According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, it’s high noon in the battle over gun control.
(midday Friday)The effort comes at a time when the number of slayings in Philadelphia is edging painfully upward – 105 at last count, the majority of them at the point of a gun. At least 15 bills are back in the pipeline; Gov. Rendell has turned up the volume on his pleas for stronger gun-control measures, and Democrats now control the state House. All this comes at a time when a new poll suggests a majority of Pennsylvanians are willing to accept handgun-sale limits.
Because we can see how well one-gun-per-month in Virginia, and strict handgun regulations in Maryland reduced violence in Washington DC.
Rep. Dan Surra (D., Elk) said that while he sympathized with residents living in high-crime areas, he could not support any gun-restriction bill because in certain quarters of his district, a hunting stronghold in the north-central part of the state, guns are a single-issue item at the polls.
“They will vote you out on this,” Surra said.
Why yes, we will.
“The feeling out here is that proposals that deal with firearms in general are inched toward the precipice, and once you start eroding Second Amendment rights, it’s a cascading effect,” Surra, the legislator from northwestern Pennsylvania said.
“Guns are part of our culture, too. The difference is we don’t shoot each other,” said Surra, who recalls teaching students to build guns in shop class.
Man. I wish he taught my shop class. All I got to make was a damned stool.
And although Evans is determined to get the one-handgun-a-month bill to the floor this year, Caltagirone, the new chairman of the Judiciary Committee, does not think he can deliver it. “I don’t have the votes at this point in time,” Caltagirone said, adding that he hopes to work on a compromise that could pass.
Compromise? I don’t see where there’s room to compromise on “shall not be questioned” you loser.
Pennsylvania “is a priority state for us,” said Peter Hamm, communications director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence, which teamed with other gun-control groups to form the coalition Pennsylvanians Against Trafficking Handguns in 2005. “We believe there is enough political ability in the legislature to enact change.”
Let them have one-gun-a-month, they won’t go home happy. It’s important to fight this. There are already laws on the books for tracking multiple handgun sales both at the state and federal level.  The only reason they want this is to open the door to further restrictions on guns in the commonwealth.
