Anti-gun Column in Hbg Patriot News "Fear of NRA kills needed gun laws"

[JasonB]

Please feel free to respond to the author of this article. Her contact information is below. Also be encouraged to write letters to the editor. NANCY ESHELMAN: 255-8163 or neshelman@patriot-news.com The newspaper's website is through http://www.pennlive.com . This woman has already made her stance clear on alot of issues and she lacks common sense in alot of her articles. She recently wrote another column saying that law enforcement shouldnt "ruin kids lives" by arresting them for dealing/doing drugs and that its no big deal if kids take part in such activities.

The article is expressing her pro-one-gun-a-month-view. For those of you that don't know, the city of Philadelphia is trying to pass a one-gun-per-month law. Unfortunately such a law would probably be attempted to be replicated at the state level, as our governor is the former mayor of philadelphia and has often been called the "Governor of Philadelphia".

Please write to this columnist and the newspaper editor and explain that these proposed gun laws that she praises do not affect the criminals on the street. Your street gangs do not purchase their guns from the friendly neighborhood gun shop and will continue to purchase as many as they want illegally while the law abiding citizen will have even more limitations. Who knows what else this might open the door to if the legislators find out they can get away with this new regulation.

http://www.pennlive.com/columns/patr...100.xml&coll=1

Fear of NRA kills needed gun laws
Thursday, August 10, 2006

Philadelphia, gripped by gun violence, fought back with a summit last month.

The two-hour session, held on the last day of July, came after 232 people had taken fatal bullets this year.

In Reading Sunday, a police officer died from being shot in the chest near City Hall. His death came just hours after a man shot at a playground died near the front porch of a city councilwoman.

Harrisburg might be smaller than either Philly or Reading, but it isn't immune from senseless violence.

Jesus Castenada, 29, was cleaning out a house on Allison Hill when, police said, he was shot and killed last month by a man they described as a crack addict looking for money for drugs.

Hitender Thakur, a nursing student, was a clerk at City Gas and Diesel at 16th and State streets when he was killed May 25 for $100.

Last year, 536 people died in Pennsylvania from gun violence, according to the state police.

While there's plenty I could say, I prefer to step aside today and let Walter M. Phillips Jr., head of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, do the talking.

The former state and federal prosecutor, now a member of a Philadelphia law firm, spoke volumes when he begged the state's 1,200 police chiefs to keep the issue of gun violence alive in their communities.

"One would think we could rely on our Legislature to do something about gun violence," Phillips said. "But our legislators have proven time and again that they are too weak-kneed to stand up to the National Rifle Association and the influence that the NRA has.

"Let me say this about the NRA -- I begrudgingly admire them. They are a very effective, powerful lobby -- they get things done. But I also believe they have become too much of an influence on the legislative process, both in Congress and in Pennsylvania," Phillips said.

"I have no problem with hunters owning as many guns as they want. I have no problem with collectors owning as many guns as they want. And I have no problem with citizens owning guns for protection," he said.

"But those guns are not the same guns that are being bought and sold on the streets of Pennsylvania for the purpose of terrorizing innocent people.

"As a result of the NRA's generous campaign contributions, good legislation -- meaningful legislation -- legislation that could truly reduce gun violence in Pennsylvania, has been bottled up in committees in both the Senate and the House in Harrisburg not just for months, but for years and years.

"Pennsylvania has become the laughingstock of the country because of our weak gun laws. ..."

The Brady Campaign to Reduce Gun Violence issues an annual report card grading the states. Pennsylvania got a D+, Phillips said.

Among the remedies he favors is legislation that would allow the purchase of just one handgun each month.

"If Pennsylvania had one-gun-a-month legislation, gangs wouldn't be coming here to buy carloads of handguns," he said.

"I recently asked a long-standing member of the Legislature if the one-gun-a-month legislation were to come up on the House floor for a vote today, how many legislators would vote for it.

"His answer was, 'about 30.' That's 30 of 203.

"I then asked him, suppose the vote was held in secret?

"He said, "You'd easily get 180 votes."

"In their heart of hearts, legislators know that the right thing to do is to pass this legislation -- but they are afraid of the NRA."

NANCY ESHELMAN: 255-8163 or neshelman@patriot-news.com