Greetings,

This is a forward from the PA gun rights group FOAC. After a huge up hill fight, our side was able to get a very important gun rights bill out of the PA house and into the PA senate. If everyone would PLEASE follow the guidelines below and just make a few calls, we'd be that much closer to getting this done before the session is over. We can't wait till for the next session as election results may end up with a less than friendly environment. So, take a few minutes, send some emails, but MOST important, make phone calls. Leave messages on the Senators voice mail tonight so they get them first thing on Tuesday. The bloomberg funded antis are really beating us badly in phone contacts and we need to be much more aggressive. It's now or never for everyone on PA. PLEASE take action. Thanks for the support!

HB 1243 (Preemption Law Changes) Passes House NOW on to Senate - HELP needed

We just received notice that HB 1243, just passed its third consideration in the House by a vote of 143-54. There are only '4' days left to get this through the Senate and we're going to need YOUR help!

Emails are insufficient. We're being outnumbered by 3-1 in calls to Representatives and Senators. We need YOUR HELP to change this.

Personal contact by phone calls and snail mail (faxes) are much more effective to get your message to our Senators and then NEED to hear from us.

The contact info for Senate Judiciary Committee is here.

Senator Stewart Greenleaf (R) chairman JC (717) 787-6599 [email protected]
(note Greenleaf is up for re election in 2014 IF Greenleaf is your senator twist arm as required to run HB 1243)

Senator Joseph Scarnati (R) leader of senate - President Pro Tempore (717) 787-7084 everyone must call or fax Senator Scarnati
He is very supportive on Second Amendment issues.... he still needs to hear from US! [email protected]

Senator Gene Yaw (R) (717) 787-3280 [email protected]

Senator John Gordner (R) (717) 787-8928 [email protected]

Senator John Eichelberger (R) (717) 787-5490 [email protected]

Senator John Rafferty (R) (717) 787-1398 [email protected]

Senator Randy Vulakovich (R) (717) 787-6538 [email protected]

Senator Richard Alloway (R) (717) 787-4651 [email protected]

Senator Lisa Boscola (D) (717) 787-4236 [email protected]

Senator Andrew Dinniman (D) (717) 787-5709 [email protected]

Senator Dominic Pileggi (R) (717) 787-4712 Majority (Floor) Leader of Senate [email protected]

These below on JC probably will not listen unless they are your senators, expect them to vote against HB 1243.

Stress the Rule of Law.

Senator Michael Stack (D) (717) 787-9608 [email protected]

Senator Daylin Leach (D) (717) 787-5544 [email protected] minority chair of JC - past CeaseFire PA endorsed candidate going to probably be one of the most vocal against HB 1243 in committee and on the floor.

Senator Wayne Fontana (D) (717) 787-5300 [email protected] up for re election in 2014 but has no opponent = no fear factor from voters

Senator Lawrence Farnese (D) (717) 787-5662 [email protected] past ceasefirepa endorsed candidate

CALL and/or FAX senators especially Scarnati, Greenleaf, Pileggi (plus others listed) and ask them to pass HB 1243 without any amendments.

Also ask your senator to bug leadership to run HB 1243 as a clean bill

HB 1243 will take at least 3 days in Senate for passage.

Getting HB 1243 passed is still do able, but it's going to take everyone making the extra effort to get this passed in the short time left. Governor Corbett will sign this bill if placed on his desk!

Senator Scarnati as leader of the senate can add more session days IF its required and most importantly IF we make our voices loud enough!

We have the votes for passage in the Senate it is just a matter of making them feel the heat and making HB 1243 a priority for quick passage with such short session time left.

PLEASE do your part and get HB 1243 passed by the Senate as a clean bill.

Details of the bill in question can be found here.

more info: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billinfo/bill_votes.cfm?syear=2013&sind=0&body=H&type=B&bn=1243

Ill be on the horn tomorrow. It's going up on my works Facebook page too.

Hit the entire list.

All very friendly and seemed interested for the input

Took 15 minutes or less

Get going and CALL !!!

Gonna get on the horn later today. Thanks for all the contact info!

