Please comment this "our opinion" editorial

[HyDef]

The editors of the local "fishrap" paper here put up this editorial today. Hit it with some comments. Write them at letters@timesshamrock.com to get your letters in print.

http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/arti...024290_edi.txt

Take next step to protect cops

Published: Sunday, October 19, 2008
Updated: Sunday, October 19, 2008 4:17 AM EDT
Gov. Ed Rendell signed a new law last week, in response to a rash of assaults against Philadelphia police officers, that provides more severe punishment for anyone who shoots a gun at an officer.

The new law applies statewide but is primarily in response to the epidemic of gun violence in the state’s largest city. According to Philadelphia police, four Philadelphia officers have been killed with handguns since 2003. Firearms have been pointed at officers 263 times since that year and fired at officers 188 times. Police have been wounded 22 times.

The bill is fine as far as it goes, increasing to 20 years the minimum sentence for anyone convicted of firing at a cop. It’s not at all clear that punishment after the fact serves as effective deterrence, however, given that anyone desperate enough to use a gun in the commission of a crime already ignores sentencing enhancements for weapons use. And someone who uses a gun while committing a crime isn’t likely to put it away when the police arrive.

The law also includes some valuable provisions.

It increases from two to five years the statute of limitations on “straw purchases” of guns — that is, purchases made by people who sell the weapons to criminals. The longer period is necessary because it sometimes takes a long time to trace a weapon back to its source.

The law precludes mentally ill people from buying guns and increases penalties for lying on gun-purchase paperwork and filing a false report of a stolen gun.

Unfortunately, the bill stops short of several measures that could help to keep guns out of the hands of people who would use them to take on police.

Pennsylvania should fight straw purchasers by limiting gun sales to one per person per month, and by requiring gun owners to report the theft of a gun. Police tracing guns used in crimes often find that they were legally purchased and passed on to criminals, and that original owners of weapons often claim after the fact that the gun had been stolen.

None of those measures violate anyone’s right to own guns, other than criminals. The provisions are minor matters of responsible gun ownership that could help to save police officers’ and civilians’ lives.

[Robert Kayland]

I don't mean to sound calloused, but about one policeman dying per year and less than 5 being wounded in a city the size of Philadelphia requires new and more stringent gun laws being applied to the whole citizenry?

Sounds to me like they have things pretty much under control... besides, the law already basically says it's your ass if you shoot at a cop...

(yes, that's the exact legal term, if memory serves... if not, the police will be sure to elaborate the specific legalese while you're in their custody).

If what they're trying to do is cut down on straw purchases, make better use of the computers and tie together alerts on purchasers and those same purchasers who seem to have an untoward amount of their guns reported lost or stolen. (DUH!)

But don't stop ME from buying more than one gun a month! I just paid top dollar renewal membership to my Gun-Of-The-Week club!

[gprimr1]

Noo, I just got away from 1 gun a month (in MD).

I will admit though, I am uncertain about the reporting lost/stolen guns. I have never been told the rational against requiring it.

[fingers80002]

Noo, I just got away from 1 gun a month (in MD).

I will admit though, I am uncertain about the reporting lost/stolen guns. I have never been told the rational against requiring it.

There is no RATIONAL.

Welcome, congrats escaping the PRMD !!!!!!!!!!!

[Ten*K]

reply posted, pending "approval"
****************************

The vast majority of PA gun owners support effective legislation of firearms, and therein lies the problem: legislation continually promoted by Philly, Gov. Rendell, and (with increasing frequency) local mayors is not. As a responsible firearm owner, I would certainly report the loss of my property, despite knowing that even if it were recovered, I would almost certainly never have it returned to me.

Limiting sales to one per month is ridiculous in the extreme, and violates the spirit of the Second Amendment.

It is also disturbing how the very same politicians who seek to prevent the law-abiding citizens of this great State continue to consciously violate our rights while selling us out to "Big Business" and foreign owned companies. At the same time, "they" are surrounded by armed guards and police officers.

A truly effective crime deterrent would take the following laws: Castle Doctrine (like many other States, allows self defense without criminal or civil repercussions in one's own home), Stand Your Ground (no duty to tuck tale and run when crimes are committed), and finally Good Samaritan (preventing criminal or civil suit from a bystander who makes an effort to prevent a crime or stop a criminal from escape).

Honesty and Truth are more essential to Liberty and Security than anything today's politicos can hash together.

[Siobhra]

Mandatory reporting of lost or stolen guns will do only one thing. It will be a tool against ALL gun owners. If a gun is stolen from your house and used in a crime soon afterwards the DA hungry for a conviction will use the law to go after you. If you were on vacation you could come home to find your gun was stolen and a warrant for your arrest for not reporting it. And you will have to prove you were not guilty.

If we could trust the government to act honorably it would be a great law, but we all know how it will be used.

The one gun a month law. How can you tell how many guns a person buys unless you record the purchase? I could buy a gun in one gun shop and drive over to another gun store and buy another. They could only catch me if they track who buys and what they buy. Another list available to gun-grabbers to use when they want to take your guns.

Also the one gun a month scheme has been tried and it has been found to make it harder to catch the straw buyers. A lot of straw buyer are not really that smart. They buy a bunch of guns at once which puts them on the radar of investigators who are looking for people making straw purchases. After one gun a month laws were passed in those states the gun runners just got a bunch of their friends to each buy one gun and they still got all the guns they wanted buy did so with out tripping any alarms.

[Kaos]

Noo, I just got away from 1 gun a month (in MD).

I will admit though, I am uncertain about the reporting lost/stolen guns. I have never been told the rational against requiring it.

Until lets say they start charging you with something for "allowing" your guns to be stolen by not having some elaborate security measure for them.

I know plenty of people who run a cable lock through their guns and leave them in a closet.

[LastManOut]

IIRC, the NRA has been pushing for states to adopt strict gun-crime laws. If you have on your person a gun/weapon during the commission of a crime, mandatory 5 (?) years in prison; if you brandish a weapon in the commission of a crime mandatory 10 (?) years in prison; if you discharge a gun in the commission of a crime mandatory 25 (?) years in prison.

If this type of legislation was made lawyer-proof, maybe it would help reduce crime by incarcerating the criminals for extended periods, without parole.

P.S. Re-institute chain gangs, our highways are turning into trash dumps.

[PennsyPlinker]

Okay, I commented, and they even posted it! Finally. It took since yesterday afternoon to get it approved. I guess we had to wait for someone to come to work this morning. And, I was in first.

[Pa. Patriot]

Mandatory reporting of lost or stolen guns will do only one thing. It will be a tool against ALL gun owners. If a gun is stolen from your house and used in a crime soon afterwards the DA hungry for a conviction will use the law to go after you. If you were on vacation you could come home to find your gun was stolen and a warrant for your arrest for not reporting it. And you will have to prove you were not guilty. .

Yup.

And the law does not help fight it's intended target - straw purchasers.
Since the accused can not be complelled to self incriminate they can not be convicted under any such "lost & stolen" law if they indeed are a straw purchaser.

Makes the whole idea worthless...