewide registry of guns.
• Requires gun owners to renew their registration annually and pay $10 per gun per year.
• Requires gun owners to be fingerprinted, undergo a background check and carry a registration card – with the owner’s photograph – with the gun at all times.

Other Gun-Control Issues

We are also facing proposals that would allow for municipal preemption of state firearm laws, limit handgun purchases to one per month and require mandatory reporting within 24 hours of lost or stolen firearms and notice of multiple purchases.

Let's talk about Pennsylvania "House Bill 760":

1. The author of the bill calls it the "Firearm Registration Act". Well, at least he is open about the intent of the bill. Those of us who have followed the ugly action of California Attorney General Bil Locklear's follow-up to "registration" understand that it's the necessary pre-cursor act to Confiscation.
2. Registration will include all personal information of the applicant, including name, address, telephone number, date of birth, age and sex, and Social Security Number of the applicant.
3. Registration will include the fingerprints of the applicant, plus a background check.
4. Annual re-registration for firearms owners.
   
5. Registration will incur a ten dollar ($10.00) per firearm fee to the Pennsylvania State Police, which body is assigned the requirement to administer the registration process.
6. Per-firearm registration includes "the name of the manufacturer, the caliber or gauge, the model, type and serial number of each firearm to be registered".
7. The registration process also includes "Two photographs taken within 30 days immediately prior to the date of filing the application equivalent to passport size showing the full face, head and shoulders of the applicant in a clear and distinguishing manner."
8. There is no Eighth Point. Sure, there's a lot of verbiage about 'antique weapons (constructed prior to 1848) and "LEO Exceptions", and even a provision for tourists and other folks 'just passing through" Pennsylvania, but it's all smoke and mirrors.
   

Given my current firearms inventory, if this bill was made law in a State where I was Resident, it would cost me several hundred dollars per year with no advancement in the security of ... anything. It would just cost me a lot of money, and cause me to reconsider if I really needed to keep Uncle Doug's .30-40 Krag that I've never fired, and I which I keep only because it is a Family Heirloom. Also that 1903-A3 Match rifle that I've never fired, and the 1894 .30-30 Winchester that I have just because it kept my family fed during the Depression (before I was born.)

This bill is hereby established as the prototype "Gun Registration" act for the United States of America.

Yes, this is the same "United States of America' which, in the second amendment to its Constitution (the "Bill of Rights"), mentions the phrase "... shall not be infringed".

The bill is nothing more or less than what it purports to be ... firearms registration.

As such, I find myself in a "Duh!" state.

As in ... "Hey, you guys are trying to formalize firearms registration. That's unconstitutional. What part of 'shall not be infringed' do you not understand?' "

If *_I_* lived in Pennsylvania, I would be up in arms (pardon the pun) about this kind of nasty, stupid, needless (I'm trying to avoid the word 'egregious', can you tell?) legislation which obviously has a single objective: forcing me to reconsider ownership of perfectly innocent guns which I already have, so I would concentrate my firearms collection with the guns I currently use.

Because that's where this bill is going, you know. It's the Camel's Nose Under The Tent" ... the "Slippery Slope" ... the "Rock Soup" of Firearms Confiscation.

Don't let these bastards fox you, Pennsylvanians! They don't want to make your state safe against criminals ... this bill doesn't even include the phony verbiage about "do it for the children" or whatever. It's too stark, too blatant for pretension.

They just want to take your guns away from you.

All of the guns, from all of the people. Destroyed, 'decommissioned', disintegrated, disposed as if they were trash.

That's where this bill is going.

Pennsylvania, if you let this one slip through your fingertips because of ennui or lethargy ... you have no-one to blame but yourselves when you discover that you have watched your last firearm go through the shredder.

Then you can sit at home, and wait for the Yobs (imported from England) as they come through the windows of your home with their baseball-bats and their Butcher Knives and their firearms that you don't own because you're an Honest Man ... but they have the guns because they don't care a fig about firearms laws.

And if you defend your home, Pennsylvania will throw you in jail for Firearms Laws violations, just as they did in England.