Greetings,

Thanks to everyone that took the time out to make calls. We have to continue to push this hard. Inside word is the Senate Judiciary Committee may try to delay getting the bill out for a vote to the entire Senate. The more pressure we can put on them could make the difference.

Time is VERY short, so PLEASE keep up the calls! Many thanks!

Regards, Jim

Called but not sure where it is going to go.
 

Greetings,

Thanks to everyone that took the time to make the contacts. Unfortunately, we were shafted by the Republican leadership in the judiciary committee (and elsewhere). They didn't have the stones to put it to a vote this close to the election and the bill was essentially killed off without the opportunity of a full senate vote. I wish there were a viable 3rd party, as the Rs have shown they'll stab us in the back while asking for our support to our faces.

Please keep the faith and be sure to vote accordingly next month. BTW, Mr Wolf (contrary to his "for the sportsman of PA" bs) is a 100% bloomberg-anti, who may or may not be an occasional FUDD. He is NOT a friend to us.

Please see the latest from the NRA if any of your neighbors need convincing:

https://www.nrapvf.org/articles/20141007/pennsylvania-gubernatorial-candidate-tom-wolf-attempts-to-deceive-voters

Here is a voters' guide by PA FOAC (whom we CAN trust):

https://foac-pac.org/Voter-Guide



Regards, Jim

Jim-
Any insight as to what happened? Reports from people who were there and in the know? Who were the people who stopped it? Rafferty and Pileggi?

Greetings,

Well SuperMoose, I'm trying to get to the bottom of it and should have more info next week from some of our guys that were there. However, the two pols you stated for sure and then probably most significant Senator Greenleafs' moves as judiciary committee chairman. Sadly, it seems there's plenty of blame to go around. I'm almost of the mind the entire scenario was a set up stage play from the start. Back in April, there were a hundred or so of us making the rounds at the capitol and getting the bills attention in the house. Problems started soon afterward with some Dems trying to add UBC (and a half dozen other poison pills) to all of our bills. We were able to get them voted down. BUT, by the time the bill went to the Senate, the days left in session were so short that any delay was very problematic. Also, 1243 ended up combined with 2011 and both were watered down. The next indication of intentional delay was the entire senate taking off half of last week for the Jewish Holiday, then the JC holding up the bill for a "off floor meeting" that either never occurred or resulted in a back room decision to hold the bill in committee till it was too late.

 Seems that's what happened more or less. Additionally, much of the very positive language of the original version of 1243 ended up crossed out in the final version. That was VERY important, as the original would have provided for a relief path from old 302s, etc. and now there is basically NO chance of that. So, more playing politics with our rights as usual in H'burg. I think in the end, none of the Senate that was going to be up for election next month wanted to stake out a position one way or another and this was just a way they could all save face by not having a floor vote. All this is my opinion of course and there are plenty of details I'm not (yet hopefully) aware of. I'll be doing my best to find out more and report back when I have the data. Thanks to everyone who took a stand with us!

PS..........sorry for the all over the map rambling, I'm on the way out and writing in a bit of a hurry.

Regards, Jim

So HB 1243 is dead correct?

Greetings,

Yes, sorry to say but dead is right. I guess there is some minute theoretical possibility based on days left of the session, but from any practical standpoint it's over. We're just working the "post mortem" to figure out what to do better/different next session AND determine who our friends/enemies really are.

Regards, Jim

Greetings,

I don't have facebook access, so can't verify this, but it was forwarded to PAFOA  from Sen Leachs' fb page. FYI:

This is what Leach posted on his FB page:
Quote:

********************************************************************************************************
"Cool story. So yesterday they were going to run a bill to allow the NRA to sue municipalities which enact even constitutional gun-control laws. So I introduced a bunch of amendments, lost and stolen, one-gun-per-month, background checks. Two hours later the bill was withdrawn

Then Republican Senator Eichelberger revealed why:

"I was greatly disappointed today that a 2nd Amendment bill was taken off the agenda because several Republican members were afraid to vote against amendments being offered to the bill"

So we did a good deed! In celebration, I'm going to buy myself a new ascott."

*********************************************************************************************************
 As time goes on a bit, I hope to have more info as to who screwed us over beyond the usual suspects. Thanks again to everyone who got involved to fight the good fight!

Regards, Jim