Learning From History: Mandatory Long Gun Safe Storage Laws Promote Victimhood, No Effect On Mass Shootings Recidivism in America

RE: Written Testimony of Kristie Tertel– National Director of Legislative Policy, The Heller Foundation

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ATTN: House Judiciary Committee (PA)– Opposition to HB 731: Mandatory Storage of Long Guns

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April 26, 2023

Dear Honorable Mr.  Chairman and ranking members of the House Judiciary Committee-

Prima facie, my name is Kristie Tertel, and I am the National Director of Legislative Policy at The Heller Foundation. I have included my non-profit organization’s written testimony in OPPOSITION to HB 731, as amended. However, as a lifelong, 38-year resident of Pennsylvania, this testimony, infra, dually represents my opposition to HB 731 in my personal capacity as a private citizen.

As such, both The Heller Foundation and I, Kristie Tertel, urge you to vote ‘no’ to HB 731 as it is unconstitutional- directly breaching the country’s binding national precedent set forth in Heller and Bruen landmark United States Supreme Court decisions; and violates the Pennsylvanian and United States Constitution’s’ Second Amendment (as well as the United States Constitution’s 14^th Amendment) protecting an individual, human right to self-defense and to lawfully bear arms. The Heller Foundation is a 501c(3) non-profit organization that leads both Pennsylvania and the nation in advocating for our God-given, Constitutionally-entrenched right to bear arms and self-defense. The Second Amendment is a human right. Our tireless work leads the way to setting binding precedent through lawsuits and advocacy for Pennsylvanians and their families. In addition, 2023 marks our 15^th year in advancing policy measures to help close the gap between legal and lived equality for all residents of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania- and beyond. The Heller Foundation’s ground-breaking work and track record of success proves we have also re-invested time and resources tirelessly throughout the state simply because our organization understands the great importance of adequate, effective representation- not only throughout Pennsylvania; but, across the entire country.

As both a domestic violence and (multiple) violent crime survivor, I am demanding that the Pennsylvania legislature take accountability for putting women’s lives at risk due to the recent introduction HB 731, as amended. This bill, if passed, illegally and unconstitutionally disenfranchises- even Moreso- residents of Pennsylvania who have, unfortunately, been the statistical target as crime victims due to their membership to this class- low socioeconomic, minority, LGBTQ+, female, elderly, single parents, people with disabilities, unemployed, underemployed and more. For the vast majority of my adult life, I thought guns were dumb.. until I needed one.

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 Had I been armed and trained, all of this would have been PREVENTED. I have been beaten into an a coma six times, found left for dead in a Baltimore dumpster, stalked, publicly smeared and defamed, drugged and raped (with pending attempted murder charges on the assailant), and am currently stalked by 44 men and women nationwide. A restraining order is just a piece of paper, unfortunately. Please learn from me. I beg you. There’s no valor in victimhood. Requiring safe storage of long guns prevents me from defending myself from further victimization- especially defending to home intruders- as I would not be able to obtain access to my self-defense tool in time to save my own life in the minutes, sometimes hours, it would take for the police to arrive at the scene.

Proponents of this anti-woman bill simply don’t care about the lives of the average Pennsylvania resident.  Please learn from my own mistakes in life- legally carry and train like your life depends on it. HB 731 illegally and unconstitutionally trumps my God-given, Second Amendment right to self-defense at home by creating an unnecessary delay through legislative action toted by Democrats on the fraudulent premise of morality and safety. I am a safe gun owner. I respect my tool. I learned the hard way- in fact, you truly are your own first responder. Henceforth, I encourage you and your colleagues in Pennsylvania’s state legislature to oppose HB 731.

Further, The Heller Foundation opposes HB 731 as it makes it increasingly difficult for ‘soft targets’ of crime (i.e. home invasions) like myself to lawfully protect themselves in an emergency. Statistically, this ‘disadvantaged’ demographic is increasingly targeted already by criminals- including, but not limited to: women, minorities, senior citizens, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+, low-income, single parents, underemployed and other ‘disadvantaged’ Pennsylvanians. Accordingly, is the exact same ‘class’ of people who are soft targets of crime- i.e. they are also statistically more likely to be targeted violent crime victims, like myself (attempted murder, drugged and raped, stalked), and be unable to legally acquire their own lifesaving means for protecting themselves and their families in self-defense by not requiring storage, locking devices as an unnecessary, burdensome and additional step in exercising our Second Amendment right to protect ourselves in our own home. Consequently, The Heller Foundation demands all members of the Judiciary Committee, Senate and House to vote- ‘NO’- -i.e. AGAINST – on Pennsylvania HB 731, as amended.

