The Tartan

On March 27, House Bill 777, a regulation of “ghost guns,” passed in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

The bill would make it a third-degree felony to sell or transfer a part or whole of a “firearm frame or receiver” (whether or not it is operable) without a serial number or a “firearm muffler or silencer frame or receiver” without a serial number.

It would be a second-degree felony to purchase these things when not as part of a kit with a serial number. These laws would not apply to those transferring or receiving such firearm parts if they are subsequently “properly marked” or destroyed.

The bill passed 104 to 97. A total of 101 out of 102 Democrats voted for the bill; Frank Burns of Cambria County voted against it. Additionally, 3 out of 100 Republicans voted for the bill: Joe Hogan of Bucks County, Kathleen Tomilson of Bucks County, and Martina White of Philadelphia.

The representative of District 23, the area of Pittsburgh containing Carnegie Mellon and surrounding areas like Squirrel Hill and Oakland, Dan Frankel, was one of the 41 sponsors of this bill. Frankel, a Democrat, has served as the representative of District 23 for 25 years. Speaking to The Tartan, Frankel described how he has long been concerned with firearm regulation, having “founded the original Common Sense Gun Safety Caucus after Columbine in April 1999.”

“This has subsequently evolved into the PA SAFE Caucus, which I’m the co-chair of,” Frankel said. With the current Democratic majority in the Pennsylvania House, the PA SAFE Caucus has been able to “send over a number of gun safety bills over to the Senate, mostly passing the house along partisan lines, sometimes with a handful of Republican votes.”

However, the Senate is composed of 28 Republicans and 22 Democrats, so Frankel doesn’t have much hope that this bill will become law.

Frankel said that “if it were a normal gun, we’ve already got serial numbers, we’ve got a background check, at least with handguns.” He doesn’t see why these rules shouldn’t apply to people who assemble firearms from individual pieces, especially as he sees these people as having “more typically nefarious” intentions with their firearms.

He believes that “our community of people who advocate for gun safety represents the vast majority of Pennsylvanians in terms of public opinion on this issue.”

However, in comparison with the abortion issue, which has recently been winning many Democrat votes, he doesn’t see “that same energy on the gun safety side.” Whereas many people were motivated by the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, people aren’t particularly motivated by mass shootings.

Frankel described how many of the Caucus’s gun bills involve “law enforcement additional tools to address gun violence,” including “mandatory reporting of lost or stolen weapons” so that people will be held accountable if they secretly sell or give their weapon to someone who uses it in a crime. (This part does not appear in House Bill 777.)

Though he doesn’t feel much hope for the fate of the ghost guns bill in the Senate, Frankel is more optimistic about the effort to legalize cannabis in Pennsylvania. Franke said he recognizes that there are many downsides to cannabis use, yet he said he also recognizes the bleed of cannabis across the border from states where it’s legalized and the unethical behavior of Pennsylvania medical marijuana establishments. Because of this, he thinks it would be expedient to legalize cannabis — with robust regulations.

He is also proud of anti-hate crime legislation that passed the Pennsylvania House last October, of which he was the primary sponsor. This includes an amendment of  Section 2710 of the Crimes Code, expanding “ethnic intimidation” to “hate-based intimidation” in a number of identity categories. This legislation is similar to a previous amendment which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the case Marcavage v. Rendell.