CHAMBERSBURG – With the recent mass shootings in Colorado and Georgia, the spotlight has, once again, shifted to gun control.
State Senator Doug Mastriano talked about the issue during a recent visit on First News with Pat Ryan and Michele Jansen.
Senator Mastriano is sponsoring a Right to Keep and Bear Arms Act in Pennsylvania to try to protect gun owners from the rush to judgment we see in these cases.
The bill would:
- Provide for civil penalties for any state or local government official who conspires with federal agents in the enforcement of new federal gun control laws;
- Remove any qualified immunity for public officials engaging in such cooperation;
- Mandate the Attorney General to prosecute such collaborators and defend Pennsylvanians in court from prosecution;
- Create a private right of action against officials who try to enforce these laws;
- Freeze state grant funds from local governments that cooperate in such enforcement; and
- Forbid local government from accepting federal bribe money to enforce gun control.
“It’s so predictable,” Mastriano said. “A tragedy happens and before the victims are even laid to rest or the family’s had a chance to mourn, Governor Wolf or Joe Biden or any Democrat on the left runs out there and uses this tragedy to advance their nefarious political agenda. I wish the American people would see through this and how heartless that is. They pretend to care, but they don’t because if they care, they would surrender the guns protecting them.”
So many Democrats and Hollywood elite have armed bodyguards protecting them and yet they want to go after guns. It doesn’t make sense.
Just last June, Governor Wolf was in Harrisburg during a protest with a plain-clothed, armed Pennsylvania State Police officer behind him.
“Shame on them,” Mastriano said. “If he really agrees with it, then send the officer home. It’s just the hypocrisy of the left. These Hollywood stars have guns around them, they hire personal bodyguards, but they’re special. The elite. But the rest of us, even though the constitution of the United States and Pennsylvania says we have the right to keep and bear arms, but they act like they could be taken away on a whim.”
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms Act will reassert Pennsylvania’s position as a state. In Federalism, the states are supposed to have more power than the federal government. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms would give Pennsylvania greater power in the face of a president who rules by executive order.
Jansen added, “Right now we’ve had a couple of horrific events. They’re very tragic and they’re horrible, but we don’t really look at what’s practically causing these things. We know that in most of these shootings, the universal background checks would not have prevented this.”
Instead of looking into the cause of these mass shootings, the government wants to go after the guns.
“It will just be an encroachment,” Jansen said. “Ever encroaching on your second amendment rights. It goes to where there’s a registry. And then the government knows who has guns and who doesn’t and we forget the whole idea of the Second Amendment is to protect us from the government.”
What about the effects of mental health? Shouldn’t they be studied in these cases?
Jansen continued, “Maybe some of the harmful ideologies that we’re spreading about people being racist and how that can cause people to get angry. Why are we only looking at things that don’t really seem to have an impact on what they say they’re trying to affect?”
“This whole thing is sickening in America,” Mastriano said. “This rush to judgment. The self-righteous people on the left need to chill out. We need facts. We need to find out what the real problems are and address those real problems, but not have these sweeping changes that will affect the common people, the average citizen, but obviously not affect people like governor wolf or the wealthy out there who hire their own security details.”
