Posted: 12/19/2005 4:21:25 PM EDT
[#16]
Quoted: When is it going to get harder? Please be specific. For anyone else reading this, Pa. has state preemption which means that only the state can make gun laws. This has been upheld by our Supreme Court. Therefore, we who live in Pennsylvania get to enjoy more of the blessings of liberty than the inhabitants of our neighbors to the east and north.
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This will be step two Posted on Sat, Dec. 10, 2005 State lawmakers get a one-gun reminder Council's Clarke, Miller urge action By DAN GERINGER [email protected]
As Philadelphia's state legislators plan their spring primary campaigns, City Councilman Darrell Clarke is reminding them that their constituents voted overwhelmingly in favor of passing laws to reduce the city's gun violence.
Clarke and Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller sent state legislators last May's referendum on amending Philadelphia's Home Rule Charter to request that the General Assembly allow the city to pass antigun-violence laws.
Voters responded "yes."
The key law would allow an individual to purchase only one handgun per month.
"This is not pie-in-the-sky," Clarke said yesterday. "Limiting purchases to one handgun a month helped reduce gun violence in Virginia, which used to be the gun capital of the East Coast because laws were so lax."
Clarke said one-gun-a-month laws also sparked "dramatic reductions" in gun violence in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
In the 1st Senatorial District, where state Sen. Vince Fumo, D-Philadelphia, has opposed a one-gun-a-month law, his constituents voted 13,719 to 2,979 in favor of legislation to reduce gun violence.
In the 169th Legislative District, where state Rep. Dennis O'Brien, R-Philadelphia, House Judiciary Committee chairman, was accused by Gov. Rendell of thwarting passage of a one-gun-a-month law, constituents voted 2,214 to 825 in favor of such legislation.
O'Brien denied Rendell's accusation. But Clarke said, "When Representative John Myers [D-Philadelphia] tried to get a hearing for a one-gun-a-month bill in the judiciary committee, chairman O'Brien blocked it."
State Sen. LeAnna Washington, D-Philadelphia, introduced a similar bill, Clarke said, hoping that Fumo will support it because his constituents do.
"Local elected officials such as the elder statesman of our state senatorial delegation [Fumo] who block legislation that their constituents support," Clarke said, "give [non-Philadelphia] legislators an excuse to reject it."
"They say, 'Your own people don't support it, so how do you expect me to be on board?' "
Clarke said state House Speaker John Perzel, whose constituents voted 2,872 to 1,121 to reduce gun violence, hasn't supported legislation to do so.
Without a one-gun-a-month law, Clarke said: "If I have a permit to carry, I can walk into Colosimo's [Gun Center] today and walk out of there with 100 guns.
"I can resell those guns, which is what 'straw buyers' do, and the only way that would come back to me was if a gun was used in the commission of a crime and the police were able to trace it to me.
"That is unlikely because the numbers probably would have been filed off, but even if police traced it, I could say, 'I lost that gun and forgot to report it.' That would end it."
Vowing to "make this an issue during the primaries," Clarke said, "I've lived in North Philadelphia all my life and I see the level of gun violence.
"I can't be an elected official who sits around and does nothing about it. I'm going to keep trying to force this issue" http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/13375718.htm (do not hot link ) If I knew when I would tell you . Don't look of it to get easier . If Philadelphia was equal to the rest of the sate as far as gun laws go then tell me why can't you get anyone in the city to sign off on a class 3 ? It wasn't until about 8 years ago that the city became easier to obtain a CCW , before that it was much harder to get one.
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