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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 24, 2014 12:34 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Tim Krieger |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Request for Cosponsorship - Prohibition on Maintenance of Firearms Registry (prior HB1430) |
| With enactment of Pennsylvania's Uniform Firearms Act in 1995, the Commonwealth instituted a requirement that purchasers of firearms submit to a background check. Integral to the passage of the Uniform Firearms Act was Section 6111.4, which expressly prohibited any government or law enforcement agency from maintaining or operating a "registry of firearm ownership". Despite the plain language of the Act, the Pennsylvania State Police have created and are maintaining a database of handgun owners from data obtained from such checks. Unfortunately, by way of some tortured logic, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in Allegheny County Sportsmen's League v. Rendell, held that this database was not a "registry of firearm ownership", despite having all the attributes of a registry. The bill would reverse the holding in the Allegheny County Sportsmen's League case, by defining the term "Registry of Firearm Ownership" to make absolutely clear that the term includes any database, record or registry reflecting the sale, transfer or ownership of firearms. Passage of this bill would require the Pennsylvania State Police to destroy the existing record of sale database, and make it crystal clear that no such database can again be created or maintained. Previous Co-sponsors: KRIEGER, BLOOM, SACCONE, PICKETT, KORTZ, MALONEY, HESS, KAUFFMAN, R. MILLER, TRUITT, TALLMAN, COX, CAUSER, REESE, STEVENSON, DENLINGER, C. HARRIS, AUMENT, CUTLER, METCALFE, GROVE, ROAE, EVERETT, DUNBAR, LUCAS, GABLER, ROCK AND GILLEN |
Introduced as HB783