State Rep. Perry Warren intends to give a gun safety measure a second chance, after lawmakers narrowly decided against advancing a previous bill out of committee.
House Bill 1400 would have required universal background checks for all gun transfers or purchases, beyond just short-barreled guns — closing what lawmakers have christened the “long gun” loophole. But the bill failed to reach the full House floor by a 14-13 vote last month in the House Judiciary Committee, 13 months after the bill was introduced and referred to the committee in May 2017.
That margin was close enough get Warren’s attention. “There are a number of things that can turn a one-vote decision,” he said Tuesday.
Though not a committee member, Warren, D-31, of Newtown Borough, cosponsored House Bill 1400, and now plans on introducing its successor.
Warren’s bill closely mirrors its predecessor, minus one provision that would have allowed firearm buyers to undertake just one background check if they wanted to make multiple purchases at a gun show.
If approved, the bill would require all gun purchases or transfers outside a family to be done before a licensed firearms dealer or county sheriff, a process also involving approval from the state police’s Instant Check System, used to cross-reference a prospective buyer’s background records.
Warren referred to a March Franklin & Marshall College poll of 423 registered state voters, indicating 86 percent of the voters “strongly favor” enhancing the gun background check system.
In a recent memo, he also said the current law allows unauthorized individuals to purchase long guns, including military-style rifles like AR-15s, some of which have seen use in deadly mass shootings.
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On June 13, 2018, the Newtown Board of Supervisors passed a non-binding “gun safety” resolution (see here). This resolution called for gun safety laws that would – among other things - “[Ensure] that background checks are required on all gun sales, including online and at gun shows. In Pennsylvania, preserve the provisions of the Pennsylvania Instant Check System (PICS), which provides instant access to background records.”