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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2021 - 2022
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | February 11, 2021 09:23 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Stephen Kinsey and Rep. Carol Hill-Evans |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Prohibiting Weapons at Public Demonstrations |
| The right to express, promote, pursue, and defend one’s beliefs is fundamental to a functioning democracy. Civics teaches us that we should be able to exercise this constitutional right peacefully, but current law does not guarantee this. Citizens participating in public demonstrations, marches, speeches, picketing, and vigils are always vulnerable to threats of violence. As we have seen in the recent attack on the U.S. Capitol, the possession of firearms and other dangerous articles during a public demonstration presents a clear and present danger to not only law enforcement and other first responders but also to people who participate in and attend public demonstrations. To preserve the safety of those exercising their right to peacefully assemble, our legislation would make it unlawful for a person participating in or attending a public demonstration to possess a firearm or other dangerous article. Please join us in supporting this important legislation that preserves one of the most basic principles of our democracy and keeps public demonstrations safe for all Pennsylvanians. |
Introduced as HB869