Protection From Abuse (PFA) Orders: Often the Accuser is the Real Abuser

By Harry Schneider, Legislative Chairman, Pennsylvania Sportsmen's Assn., (the PSA)

HB 2403 was voted out of Judiciary Committee unanimously. Harrisburg leadership and the PCADV expected an easy victory: its prime sponsor was Republican Melissa Murphy Weber with strong backing from Governor Ed Rendell and a pledge from NRA employee John Hohenwarter that the NRA would not oppose it.

Harrisburg leadership was shocked to see how quickly the Pennsylvania Sportsmen's Association (PSA) was able to assemble the largest coalition of opposition ever to oppose anti-gun legislation in Pennsylvania. The coalition includes more than twenty sportsmen's, sportswomen's and self defense rights organizations. Several HB 2403 sponsors, (male and female) quickly asked that their names be removed, saying that they had been misled by official summaries that concealed the dark side of the legislation.

House leadership and that NRA employee would have egg-less faces if they had worked with Pennsylvania based organizations and legislators who are in touch with what is actually going on in Pennsylvania. They should especially have listened to Representatives Daryl Metcalfe and Teresa Forcier who are the preeminent voices of grass roots, law abiding, gun owning Pennsylvanians.

The widespread opposition to HB 2403 occurred because PFAs are perhaps the most abused law in Pennsylvania and legislators and courts have been unwilling to address the abuses of the law, in the form of unfounded applications for protection from alleged abuses. The courts are flooded with requests for orders putting people out of their homes and preventing them from seeing their children, based upon alleged abuses which never actually occurred. These unfounded applications, many of which are ex parte, are filed for spite, or to gain "leverage" in divorce proceedings or other disputes. We know of no person ever prosecuted for perjury or suborning perjury for bringing these baseless actions.

The intense opposition to HB 2403 should leave no doubt that law abiding Pennsylvanians have serious issues with present PFA law and how it is being administered. They are unwilling to allow the opportunities for abuse to be expanded without addressing the abuses that exist in the present system. Taking property from citizens without a very compelling reason is a bad thing for our government to do; it is the sort of thing that will cost a legislator votes.

To put this in language that non gun owners may understand. Imagine if your drivers license could be revoked and your automobile could be seized just because your soon-to-be ex-husband alleged that you had driven drunk. If you drive a car or your friend loans you a car you will both go to jail for up to two years. Imagine your car jammed into a crowded impound lot by government employees; you could be deprived of it for three years or longer. You cannot legally buy another car or any other kind of vehicle and you can't get your car back without jumping through administrative and legal hoops, paying a lawyer to get you a court order, and then paying to have the car registered again by paying another fee to a licensed car dealer. To add insult to injury, you have to pay a storage fee for the years that you were deprived of your car. You then discover that fees may exceed the value of your car but you have to pay them anyway.

You ask what happened to justice and due process of law? You are told that this confiscation of your property based upon nothing more than an accusation by spiteful soon-to-be-ex-spouses, in-laws and people that you dated is for the public good. The presumption of innocence and the traditional, legal burden of the government to prove you have done something wrong before seizing your property have been scrapped.

You might say that this analogy is unfair because cars aren't guns. The truth is that drunk drivers cause many more accidental deaths than do those who misuse guns. Further, the right to possess cars is NOT guaranteed by the Pennsylvania Constitution. However, the right to bear arms IS guaranteed: "The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned" (Article 1 Section 21).

The right to bear arms is the strongest and most unambiguous wording of any right in the Pennsylvania Constitution. If that right can be routinely denied because someone with an axe to grind claims that you might abuse it, then are any of your other rights safe?

The law abiding gun owners of Pennsylvania want real solutions that will protect the real victims of domestic abuse. Both genders abuse this system for leverage and spite. A tragic side effect of this behavior is that it clogs the court system so that people who really need help get lost in the shuffle. We demand that the law be changed to unclog the system:

1. Require no less than a "clear and convincing" evidence standard for PFAs that infringe upon the fundamental right to possess firearms.

