Editorial: Gun bill aims to shoot down ‘straw’ buys

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
Or, as they say out in Harrisburg, let’s “shoot” for a little history.
Something unheard of happened in the state Capitol this week. The House of Representatives debated a piece of legislation on gun control. Not only that, but they passed it. Unanimously.
There was a time when such legislation would never even make it out of committee. Most House members knew they didn’t have the votes to pass the legislation, so they usually declined to even debate it.
Times change. So does the mood of our representatives’ constituents. Obviously, they noticed.
Just last week another piece of legislation was voted on by the House but was shot down, 128-75, despite widespread support from the Philadelphia region, including most Delaware County Republicans.
The bill would have mandated criminal penalties for failing to report a lost or stolen firearm to authorities. In the Delco delegation, only Rep. Nick Micozzie, R-163, and Rep. Steve Barrar, R-160, voted against. Micozzie actually supported the measure but said his voting mechanism was stuck. Barrar said he opposed because the measure did not go far enough.
Oddly enough, one of those against was House Speaker Dennis O’Brien of Philadelphia, where concern about gun violence and the “straw” purchases of firearms is a red-button issue.
O’Brien admitted it was difficult to oppose such a measure in light of the epidemic of gun violence on city streets, but he insisted the bill was seriously flawed. He feared innocent gun owners could find themselves facing criminal penalties.
A week later O’Brien and the other representatives got another “shot” at the issue. They didn’t stall. They didn’t beg off. They didn’t bury it in committee.
The vote was unanimous. In favor.
It should not go unnoticed that the vote was held the same day as another rally being held in the state Capitol by the powerful National Rifle Association.
There was a time not that long ago, when such a vote in the Legislature, a clear challenge to the beliefs of the NRA, would simply have been unthinkable.
Gun owners should not fear this kind of common-sense legislation. Their Second Amendment rights are not under siege. No one is looking to take away their guns.
There is, however, concern over the amount of illegal guns on our streets, and what can be done to curtail them.
Specifically, the legislation passed this week would require a prospective gun buyer to answer whether they are in fact buying the gun for themselves. This is a crucial move to halt so-called “straw” purchases, where someone without a criminal record buys a gun for someone who would not pass muster under the current background checks. These weapons are then turned over to someone who often sells it or uses it in commission of a crime.
The bill also contains an amendment by Rep. Bill Adolph, R-165, of Springfield, that would extend the time prosecutors have to charge someone they suspect as a straw purchaser who then turned the gun over to someone who used it in a crime. The measure would extend the window from two to five years.
Some other provisions: Possession of a gun with an altered or obliterated serial number would be a felony instead of a misdemeanor; lying on a gun application could result in both state and federal penalties; falsely reporting a gun as stolen could result in misdemeanor charges; have the state police maintain a registry of lost and stolen guns.
Just for good measure, the legislation also contained several prison-reform measures. The move by the House should be seen as a welcome change when it comes to the issue of gun control in the state.
The time for debating – and voting – on such measures is here. Constituents now can clearly see how their representatives voted on the issue.
For years now, public opinion, spurred by an avalanche of gun violence and bodies piling up in the streets, has been shifting in favor of such common-sense restrictions on guns.
But efforts to get the issue debated in Harrisburg usually resulted in some unfortunate pol shooting him or herself in the foot.
Not anymore.
It’s about time.