The Senate Local Government Committee Tuesday morning began the reboot of a proposal that would ensure state gun laws preempt municipal gun ordinances by granting membership organizations standing to bring suit on behalf of an aggrieved member.

The bill—Senate Bill 5 introduced by freshman Sen. Wayne Langerholc (R-Cambria)—is the latest iteration of legislation that was actually enacted under the Gov. Tom Corbett administration, but later struck down by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on an issue unrelated to the underlying proposal.

Philadelphia city officials were joined by state lawmakers Thursday in Philadelphia City Council Chambers to speak out against two legislative proposals moving through the General Assembly that would reenact a previously-held unconstitutional law that would give standing to membership organizations to bring actions on behalf of members to overturn municipal gun ordinances that are preempted by state law.

The original law, which was passed as part of Act 192 of 2014, was found unconstitutional by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court earlier this June based upon procedural grounds.

Legislation that would largely reenact the municipal gun ordinance preemption provisions of Act 192 of 2014 overwhelmingly passed the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

The bill, House Bill 2258, would grant standing to Pennsylvania residents who are lawfully able to possess a firearm and membership organizations representing a similarly situated individual to challenge municipal gun ordinances they believe are preempted by state law.

The House Judiciary Committee Wednesday voted to re-refer House Bill 1770—legislation introduced by Rep. Steve Santarsiero (D-Bucks) that would prevent the sale of guns to those on terror watch lists—to the House Rules Committee.

The move puts off an attempted end-run by Rep. Santarsiero that would have had the House vote later in the day on discharging the bill from the Judiciary Committee to be acted upon by the full House.

Rep. Steve Santarsiero (D-Bucks) announced that he has collected the required number of signatures for a discharge petition for a floor vote on his bill to prohibit people on the terror watch list or the no fly list from purchasing a firearm with a background check.

Also called the “No Fly, No Buy” legislation, HB 1770 was introduced in January and was referred to the House Judiciary Committee where it has been held without a hearing or vote. 

“A discharge resolution is and extraordinary measure that should be used when a committee is not fulfilling its responsibility to consider important legislation. That is certainly the case here,” said Rep. Santarsiero. “This idea of prohibiting people on the terror watch list from purchasing a firearm is a reasonable measure that we should adopt to protect citizens from the acts of extremists.”