Please contact your state Representative and urge him or her to NOT co-sponsor this legislation!
Fairfax, VA -(AmmoLand.com)- Last week, a memo was sent to all members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from state Representatives Vereb (R-HD 150) and Dean (D-HD 153) asking for co-sponsorship of legislation that would prohibit the trade of legal ivory and ivory products in the state of Pennsylvania.
If successful, this proposal would prohibit the sale, importation, purchase, barter or possession with intent to sell legal, antique ivory and ivory products in the Commonwealth; thus, making any lawfully-owned product that contains ivory worthless.
The primary advocate of this legislation, the Humane Society of the United States, would have you believe that this is a sound approach for stopping ivory poaching and trafficking. However, this is a misguided proposal that targets firearms collectors, sportsmen and other antique ivory owners of Pennsylvania. This proposed ivory ban would create strict and unnecessary restrictions that wouldn’t prevent the poaching of elephants but only hurt law-abiding Pennsylvanians who have legally acquired the product.
For example, it would become illegal for small antique business owners and antique gun collectors to buy and sell many antique products containing legal ivory. The exceptions for buying and selling antique products containing ivory, such as musical instruments, jewelry, furniture pieces, guns and other valuable collectibles are limited.
Under this legislation, purchasing and selling ivory or ivory products would become a misdemeanor of the second degree and would set unreasonable fines of $1,000 or more. Law abiding citizens who have no part in elephant and rhinoceros poaching would potentially become criminals overnight by unknowingly selling products containing ivory.
American collectors, hunters, and recreational shooters have legally purchased firearms that have incorporated ivory features for decades. These include some of America’s most historically-significant and collectible guns. Historically, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has taken the position that nearly all ivory in the U.S. has been legally imported and that its sale in the United States did not contribute to the illegal ivory trade.
Please contact your state Representative and urge him or her to decline co-sponsorship of this misguided legislation.
About the NRA-ILA:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
For more information, please visit: www.nra.org. Be sure to follow the NRA on Facebook at NRA on Facebook and Twitter @NRA.
Damm, they told me they were plastic
Umm this admin is no longer following rule of law and the Constitution , look at the magazine bans and no compensation or grandfathering. Ivory that is 10000 years old and petrified has been seized under these dumb ivory bans. Wait til 2 men saying they are fish and wildlife seize all the firearms with ivory handles…. and find out they were thieves.
I obeyed the law. I purchased legal. This proposal makes me a criminal.
OMG my piano keys are are going to make me a criminal
When is this insanity going to stop. The anti gunners have spent enough money on stupid stuff that drug us legal gun owners into enough BS that we could have cured canser and developed the best schools in the world.
They must grandfather any already owned/possessed ivory or the Constitutional ban on Ex Post Facto laws will apply.
They canNOT pass “laws” that make something a crime today that wasn’t yesterday.
Of course, most of what all levels of government do these days is unconstitutional or unlawful and the sheeple sit by and let it continue.
So, …
PA gun owners sat on their butts and did nothing when their AG illegally changed the reciprocity/recognition agreement. They sat on their butts and did nothing and let an anti-gun Democrat become Gov. In general they sit on their butts and watch their gun rights float down the river.
It is amazing how the public wants to persecute a citizen with an anti-ivory law for selling an antique item containing Ivory from an elephant that has been dead for over 80 years. Where does this protect the elephant which has been dead that long ago?
Legal Ivory taken and sold from a domestic elephant, that died of natural causes like old age, usually goes towards maintaining the remaining healthy elephants. Same with their hide.
They care more about jerk leg animal rights then they do about the genocide of Christians by ISIS..
Here in Washington state we will be voting on this in November. Unfortunately there are so many sheeple here that I see this passing just as 594 did. It seems the more uninformed the public is, the easier they are to sway. Show them a couple of old recycled pictures of tusk stacks and the sheep will flock to the polls.