Thursday’s House Judiciary packet skipped the gun bills, SB 1449 and constitutional carry SB 357 are still alive, and the DOJ under-21 window and Elite Precision crack are unfinished. Keep Pennsylvania Firearms Association fighting for you.
Here’s what actually happened for gun owners this week:
The House Judiciary Committee had a voting meeting Thursday, September 24, and the packet they posted was pigeons, probation, trafficking, and study resolutions, not the stack on ghost guns, long-gun background checks, red-flag orders, and conversion devices. A quiet sheet is not the same thing as those bills being dead, because a bill that isn’t called this week is still a bill.
Senate Bill 1449, the conversion-device ban introduced September 10, is still sitting in Senate Judiciary. Once they write the crime around the part, a common pistol owner is one theory away from explaining a piece of plastic or metal. It did not get a vote this week, and it did not go away. Constitutional carry, SB 357, is still waiting on a floor vote after it cleared committee on a party line.
DOJ’s under-21 handgun window is still the biggest federal story, because DOJ said it may not criminally punish dealers for selling handguns to otherwise law-abiding adults ages 18 to 20, and ATF is still sorting out what that means at the counter. There is no final settlement, Congress left the statute on the books, and Pennsylvania’s own license rules do not change because Washington wrote a memo. The Fifth Circuit’s Elite Precision crack in interstate handgun sales is real, and the mandate has not issued, so do not treat an out-of-state handgun sale as open for business.
Pennsylvania is also not on the list of states where a plain Form 4473 suppressor transfer is being treated as live, and the government’s window to appeal that Texas ruling closes October 5. Do not celebrate like Harrisburg already decided to leave you alone.
For Freedom,
Chris Dorr
Executive Director
Pennsylvania Firearms Association
P.S. A Thursday with no gun bill on the agenda is how they hope you stop watching, so stay subscribed and stay sharp.