[PAFOA Blog] Choosing the Political Fight instead of Law Enforcement

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Choosing the Political Fight instead of Law Enforcement

According to a report by the Philadelphia Daily News, police leadership and prosecutors are upset that law-abiding gun owners are seeking licenses to carry from states that are more strict and uniform in their issuing practices. In an effort to create controversy where little evidence exists, the Daily News embraces sensational hypotheticals that, when broken down, truly reflect upon the dysfunction within Philadelphia’s criminal justice system.

For example, Lt. Lisa King cites concerns that applicants to out-of-state licensing authorities might have been arrested, but never convicted of any crimes. To her, such a situation seemingly demands the denial of Constitutional rights without any effort by authorities to prove guilt. Fortunately for those of us who believe in the rule of law, our justice system is one based on a presumption of innocence until the state can prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury of our peers.

District Attorney Seth Williams, whose office frequently refuses to process cases of known criminals who are disqualified from owning – let along carrying – a gun, announced plans for his “legislation unit” to look into the matter. Residents of Philadelphia might ask why their tax dollars are being used to lobby rather than prosecute those who have actually committed crimes.

As initially mentioned to the Daily News reporter, PAFOA has firsthand accounts of those who have faced the abusive and arbitrary licensing requirements of the City. When licenses of the victims are regularly revoked simply because a home or car is broken into, it is clear that the Police Department would rather pick on easier targets – those who seek to follow the law – than investigate cases of actual criminals.

Attorney General Tom Corbett’s spokesperson came to the defense of those who opt for an out-of-state permit, noting that the requirements for Florida are actually more strict than Pennsylvania. Though that did not stop the anti-gun group, CeasefirePA from blaming him for the practice. In an admission to the paper, the organization said this is an opening salvo in a planned attack on the Attorney General in the upcoming gubernatorial elections.

Finally, the article does reveal that the Police Department plans to work closely with the District Attorney on the issue. One might assume this means they will work together to prosecute more cases against violent criminals. However, rather than concentrating on getting dangerous people off the streets of Philadelphia, King announced a plan to subpoena records from Florida in order to target the Philadelphia residents who have lawfully obtained a permit from the state. It speaks volumes that the City leaders would rather use resources and manpower to target those who can pass multiple background checks and have appropriate firearms training rather than focusing on putting more hardened criminals behind bars.

This article, Choosing the Political Fight instead of Law Enforcement, is from the Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association Blog & Online Magazine.






Read the full article...

[gnbrotz]

OUTSTANDING piece!

[Brick]

This is a very good piece! Kudos to the author!

I hope that at the very least this has been sent as a "Letter To The Editor" at the Phila Daily News. In fact it should be sent as such to every Philadelphia newspaper!

[danp]

To give credit where credit is due, my good friend Christie was largely responsible for the writing that went into the original response to the reporter and this rebuttal.

Thanks Christie!

[1911shooter]

Very good article, Hopefully this is brought to the attention of everyone and we finally get these people who will not be happy until the criminals are the only ones with guns are gone from roles of leadership, and power.

[Dannytheman]

Outstanding in every way!!

If you have outstanding parking tickets in Philly, you get denied.
If you have had guns stolen from you, you are denied.

Main point is Florida is MORE restrictive and requires training.

I hope this does get picked up by the left of leftist Philly newspapers.

[Sebastian]

Since you know they're going to pick and choose tiny parts of any response, why not give them responses that are more densely packed with more impactful language?

This is a public response, it was not submitted to the Daily News for inclusion into an article, as they are not likely to print it, since they already gave us our say in the original article. However, we wanted anyone who happens to check out PAFOA to be aware of the organization's position on the matter.

You have to be very careful with language, for instance, we want to stand against the Philadelphia Police Department's permitting practices, but we don't want to come off as being anti-law-enforcement, or standing against individual officers. The Philadelphia Police department is filled with many fine officers, many of whom support our rights. That has to be a separate thing from department policy, which is decided by appointees who are accountable to the political branches of the city.

[Sebastian]

I hear you, but this and what I said (providing only strong points to choose from) aren't mutually exclusive.

From the article:

I think this is too high-level, and doesn't make it clear enough for non-gun owners. If you want to win people over, you have to speak in their language. Also, that quote is too wordy (and preachy). Since the media in general already have an anti-gun agenda, perhaps it's better to only give them rock solid points to quote. So that even the weakest point is still a powerful message.

Here's the complete response provided by PAFOA:

It seems like this response wasn't crafted knowing that only bits and pieces would be quoted for the article. It seems more like it was crafted with the intention of winning over the PDN reporter to our cause. I don't even know how much the reporter can be blamed, since she wasn't given much quotable material to work with.

Perhaps only ridiculously strong, well crafted points should be provided for requests like this, in easily quotable format.
So, given these two options:

• Responding with quotable points the reporter can't screw up unless she ignores
• Asking a reporter with an agenda and a deadline to absorb your response and then write something favorable to your cause

Perhaps the former might work better.

It was written with the knowledge that the reporter would likely lift a quote from it, and we suspected it might be a hostile article. I'm not sure what would have worked better. The point we wanted to get across was that the Philadelphia Police department was abusing its discretion, and we did manage to get that point across. You don't have a whole lot of control over what the reporter chooses to use, or whether they choose to quote you at all.