Two other bills to ban ‘ghost guns’ and create a red flag law failed in 101-102 votes.
Lawmakers in the state House passed legislation that would require background checks for the sale and transfer of rifles and shotguns, which is not currently required in Pennsylvania.
The 104-99 vote was one of three held Tuesday to try to toughen the commonwealth’s gun laws. They highlighted the complexity of passing firearms reforms in the narrowly split House, where the divide between rural and urban interests doesn’t always follow party lines.
Five Republicans joined the majority of Democrats in support of the background check bill, which now goes to the Republican-controlled state Senate for consideration. It is one of four gun bills quickly passed out of the House Judiciary Committee last week in the wake of high profile shootings in September. They included the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah and an ambush that killed three law enforcement officers during a shootout in York County.
A bill to create a red flag law allowing courts to temporarily ban people deemed a risk to themselves or others from possessing firearms failed by one vote – 101-102. A third measure banning undetectable ghost guns also came up short by the same margin.
Democratic leaders did not call a vote for the fourth bill, which would ban devices intended to make semi-automatic weapons fire at the same rate as automatic ones.
As in past gun safety votes, Democratic Rep. Frank Burns, whose largely rural district covers part of Cambria County, broke ranks by voting “no” on all three gun bills.
Democratic Reps. Jim Haddock, of Luzerne County, and Anita Kulik, who is chairperson of the House Game and Fisheries Committee, joined Burns in opposition to the background check legislation.
Republican Reps. Joe Hogan, Kathleen Tomlinson, Kristin Marcell and Craig Williams, who each represent districts in the Philadelphia suburbs, voted in favor of the bill as did Rep. Martina White, the only House Republican who represents part of Philadelphia.
House Minority Leader Jesse Topper (R-Bedford) said during debate on the House floor that more gun laws would not prevent “those who are most dangerous” gaining access to firearms.
“We’ve seen it nationally and through various states … the only thing that these restrictions have led to is an infringement on the constitutional rights of Americans who own and use guns legally,” Topper said.
Rep. Aaron Bernstine (R-Lawrence) raised a question on the constitutionality of House Bill 1859, the red flag law measure, claiming it violates the state constitution’s provision that the right to bear arms “shall not be questioned.” The motion failed in a 101-102 party-line vote.
House Bill 1099 would ban firearms made entirely of non-metal materials, or not containing at least one major component made entirely of metal that can pass through metal detectors unnoticed. “Ghost guns” are often built by amateur gunsmiths using plastic parts that skirt federal serial number regulations or are produced using 3D printers.
Rep. Tim Bonner (R-Mercer) said “ghost gun” is a sinister name for something that has been common throughout the nation’s history, noting that the U.S. Supreme Court recently held that gun laws must be considered in a historical context to determine whether they are constitutional.
“We call them ghost guns today. Our Founding Fathers and our true patriots called them homemade guns,” Bonner said.
He added there are already federal and state laws that require all firearms to be detectable by metal detectors.
“We all want to see this violence stopped,” he said. “But recycling the same gun laws that have either been declared unconstitutional or where we already have legislation on the books to deal with it is not a solution to the problem of violence in this country.”