Second to the legal and Constitutional ramifications of breaching our rights as private citizens residing in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, are the additional practical, ethical and moral obligations being breached if HB 731 passes- in part or in whole (as amended). In my professional capacity as the National Director of Legislative Policy at The Heller Foundation, as well as a private individual (read: voter) and lifelong resident of Pennsylvania, I urge all elected officials to vote ‘no’ on HB 731: Mandatory Storage of Long Guns as the unconstitutional, immoral and unethical bill renders an individual’s God-given, Constitutionally protected, human right to self-defense completely useless. Pennsylvanians have the Second Amendment right to defend themselves and their families, especially in their own home, and HB 731 is seeking to disenfranchise law-abiding, tax-paying citizens.

Furthermore, The Heller Foundation vehemently OPPOSES HB 731 due to the fact that manipulated opinion polling should not drive public policy on guns. Proponents of this unconstitutional bill are seeking to use ‘public opinion’ and the fake news media to substantiate subjective, manipulated ‘statistics’ and create their own ‘facts’ in order to sway uneducated voters towards the national ‘gun control’ rhetoric being pushed by the Biden Administration. Feelings are not objective, hard, statistical facts-data should not be manipulated to support a moral ideology nor ethically bankrupt national ‘gun control’ political agenda argued solely on the false pretense of ‘public safety’. Safety is subjective. It is an illusion. I am responsible for maintaining, protecting and defending my own safety and the legal means I deem reasonably necessary to do so (through lawful firearm ownership)- not the government. My personal safety cannot be guaranteed nor created by legislation. A stroke of a pen offers no incentive for violent criminals to not commit crimes in Pennsylvania- if that were the case, enforcing the laws already existing in the state would have worked. Making crime illegal does nothing to promote recidivism. Criminals are not afraid of the consequences of illegal, unlawful activity. For this reason, I demand you vote ‘no’ on HB 731.

As such, Pennsylvania’s children are not more likely to die by guns than motor vehicles. Proponents of HB 731 is another opportunity for elected gun control activists and their media co-conspirators to further manipulate CDC fatal injury data by using ‘public safety’ and ‘protecting children at home’ by requiring long guns be locked and stored’ through this legislation by pushing misleading narratives (read: brainwashing) on ‘children and firearms’ disguised as ‘facts’ and ‘common sense’ by the media and multi-million dollar national campaigns of Moms Demand Action and Gifford’s Courage Foundation throughout our Commonwealth. In fact, according to 2022 CDC Data, children ages 0-18 are more likely to die in an automobile accident or abortion, than a firearm-related incident. In fact, the National Rifle Association adds that, after objectively examining the most up-to-date CDC Data available, the leading cause of death in ‘children and teens’ that fall within the ages 0-12 cohort is motor vehicle deaths. In fact, according to the NRA, the number of motor vehicle deaths in the 0-12 age group is more than twice that of firearms-related deaths. The Heller Foundation opposes HB 731 based on these (accurate) statistics being promoted by Pennsylvania’s elected supporters of gun control.

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Additionally, in my private capacity, as a lifelong Pennsylvanian and survivor of being beaten into an a coma six times, being found left for dead in a Baltimore dumpster, with 44 stalkers nationwide and surviving being drugged and very, very brutally raped to the extent that prosecutors are considering attempted murder charges against the offender (if/when he is ever located)- I demand my elected representatives represent me and my interests as their constituent and comply with their sworn oaths of office to uphold and defend the Pennsylvanian and United States Constitution.

As elected members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and the Pennsylvania Senate, your duty and allegiance is two-fold. In your oaths that every single member has publicly sworn, representatives not only have a higher standard of loyalty to uphold in carrying out their duties- daily, to not only the Constitution, but to the people, back at home, that you represent. You must not be in derelict of your duties as an elected official in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and I urge you to vote ‘no’ to HB 731 in order to be in direct compliance with the moral and ethical standards owed to the same constituents you swore to represent. Our needs, as the average blue-collar, hard-working, tax paying Pennsylvania, must always supersede your own personal and political agendas throughout your tenure in office. Consequently, The Heller Foundation and I both urge you all to OPPOSE HB 731 to avoid being in derelict of your duties in office and preventing ethical, legal, moral and constitutional conflicts of carrying out those duties owed to all Pennsylvanians required by the oath during swearing-in. Your oath of office sets a higher standard of conduct and moral accountability. Voting ‘no’ to HB 731 is the sole means of conducting oneself as an elected official, community leader, virtuous Pennsylvanian and- perhaps most importantly- as a role model to future generations of Patriotic Americans having the privilege of living within the territorial borders of Pennsylvania.

My tax dollars pay your salary as your constituent. To date, I have testified over 200 times in both state and federal judiciary committee hearings about surviving domestic violence and being a victim of multiple violent crimes over a six-year timeframe- most of which, occurred within the state of Pennsylvania. HB 731’s mandatory storage requirement not only ignores my personal self-defense tool of choice- a small handgun, at home and on my person (thanks to my valid CCL) – with no legal requirements for ‘safe storage’ in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but also has an inaccurate definition of measuring a ‘long gun’. Lethality, in both manner and degree, has nothing to do with the size of a firearm’s barrel. A ‘gun’ cannot ‘assault’ people- the person firing the gun does.

