A panel of Pennsylvania House Democrats on Monday advanced four bills aimed at curbing gun violence, though they are unlikely to receive a vote if ultimately successful in being sent to the Republican-led Senate.
Three of the bills would ban “ghost guns” (3D-printed or untraceable weapons often built from kits), establish universal background checks for gun purchases, and create protection orders to allow a judge to temporarily confiscate a gun belonging to a person deemed to be a threat or in crisis — often referred to as a “red flag” law.
A fourth proposal would ban devices that convert firearms into machine guns, like switches and bump stocks.
Democrats’ one-vote House majority could derail the bills before they could be sent to the Senate, given the voting record of a comparatively conservative Democrat from Cambria County.
Still, more than one dozen advocates from the pro-gun reform group CeaseFirePA, who sat in the audience during the more than 90-minute House Judiciary Committee hearing, celebrated the votes to advance the bills. Activists wore bright orange shirts and carried homemade anti-gun violence signs.
Adam Garber, executive director of CeaseFirePA, said the reforms would be a “step forward towards a safer Pennsylvania.”
“These policies are bipartisan across the commonwealth, except in this building,” Garber said.
The four proposals cleared the House Judiciary Committee without a single Republican vote. Versions of three of the proposals passed the House with bipartisan support in past legislative sessions before dying in the Senate.
But the bill to ban kits that can be used to make semiautomatic weapons fully automatic failed in the House last year after Rep. Frank Burns, D-Cambria, joined every House Republican to vote against it. Burns did not respond to a request for comment.
Addressing violence
Throughout the Judiciary Committee hearing, Democratic lawmakers said the restrictions were needed to help prevent access to firearms for people who may be a threat to themselves or others, and to stop bad actors from turning their guns into more dangerous weapons.
House Majority Leader Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery, also did not respond to a request for comment on whether his caucus has the votes to advance all of the gun reform bills.
Opening the meeting, Judiciary Chair Tim Briggs, D-Montgomery, held a moment of silence to honor the three Northern York County Regional police officers killed by a gunman last week.
Several Republicans referenced slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed at an event in Utah on Sept. 10, but the GOP members largely argued that the proposals would infringe on Pennsylvanians’ Second Amendment rights.
Polling from Franklin & Marshall College shows that public opinion on gun regulations has grown increasingly polarized in the last two decades.
Among Democrats, support for gun control measures spiked from 66% to 82% between 2002 and 2022. Meanwhile, in that same time frame, the share of Republicans who favor stronger gun regulations dropped from 51% to 29%.
A seemingly uncontentious fifth gun-related bill, which would waive the $20 concealed firearm licensing fee for honorably discharged veterans and anyone 65 years or older, cleared the House Judiciary Committee in a unanimous vote Monday. It was introduced by state Rep. Dave Zimmerman, R-Lancaster.
Zimmerman, not present during the hearing, wrote in a memo to his colleagues that his proposal would be a “small benefit” to help honor veterans and senior citizens.
Spokespersons for Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, did not respond to a request for comment on this story. Both have said they would rather explore legislation to address mental health care than pass new restrictions on firearms.