MorningCall OpEd: It's time for Pittsburgh — and Pennsylvania — to ban assault weapon

[2DogsBarking]

No media bias here...........never rest:

https://www.mcall.com/opinion/muschi...214-story.html

Paul Muschick: It's time for Pittsburgh — and Pennsylvania — to ban assault weapons

A plan to restrict gun ownership in Pittsburgh should heat up the statewide debate in Pennsylvania about reforming firearms laws.

Two months after 11 people were gunned down in a synagogue there, Pittsburgh officials on Friday proposed a ban on assault weapons, large-capacity magazines and modifications such as bump stocks that increase firing rates.

They also want to require people who are dangerous to turn in their guns.

It’s not just Pittsburgh that should be taking those steps. Those should be the laws everywhere. It’s time. Let’s do it.

Those rules wouldn’t prevent all mass shootings, but they could make them harder to commit, and minimize the damage.

Pittsburgh knows it is picking a fight. If the legislation passes, it surely will be challenged in court on the grounds that municipalities cannot pass gun laws that are more restrictive than state laws.

That argument is part of what undermined an Allentown law a decade ago that required gun owners to report a lost or stolen gun within 48 hours.

Firearms Owners Against Crimes, a statewide organization, would sue over the proposals made Friday, President Kim Stolfer said. He said courts repeatedly have struck down attempts by municipalities to preempt state law, including a similar attempt by Pittsburgh in 1993 to ban assault weapons.

“I’m very troubled by this,” he said.

The suspect in the Oct. 27 Tree of Life synagogue shooting, Robert Bowers, used four weapons including an AR-15 assault rifle, according to authorities. All were purchased and possessed legally. Authorities say Bowers told them he “wanted all Jews to die.”

“No one in America wants a country where guns make our schools unsafe for children, families afraid in places of worship, and where our streets are stained every day with innocent blood,” Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said. “The morality we all share, across every race, gender, ethnicity, region and religion, compels us to take action.”

Officials called on other governments to pursue similar reforms and to challenge state restrictions on their ability to do so.

“The Pennsylvania Constitution guarantees the rights of all people to ‘peace, safety and happiness,’” Councilwoman Erika Strassburger said. “The inability for municipal governments to enact their own common sense-gun control measures defies this core principle.”

Gov. Tom Wolf attended the unveiling of the legislation in Pittsburgh, signaling his continued support for such measures statewide and nationwide.

“He understands the frustration of local communities and residents that more hasn’t been done to address gun violence and keep weapons from dangerous individuals,” Wolf spokesman J.J. Abbott said.

Some state lawmakers were there in support, too. If the Legislature would take action, cities wouldn’t have to.

There have been attempts, but they haven’t gone far. Legislators can try again when they reconvene in January.

Many bills that gained support this year but didn’t make it far enough for final votes should come up again — including one that would ban bump stocks. Another would allow for “extreme risk protection orders” similar to what Pittsburgh proposes, where a judge could issue a protection order that prohibits someone from possessing a gun if law enforcement or immediate family members show that the person poses a significant danger.

Bills to ban assault-style weapons did not advance in the Legislature this year.

The one law that was enacted this year requires people with a court-issued protection from abuse order or domestic violence conviction to relinquish their firearms to law enforcement or a licensed firearms dealer within 24 hours. They used to be able to keep their weapons for 60 days, and could give them to a friend or relative for safekeeping.

If lawmakers don’t have the courage to take further action, there may be another way for them to allow cities such as Pittsburgh to address gun violence themselves.

State Rep. Dan Frankel, a Democrat from that area, said this week that he will introduce legislation that would allow municipal and county governments to write firearms laws that are more-restrictive than state law.

“These episodes of mass violence, when coupled with the everyday firearms related violence, leave communities seeking local solutions,” Frankel wrote in a legislative sponsorship memo filed Wednesday. “It is time for us to move legislation that will expand the ability of local governments to respond to mass shootings, terror attacks and ongoing violence within their municipal borders.”

He’s right. If state lawmakers won’t take a stand against gun violence, local officials should be able to.


paul.muschick@mcall.com

610-820-6582

[2DogsBarking]

Councilwoman Erika Strassburger needs an education:
“The Pennsylvania Constitution guarantees the rights of all people to ‘peace, safety and happiness,’” Councilwoman Erika Strassburger said. “The inability for municipal governments to enact their own common sense-gun control measures defies this core principle.”

