Pa. General Assembly passes gun legislation

[steelerfan]

Shira Goodman's pantsuit is in a bunch because our House passed a measure to designate the the Pennsylvania long rifle as the official firearm. Here's an article she wrote, read on:

Coming back to Harrisburg last week in the wake of a mass shooting in Isla Vista, Calif., the General Assembly, despite having so much last-minute work to do - passage of a budget, education funding, state pensions - somehow found time to pass legislation to make the Pennsylvania long rifle, which dates back to the Revolutionary War - the official firearm of Pennsylvania.

Now we have nothing against the historic long rifle. In fact, we are thankful - and perhaps, somewhat surprised - that some legislators did not select the assault weapon. (Though some members are pushing to allow semiautomatic assault rifles to be used for hunting coyotes, foxes, and woodchucks.)

What is completely unacceptable, however, is that the legislature found time to salute the long rifle, but has done nothing to enact any gun-violence prevention measures since the mass shooting in Sandy Hook on Dec. 14, 2012. The legislature goes merrily along, seeing no evil and doing nothing to protect Pennsylvanians from evil.

To the contrary, when employers try to protect their employees by prohibiting guns on company property, including parking lots, members of the legislature try to prohibit such bans - despite the rise in workplace violence. Twice last week, amendments to strip employers of the right to make policies on their property were amended to unrelated bills. One was ruled out of order, the other was withdrawn, but there have been promises to bring up these "guns in parking lots" bills again next week.


More than 1,300 people die every year in this commonwealth by guns - from homicides, suicides, and accidents. Does that statistic prompt our elected officials in Harrisburg to finally debate and vote on expanding the background check system or passing a requirement to report lost or stolen weapons? No, those bills remain in lockdown in committee.

The fanatical argument that we are safer with any type of gun for everyone, anywhere, and at any time was undercut again just Thursday afternoon in Seattle. A gunman armed with a shotgun was overpowered during his rampage by good guys armed only with pepper spray and their own strength.

Pennsylvania should be ashamed. For Harrisburg to have done nothing to make us safer, to even try to address the problem of gun violence, is shameful. At the same time, for Harrisburg to have spent valuable time on designating a state firearm is embarrassing.

Unfortunately, it's not surprising given the chokehold the gun lobby has had on the legislature.

We must make our voices heard. And, fortunately, that is now happening. Hundreds of Pennsylvanians contacted their legislators to oppose the "guns in parking lots" amendments. Thousands of contacts have been made requesting support and a vote for an expanded background check system. Sooner rather than later, Harrisburg is going to have to start defining its priorities by what the people want.

Pennsylvania's congressional delegation in Washington is figuring that out. Last year, Sens. Pat Toomey and Bob Casey were leading the effort to expand the national background check system. And just last week, after receiving hundreds of calls and e-mails from their constituents, 16 out of the 18 U.S. representatives from Pennsylvania voted in favor of an appropriations amendment that would increase funding for the national background check system. Only one - Rep. Scott Perry - voted no. (Rep. Bill Shuster did not vote.)

Our representatives in Washington finally seem to get it, though much work remains there. And we know that we are sending loud and clear messages to Harrisburg as well. We must continue to do so.

Since Sandy Hook, there have been 74 school shootings, including just yesterday in Oregon. And the daily toll of gun violence in our cities and towns has not abated. It will be a sad legacy if, post-Sandy Hook, the number of deaths and casualties from gun violence continues to rise and all the General Assembly could muster the courage to do is designate an official state firearm.




Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion...wUB7gsd54gU.99

[Solaran_X]

Anything that pisses off CFPA makes me happy.

[fortysix]

I'm pissed off these guys have this much free time. Can't they give trophies to official state this and that on their own time? Did we get into some pissing contest with another state over who has the kewlest state rifle? Did the face book add a new field to membership details that we desperately had to have filled out by close of business? I don't really care about the context, that it has to do with guns, but I most certainly am against these guys having this much free time to pass this kind of legislation. Even 10 seconds devoted to anything other than firing the various state unions, fixing property tax, fixing rampaging school districts' building bonanzas, fixing the outrageous pensions, is wasteful and treasonous. F every person who was present during this event.

