MCall story about rally in Harrisburg

**shooter357** · April 23rd, 2009, 07:16 AM

http://www.mcall.com:80/news/local/a...,1188875.story

HARRISBURG | - Emily Grumbine, 16, of Kutztown is fresh-faced, home-schooled and has a message for lawmakers eyeing new restrictions on handguns.

''I'm a future voter and I'm going to be watching out for [my] best interests and the best interests of the country,'' she said here Tuesday at a spirited gun-rights rally. Legislators ''need to look out for our best interests -- and not their own.''

Her comments echoed sentiments around the state Capitol as hundreds of gun rights advocates -- angered and alarmed by fears that state and federal governments are hell-bent on taking away their weapons -- rallied in opposition to proposed curbs.

''How are people supposed to defend themselves without guns?'' asked Grumbine, who's been handling firearms since age 8 and attended the rally with her father, Bill Grumbine, 50. ''Criminals will always get guns.''

The elder Grumbine, a woodworker, was among those who had to leave his gun at the door. Capitol police took temporary custody of 63 handguns just before the event and returned them afterward.

Just as law-abiding citizens remain law-abiding with or without their weapons, criminals will always try to obtain handguns, said Grumbine, a genial bear of a man who sported a yellow baseball cap and a bushy gray beard.

''Look at me. They took my gun away,'' he said. ''Has the essence of my personality changed? No. If you take the guns away, you haven't solved a problem, you've addressed a symptom.''

State efforts to impose controls on handguns have gained new currency in the wake of this month's fatal shootings of three Pittsburgh police officers by a man armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and several other weapons.

Gov. Ed Rendell has called on Congress to reinstate a federal ban on the sale of some assault weapons, including AK-47s, arguing they're intended for little more than ''mass-produced mayhem.''

And Rendell, along with the mayors of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, has called for bills limiting handgun purchases to one a month and requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen weapons. The mayors also want the right to pass their own handgun curbs if state lawmakers won't act.

Rendell, a former Philadelphia mayor, has been pushing for years for stricter controls on handguns.

''We don't believe sensible crime-control measures in any way threaten the Second Amendment,'' administration spokesman Chuck Ardo said. ''Our focus is on the safety of law enforcement Â… and the public in general.''

Gun-rights advocates such as National Rifle

Association President John Sigler say such measures are misguided attacks on the U.S. Constitution.

Sigler and others who spoke at Tuesday's rally warned that gun-ownership rights continue to be threatened by Washington and state governments. Neither President Barack Obama nor Rendell is considered a friend by the gun lobby.

''What gives a state the right to limit a constitutional right?'' Sigler asked, referring to the one-gun-a-month proposal. ''What if they limited you to one newspaper or one church service? If they can limit you to one, they can limit you to none.''

Emily Grumbine and her father planned to spend Tuesday afternoon visiting their local lawmakers -- state Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, and Rep. Gary Day, R-Berks -- in hopes of persuading them to oppose proposed gun-control measures.

Dozens of state lawmakers, Republican and Democrat alike, attended the rally.

''The Second Amendment was designed to protect us from our own government,'' the elder Grumbine said. The Framers ''wrote it into our Constitution so we could protect ourselves.''

john.micek@mcall.com

717-783-7305

**adymond** · April 23rd, 2009, 08:16 AM

Great article. I just dropped him a thank you voicemail as well as an e-mail. We need to praise good reporting. I was a bit unhappy with his tie in and calling the AK clone an AK, but all-in-all it was a good article.

I need to find a post of Bill's to rep for his comments in that article.