Last I checked the list: https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs...0&div=0&chpt=1
ARTICLE I

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS



Sec.

1. Inherent rights of mankind.
All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent and indefeasible rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing and protecting property and reputation, and of pursuing their own happiness.

2. Political powers.

3. Religious freedom.

4. Religion.

5. Elections.

6. Trial by jury.

7. Freedom of press and speech; libels.

8. Security from searches and seizures.

9. Rights of accused in criminal prosecutions.

10. Initiation of criminal proceedings; twice in jeopardy;

eminent domain.

11. Courts to be open; suits against the Commonwealth.

12. Power of suspending laws.

13. Bail, fines and punishments.

14. Prisoners to be bailable; habeas corpus.

15. Special criminal tribunals.

16. Insolvent debtors.

17. Ex post facto laws; impairment of contracts.

18. Attainder.

19. Attainder limited.

20. Right of petition.

21. Right to bear arms.
The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned.

22. Standing army; military subordinate to civil power.

23. Quartering of troops.

24. Titles and offices.

25. Reservation of powers in people.

26. No discrimination by Commonwealth and its

political subdivisions.

27. Natural resources and the public estate.

28. Prohibition against denial or abridgment of equality of

rights because of sex.

[internet troll]

Hopefully someone from here in the the Pittsburgh area writes a letter to the paper with a pro gun view point.

[Qtrborecrazy]

Hopefully someone from here in the the Pittsburgh area writes a letter to the paper with a pro gun view point.

Anyone keeping an eye on Conor Lamb out there?

[GunLawyer001]

If you were to list the causes of death in Pennsylvania, year by year, from the highest to the lowest, "assault rifles" wouldn't even be on the first page.

Illegal aliens kill more Pennsylvanians than people using rifles. Urban residents do, too. Black males age 15-30. Drunk drivers. Drivers who are using phones. Obesity. Smoking. Falling in the bath tub. Space heaters. The flu.

Gun control has never been about saving lives. They barely pretend to be interested in saving lives, they never even factor in "lives that would have been saved by armed victims". They have a phobia, they ONLY care about "gun deaths", if they could ban guns but murders doubled, they'd ignore all the stabbings and claim victory. That's not a guess or a hypothetical, look at the UK.

I could start a campaign to ban car seat belts, based on every instance of someone drowning after their car goes into a lake and they are trapped by the belt, and every instance of someone getting snagged on their seat belt and causing an accident.

Obviously, opponents to this would say "but what about all the lives saved by seat belts in accidents?" That's a basic cost/benefit analysis, something any high school kid understands. But you never, ever hear the gun banners discuss the millions of defensive uses of guns every year, except to lie about them, or only consider "attackers shot and killed by their victims", which is a tiny number compared to the overall defensive uses.

Pennsylvania has 12 million people, probably a million semi-automatic rifles, and at least 12 million handguns. The death rate for all of that is tiny; the odds that any particular car will kill someone are much higher than for a gun.

If you care about saving lives, then focus on the things killing thousands of Pennsylvanians, not the things about which you know nothing except that you have a phobia and you like to control people. I think that the reason the snowflakes accuse everyone of being "phobic" towards gays and Islam, is because that's what motivates the Left, a set of irrational phobias, so they assume that we're the same sort of broken misfit toys as they are.

[Yoder]

I thought it was illegal in Pennsylvania for a city to have different firearm laws than the rest of the state. I won't comply.

[2DogsBarking]

I thought it was illegal in Pennsylvania for a city to have different firearm laws than the rest of the state. I won't comply.

It is and they know it:

"Pittsburgh knows it is picking a fight. If the legislation passes, it surely will be challenged in court on the grounds that municipalities cannot pass gun laws that are more restrictive than state laws."

[Justin///M]

It's time for Paul to go fuck himself.

[Pizza Bob]

The NJ sickness is spreading. The text of the AWB is lifted directly from the NJ statutes.

You Pennsylvanians need to lobby your legislators to put some teeth in your preemption statute like Florida did. Make those proposing such laws that violate preemption personally responsible with large fines. This silliness will stop post haste.

I feel your pain - you better stop this or you'll be feeling mine.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

[Krichardson]

It is and they know it.

Yep.....and it appears that some feel it is perfectly okay to ignore certain established laws.