Oh and F the article author for including suicides in gun deaths. I just don't see how that is my fault whatsoever, and I most certainly will not have my rights abridged because some kid didn't feel loved enough or whatever, or a drug addict couldn't take it anymore.

[volanova]

As an aside, here's a very interesting article from reason.com...it doesn't include the last two years, but it seems as though even when they're included, school shootings/violence is no more prevalent now than it was 25 years ago. In fact, since the data is just raw data and not reflective of the increased numbers of students in school, the per-capita count would show a fairly significant decrease.

I don't mean to cheapen the deaths of anyone (a single school shooting is one too many), but you don't have an epidemic when the yearly numbers don't exceed the baseline. Again, not saying it's not a problem - it's a huge problem - but rather it's not a *new* problem that will be automatically solved by some insipid mean-looking gun ban. Groups and individuals that go for the emotional feel good knee-jerk response like those calling for ineffectual gun bans almost always do more harm than they do good.

From the Reason.com article linked above:

With the caveat that with numbers this low it's easy to be misled by random noise, I'll point out that the figure has fallen. Note also that these are raw totals, not deaths per population. A chart of school homicide rates would show an even steeper decline.*

But has that decline come to an end? As you can see, the bureau's figures only go through the 2010–11 school year, thus excluding the Sandy Hook massacre and everything since. Twenty children and six adults were murdered at Sandy Hook, making the event bloody enough to cause a spike in 2012–13 all by itself. We don't have enough data to say for certain whether that year was an outlier like 2006–07 or the start of a new trend, but the authors do offer some tentative numbers for the period since the massacre. According to "preliminary counts from media reports," they write, the U.S. saw "17 school-associated violent deaths between December 15, 2012, and November 14, 2013"—11 homicides and six suicides, with six of the dead being of student age.

[Solaran_X]

I'm pissed off these guys have this much free time. Can't they give trophies to official state this and that on their own time? Did we get into some pissing contest with another state over who has the kewlest state rifle? Did the face book add a new field to membership details that we desperately had to have filled out by close of business? I don't really care about the context, that it has to do with guns, but I most certainly am against these guys having this much free time to pass this kind of legislation. Even 10 seconds devoted to anything other than firing the various state unions, fixing property tax, fixing rampaging school districts' building bonanzas, fixing the outrageous pensions, is wasteful and treasonous. F every person who was present during this event.

Oh and F the article author for including suicides in gun deaths. I just don't see how that is my fault whatsoever, and I most certainly will not have my rights abridged because some kid didn't feel loved enough or whatever, or a drug addict couldn't take it anymore.

The article was written by our state's lovely Ms. Shira Goodman. What did you expect, honesty and facts from an anti-rights person?

[Jhaydeno]

It makes me happy to see 98% pro-gun comments that are so clear and concise in the comments section. It proves to others that people like her really are the very small minority.

[fortysix]

The article was written by our state's lovely Ms. Shira Goodman. What did you expect, honesty and facts from an anti-rights person?

Yea she reminds me of another piece of shit, maybe they should get together:

[Displaced]

It makes me happy to see 98% pro-gun comments that are so clear and concise in the comments section. It proves to others that people like her really are the very small minority.

I second this, the comment section is a fantastic rebuttal to the harpy's inane diatribe

[JenniferG]

It's a diatribe that is faithful to the Bloomberg money she is paid to represent. Shrill Goodman is nothing more than an paid spokes person for the socialist state. You could pull that speech off of the communist party USA website and use it for just about any subject that gives government the authority to ban freedom.

[ungawa]

As an aside, here's a very interesting article from reason.com...it doesn't include the last two years, but it seems as though even when they're included, school shootings/violence is no more prevalent now than it was 25 years ago. In fact, since the data is just raw data and not reflective of the increased numbers of students in school, the per-capita count would show a fairly significant decrease.

Not news.

But news to some, so thanks.