LEGISLATIVE WATCH

Legislative Watch is headed by our committee chair Don Helms.
Find your Elected Officials, Senate and House Bills and more at the following link.
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/

Priority Legislative Alert published 3/15/19

Pennsylvania state Democrats are at it again introduce HB0768, known as the Firearms Registration Act.

HB0768 is known as the Firearms Registration Act. The Democrats that introduced the bill were Mary Louise Isaacson (D), Angel Cruz (D), and Mary Jo Daley (D). On Friday March 8th, the General Assembly referred the bill to the committee on judiciary.

The bill would require Pennsylvania. gun owners to register their firearms with the Pennsylvania State Police. Owners would have to provide the police with the make, model, and the serial numbers of all their guns.

Along with the application that the gun owner must swear to under oath, the gun owner would have to submit fingerprints, two photographs that are no older than 30 days and go through a background check for each firearm that they own. This background check is the same one that they must go through to purchase a gun.

 In addition to this requirement, they must also provide the Pennsylvania State Police with their home and work address, telephone number, social security number, date of birth, age, sex, and citizenship. This requirement is more information than a person needs to vote.

 If the State Police rejects the person's application, then they will have ten days to appeal the decision. The owner must turn their firearms into the State Police within three days of receiving notification of the rejection. If a person does not appeal the decision within ten days, their right is forfeit.

A gun owner cannot transfer any unregistered firearm. Anyone caught with an unregistered gun is guilty of a crime even if they are unaware of the firearm registration status. Also just holding an unregistered firearm at a range is a crime.

The gun owner must keep all firearms unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock. If a firearms owner doesn't secure their firearm that way, they would be guilty of a crime. This rule even applies to homes with no children.

The gun owner has 48 hours to update the State Police if they change jobs, phone numbers, addresses, or anything else on the application. If they do not update the State Police, then they could be prosecuted for violating the law.

 he certificate which will cost $10 per firearm will expire after one year. The gun owner would have to start the process over again to renew their certification. This process must be done 60 days before the certificate expires.

Don Helms
Legislative Chairman

LEGISLATIVE ALERT published 2/26/19
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee just passed H.R. 8 and H.R. 1112, and they have been sent to the U.S. House floor for a vote! These are Pelosi-Bloomberg gun control bills designed to score political points, and they won’t have any impact on crime or criminals, don’t address America’s broken mental health system and don’t address the underlying causes of violence.

H.R. 8 criminalizes the private transfer of firearms and targets law-abiding gun owners for persecution. It would make criminals out of law-abiding gun owners for simply loaning a firearm to a friend or some family members. This bill would not stop criminals from obtaining guns because criminals do not comply with the law. And the legislation would be unenforceable without federal gun registration.

H.R. 1112 would allow the government to arbitrarily delay firearm purchases for over 20 days and make it more difficult for law-abiding Americans to defend themselves and their families.

Please ask your Representative to oppose H.R.8 and H.R. 1112. Additionally, you can call your U.S. Representative at 202-224-3121 via the Capitol Switchboard or the following legislator internet contact link.

 https://act.nraila.org/actions/campaigns/5518

LEGISLATIVE ALERT published 1/29/2019

Well, we are into a new year and as responsible gun owners we must be involved in the political Arena more now than ever before. As we all know the House of Representatives is now controlled by democrats with Nancy Pelosi as the chairman. The gun grabbers are back in business and if each and every member does not get involved legislatively you will see your gun rights slowly erode.

Hopewell is teaming up with the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsman and Conservationist. This organization brings together individuals and groups of like mind to work collectively on issues to protect our rights as Sportsman and responsible Gun Owners.

The first thing we must do is arm ourselves with the tools to combat our adversaries. These tools are simple but worthless if not utilize to their full advantage. These tools you are all familiar with but need to learn how to use them in the legislative realm. The effective political tools to use is email, phone calls, letters and personal visits, not to mention political campaigns to defeat our adversaries. It is part of the lobbying process that is used to effect the decisions of our legislators. Keep in mind our legislators are career politicians, most who are attorneys who's General Assembly salaries are about $85,000 and they wish to stay in office so they will respond to constituents who take the time to contact them expressing their legislative views.

The first thing that every member and citizen should do is find out who their state and federal representatives are, their email addresses, their phone numbers and mailing address. Above you will find a link to assist you with that task.

So let’s talk a little bit about how to use these tools.
Personal Visits:
1. Plan your visit carefully. Know what you want to say and how you are going to say it.

2. Make an appointment.

3. Be on time, but be patient. Remember, many people are waiting for the same opportunity to discuss their issues with lawmakers.

4. Bring a reference sheet with quick bullet points about your issue that you can leave with the lawmaker.

5. Find out the lawmaker’s position on the issue and reason for his or her position.

6. Always be polite, even if the lawmaker does not share your position on the issue. You may need his or her support in the future.

7. Follow up your meeting with a thank you note.

8. After your meeting, please let us know how it went by contacting the Club Legislative Chairperson.

Writing Letters, Sending
E-mails:

While e-mails, form letters, and petition signing can be effective, they generally are less so than individually signed personal letters.

1. When writing letters, state your purpose in the first paragraph. If you are writing about a particular bill, identify it in the first paragraph.

2. Explain the importance of your position.

3. Identify yourself and your organizational affiliation.

4. Keep the letter simple and concise. Address only one issue per letter. Keep your letter short, with only a few sentences in each paragraph and appropriate spacing between paragraphs.

5. Whenever possible, personalize your story.

The Federation will be meeting on February 6th to discuss those pieces of legislation which affect our members. This information will be disseminated through our website.

We must not let  the news media and our legislators cause us to become apathetic. Subterfuge is a master technique that is used by politicians and they will use any form they can find to become Victorious. Anyone with normal intelligence should be able to see through the rhetoric of the drive-by media and unscrupulous politicians.

The Pennsylvania General Assembly has 253 members, consisting of a Senate with 50 members and a House of Representatives with 203 members, making it the second-largest state legislature in the nation and the largest full-time legislature. As of 2014, members' base pay was $85,356, making it the costliest state legislature per capita in the U.S. Republicans hold a 34-16 majority in the Senate and a 120-83 majority in the House.

Every member of Hopewell Fish and Game Association needs to be committed to developing a relationship with their representatives in Pennsylvania and Washington DC.

When we are alerted to legislative issues that need our attention we should let our legislators know our opinions. Legislators do respond to contact from their constituents. Studies show that legislators believe that from every constituent they hear from that constituent affects 10 votes.

That being said the following link will make it easier for members to locate their representatives and contact them by phone, email or a letter.
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/

Contacting our legislators is one part of the equation but having the ability to do it quickly and efficiently is paramount. This can be done in two ways, one is to develop a legislative email group to put out legislative alerts and the other  is to develop a phone tree to put out massive phone calls in a short amount of time.

The email group alerts many members with one message at the push of a button. The phone tree is a bit more work but quite effective. Members receive a phone call concerning a specific legislative issue. The members then contact 5 additional members with the information. This process continues until all members are notified.

To become part of the legislative process contact me at the following:
hfgadon@gmail.com
443-876-2330
Don Helms