Moreover, a firearm, in all shapes and sizes, in and of itself, alone, is not a ‘weapon’. A gun cannot ‘assault’ people- rather, it’s an inanimate object. It is a tool. A life-saving tool, in fact, that would have prevented my half-decade long tenure of suffering severe trauma, had I been armed and trained. I would not have been a victim of any crimes, whatsoever, over the past six years had I been legally armed and trained at the time. I was anti-gun my entire life. I hated and feared firearms because of what I saw in movies, video games, on television and in the media up until the point I became a violent crime victim. But now, I am a survivor. I tell my story with the sole mission of promoting personal accountability through gun ownership- you are your own first responder. A firearm is the greatest equalizer as against one, if not multiple, home invaders as I am only 4’ 11” and 100lbs, single and live alone. Requiring me to lock up firearms in my own house deflects from the bill’s intended purpose and false intent premised on ‘safety’ and preventing more ‘child deaths by guns’ in the state of Pennsylvania. As a responsible gun owner, a like the vast majority of gun owners throughout the country, I respect this life-saving tool intended for self-defense and train regularly, as well as store it safely.

Finally, please be my voice in Pennsylvania and vote ‘no’ to HB 731 so no one else has to suffer the same fate as I did. I beg you. Mandatory long gun storage legislation prevents me from utilizing my own personal firearms training to exercise my Constitutional right to self-defense at home, as I would not have enough time to unlock my ‘tool’ in time- in the middle of the night, where it would be stored 200 ft away from my bedside in the basement storage container required by HB 731- to protect and defend myself and my family against home intruders, robbers and other criminals. By definition, criminals do not follow the law. HB 731 creates an unnecessary, additional ‘step’ to unlock the safe in order to obtain access to my gun, adding seconds, even minutes, where time is of the essence.

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American hero, Stephen Willeford, is both a personal friend and professional colleague.

Almost six years ago, to date, Hon. Mr. Willeford gained national notoriety as the ‘Barefoot Defender’ in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

On that fateful day, Stephen Willeford heard gunfire from inside the Baptist church next to his home, sprinted the short distance barefoot from his house with his AR-15 in-hand and saved countless lives by voluntarily intervening in his personal capacity as a private citizen and exchanging gunfire with the shooter- hitting him six times, before chasing him with a fellow good Samaritan in a private vehicle to track (and thwart additional murderers by the active shooter) the assailant before police could arrive on-scene.

However, at the time, the state of Texas required his long gun be stored at home in a locked safe. Whenever Mr. Willeford speaks publicly about his heroism, he emphasizes that the near 30-second it took for him to nervously dial the password on his safe’s locking mechanism, at least six lives could have been saved. Stephen knows the names, ages and life stories of every single one of the six ‘would have’ lives that could have been saved had he not had to take the time to unlock the storage container to obtain access to his long gun- which was required by similar legislation to HB 731 at the time in Texas.

He sometimes faults himself for the unnecessary delay that day, instead of placing blame on the Texas legislature, and for the additional (at least six) preventable deaths that occurred in the church six years ago. The Texas legislature was complicit for those additional lives that could have been saved, but for the unnecessary state law requiring his life-saving tool, Stephen’s own AR-15 long gun- as an accessory to first degree, premediated murder at the Sutherland Springs Baptist Church.

Consequently, The Heller Foundation opposes HB 731 and demands you vote ‘no’ because, as shown by Stephen Williford’s heroic actions in Sutherland Springs, Texas thwarting a mass church shooting and saving many lives by stepping-in as a lawful, gun owning private citizen- every single second matters in emergency situations, especially to victims of breaking-and-entering, at home and by wasting time unlocking ‘the great equalizer’, my long gun, gives violent criminals another unnecessary advantage to victims. These delays are going to cost thousands of lives throughout Pennsylvania, insofar as all of the future deaths would have been prevented, just as in my own personal case of victimhood, had the firearm not been required by law to be locked. Seconds matter. Please take note, that proponents and co-sponsors of HB 731- the blood is on your hands. Protect future generations by allowing law-abiding gun owners to protect themselves, as the police owe no duty of care to protect you. Don’t allow Pennsylvanians to be ‘sitting ducks’ for criminals. Vote ‘no’ on HB 731.

In closing, thank you in advance for any and all consideration on this imminent human right, public policy issue and Constitutional matter- with both statewide and national ramifications if not upheld. The Heller Foundation encourages you to OPPOSE HB 731.

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Respectfully Submitted,

Kristie J. Tertel

National Director of Legislative Policy,

The Heller Foundation

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