2. Provide that any person who has made accusations which are later proven to be groundless shall be liable to the wrongly accused party for actual damages and reasonable fees for defending the baseless allegations. Provide for treble damages in cases where the baseless claims were made in bad faith or with malicious motive. Liability should also be imposed on anyone who advises or assists in the filing of bad faith applications for PFA Orders, including attorneys.

3. Change the law so that encouraging the filing of an unfounded PFA shall NOT be a privileged communication for anyone.

4. Demand that judges and prosecutors actually bring perjury charges and disciplinary actions. The law provides for this, but to the best of our knowledge, it NEVER happens.

Stop victimizing and demonizing innocent gun owners. The proponents of HB 2403 claim that it only disarms those who are guilty of harming or threatening innocent victims. The reality is far different. Criminal statutes provide that ALL persons who have been convicted of ANY crime of domestic violence, including making threats, lose their right to possess firearms or ammunition for the rest of their lives. PFAs are a civil statute that disarms only those who have NOT been found guilty of any crime of domestic violence.

Paper is not a real world deterrent to violence. When someone is in real jeopardy from a dangerous person, no piece of paper is really going to make the intended victim safe. That is why advocates of gun prohibition NEVER accept challenges to put "gun free zone" stickers on their own houses, because that would make them a target for those who don't obey paper.

Abusers abuse because they think that they can get away with it. Taking away someone's guns only disarms (and punishes) the law abiding. Real criminals will always find weapons just like real drug addicts always find drugs. The real deterrent is to put the aggressor in fear of the prey.

That's why efficient law enforcement and liberalized concealed carry laws reduce rates of violence. Places with the highest crime rates are places where there is inefficient law enforcement and/or where the law abiding citizens are disarmed by ill conceived gun control laws. Canada and Great Britain have much higher home invasion rates than we have. Why? The answer is that criminals are more afraid to enter occupied American homes because they are afraid of getting shot! That's why.

The real deterrent is to put the criminal in fear of the police or in fear of the prey and the police cannot be everywhere.

Our coalition includes the PR&PA which is the NRA affiliate in Pennsylvania and every other mainstream Pennsylvania organization that is concerned with self defense, gun collecting and the sporting uses of firearms. To those who would claim that this is men who don't care about women, we respond: it is obvious that the feisty and well publicized Second Amendment Sisters (SAS) represents women. The SAS is also busy fighting similar legislation in South Carolina. It may interest your readers to know that the other sportsmen's and gun owners groups in our coalition have women members and officers. The Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs has an outstanding woman executive director in Melody Zullinger. The newcomer organization is the Pink Pistols which is very ably represented by their National Spokesperson, Gwen Patton, who is a resident of Pennsylvania.

We are proper pacifists: we are united in opposing domestic violence and every other form of violence except where a violent response is necessary and appropriate to deter a violent attack upon the innocent.

Pennsylvania Rifle and Pistol Association (the NRA state affiliate in Pennsylvania), Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, Pennsylvania Sportsmen's Association, Gun Owners of America, Second Amendment Sisters, Allegheny County Sportsmen's League, Pennsylvania Gun Owners Association, Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, Lehigh Valley Firearms Coalition, Keystone Firearms Coalition, The Pink Pistols, Philadelphia Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, Pennsylvania State Fish and Game Protective Association, Clarion County Gun Owners, Pennsylvania Alliance of Sportsmen, Pennsylvania Gun Collectors Association, Delaware County Field and Stream Association, Firearms Coalition (Neal Knox Report), Pennsylvania Alliance of Sportsmen, Luzerne County Federation of Sportsmen. Firearms Owners Against Crime (a PAC) will record a vote for HB 2403 as an anti-gun rights vote and it will record any vote against any amendment endorsed by Rep Metcalfe or Rep Forcier as an additional anti-gun vote.