http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/trib.../s_561094.html

Gun Owners Rally at Capitol

By Brad Bumsted
STATE CAPITOL REPORTER
Monday, April 7, 2008
HARRISBURG -- The right to own firearms is essential to people's obligation to protect their homes and families, former GOP presidential candidate Alan Keyes said this morning.


"You cannot defend your life if you give up the means of that defense," Keyes told hundreds of gun owners rallying in the Capitol. "If it is your right to stand in defense of your family and your home than you have the right and means to enable you to fufill that obligation."


Owning firearms is integral to the "right of people to govern themselves," Keyes said to thunderous applause. And this era of terrorism should remind citizens they "can't delegate to government the responsibility for defense of our lives," he said.


"At the end of the day sovereignty means, when push comes to shove, you are in charge," Keyes said.

The third annual rally was held to urge lawmakers to defeat gun-control measures and promote legislation protecting gun owners.
Rep Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, told gun owners to carry a message to the 75 House members who last week voted unsuccessfully to pass an amendment that would have levied a criminal penalty on people who lose handgun or have a one stolen and don't report it within 72 hours.
Its time to "educate those folks," said Metcalfe, who was backed by about 40 lawmakers of both parties at the rally. "A truly safe and liberty-advancing society is an armed society," he said.
Legislators who defeated that amendment "fought tooth and nail and stopped an attack on your freedoms," Kim Stolfer, of South Fayette, chairman of Firearms Owners Against Crime, told the group.
The gun supporters in the Capitol rotunda raffled off a new handgun at the rally, a move that should not be viewed as controversial, said Rep. Bill Kortz, D-Dravosburg.


"What I see as controversial is an attack on the Second Amendment," Kortz said.


Raffling off the Smith & Wesson M&P donated by a sporting goods store in Washington County is no different than raffling a football at a football banquet, Kortz said.


Those attending the rally didn't pay for the raffle tickets, Stolfer said.


Brad Bumsted can be reached at bbumsted@tribweb.com or 717-787-1405.