Pennsylvania Lawmakers Push for Universal Gun Background Checks

Guns are displayed in a store during the Rod of Iron Freedom Festival in Greeley, Pa., on Oct. 9, 2022. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The damage done by criminals with guns was clear on Monday as people who lost loved ones through shootings offered emotional testimony during a Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Policy Hearing promoting universal background check legislation.

Chantay Love recalled her brother Emir Greene’s murder in 1997 at the age of 20. His death was felt by her mother and father, siblings, cousins, aunts, teachers, people on the block and the corner store, and young people at the recreation center, she said.

“Data states that there’s 100 people impacted by a murder. I will probably say that that’s incorrect. I will probably say it’s more like 250 people,” Ms. Love testified. “The loss itself is so deep and so wide, there really has not been enough documentation on it.”

Ms. Love, her mother, and siblings co-founded E.M.I.R Healing Center, which stands for Every Murder is Real. The nonprofit center advocates, educates, and supports people in Philadelphia who have been affected by violent crimes.

She testified in favor of universal background check legislation at the hearing, hosted by state Sens. Katie Muth and Vincent Hughes and attended by state Sen. Sharif Street at the Roxborough YMCA in Philadelphia.

“We know that if we keep the effort up, and we keep the pressure going on, at some point we will get passage of legislation in the state Senate and then send it directly to the governor who has agreed, and said he would sign it if it gets to his desk,” Mr. Hughes said. “We cannot give up. We cannot stop. We just cannot.”

It was unclear whether the gun used in Mr. Greene’s murder was legally owned and therefore whether it would have been subject to a universal background check.

Private Sales

Background checks are a required step in the purchase of some, but not all, guns.

Federally, all firearms purchased through a licensed gun dealer require a background check, and handgun sales must include a background check no matter who is selling the gun.

Federal law also allows private firearm sales of rifles between individuals, if the seller believes the buyer is not suspicious.

States that wish to take the law further must pass their own legislation. Pennsylvania has not taken that step yet, but there are two proposed laws moving through the Legislature.

House Bill 714, sponsored by Rep. Perry S. Warren, a Democrat, would require background checks for all firearms, regardless of barrel length. Firearm transfers between family members would be excluded. Senate Bill 60, sponsored by Democrats Mr. Hughes and Sen. Steve Santarsiero, does the same thing.

But previous efforts to make universal background checks law have never passed.

“What is making it so hard for us to determine that something so simple as to having background checks—that we are fussing about that?” Ms. Love said. “That should be something so easy to do.”

Making a List

Michael Csencsits, deputy national director of state and local affairs for Gun Owners of America (GOA), told The Epoch Times that the federal government is currently trying to implement universal background checks, sometimes through policies of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), but GOA is opposed to such policies at the federal or state level.

“The main reason being, it creates a federal registry—it allows for one to be created,” Mr. Csencsits said.

The ATF already has a partial list of gun owners and recent policy changes will add to that list.

When a gun company or a gun store goes out of business, the ATF gets their records.

“They get all of their records for gun sales, for any background check they’ve done. That is how the ATF has built the 1 billion-record registry that they do have right now,” Mr. Csencsits said. Gun stores were previously allowed to throw away records after 20 years, so the ATF would only get the last 20 years of activity from the store. But that 20-year record retention rule has been changed. Now gun stores must keep all records forever. This way the ATF will have records from the lifetime of the store, going forward.

“A universal background check on a federal or state level basically means every single gun transfer ever will eventually end up on an ATF’s registry that they do have. That’s the main reason we oppose it,” Mr. Csencsits said.

GOA is opposed to any list of gun owners being created. The Second Amendment does not make the condition of being put on a list a requirement of owning a gun.

“The real purpose of the Second Amendment is to defend against all enemies, foreign, domestic—you know, a robber—and if the U.S. ever became a corrupt government, that was our checks and balance against any kind of tyranny,” Mr. Csencsits said. “So if there’s a list, and they know who everyone with a gun is, that kind of defeats that purpose. We won’t be able to fight tyranny if the government has a list of everybody who owns a firearm.”

Second Amendment advocates do not believe more laws surrounding firearms will stop criminal shootings.

“It’s always a tragic situation. And we, as Americans, always mourn the losses of these events. Unfortunately, criminals just don’t follow the laws, and any amount of gun control is not going to prevent something like this. Everyone’s life matters, and we don’t want to see [these crimes],” Mr. Csencsits said. “Almost all guns used in crimes are purchased illegally, so a universal background check will not stop somebody who didn’t get a background check.”

Most crimes are committed with a handgun, he said, and universal background checks are already required for handguns.