PA Bill Number: SB945
Title: Consolidating the act of August 9, 1955 (P.L.323, No.130), known as The County Code; and making repeals.
Description: Consolidating the act of August 9, 1955 (P.L.323, No.130), known as The County Code; and making repeals. ...
Last Action: Third consideration and final passage (199-0)
Last Action Date: Apr 17, 2024
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf adds his voice to those calling for laws to curb gun-related deaths in Pennsylvania :: 06/06/2019
Five days after a mass shooting at a Virginia Beach government building that left a dozen people dead and several others injured, calls for laws to reduce gun violence in Pennsylvania are being sounded again.
Gov. Tom Wolf spoke at a rally, organized by (at his right) Sen. Art Haywood, D-Philadelphia, to shine a light on gun violence and call for measures that reduce the incidence of gun-related deaths in the commonwealth.
In advance of National Gun Violence Awareness Day on Friday, activists lobbying for tighter controls on who has access to firearms joined with policymakers on Wednesday to call for action on a myriad of measures they suggest could help to curb the steady drip of gun-related deaths in Pennsylvania.
“We need to end mass shootings in Pennsylvania. We need to end homicide shootings in Pennsylvania. And we need to end suicides by gun in Pennsylvania," said Gov. Tom Wolf, during an afternoon Capitol Rotunda rally surrounded by a sea of orange shirts worn by Democratic lawmakers and representatives from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and CeaseFire Pa, both grassroots public safety advocacy organizations.
Wolf last year signed the only gun control law to pass in this state in 14 years that requires those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes or are the subject to a protective order to give up their guns within 24 hours.
“We have made progress," the governor said. "We still have a lot to do.”
A supporter of universal background checks on gun purchases, Wolf highlighted at the rally was a proposal he endorses that seeks to limit access to firearms for people who are suicidal or intend to do harm to others.
“It’s just common sense,” he said.
Shanna Danielson, a former teacher who is with the Harrisburg chapter of MOMS Demand Action, said 100 Americans are killed with guns each day and firearms are the second leading cause of death among American children or teens. It’s an epidemic unique to America, she said.
Her group, along with CeaseFire PA, have events planned all across the commonwealth for this weekend to renew a commitment to ending gun violence. That includes a Wear Orange Mini-Block Party at the Broad Street Market in Harrisburg at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Additionally, Sen. Art Haywood, D-Philadelphia, who organized the rally, said the Capitol will be bathed in orange this weekend, the color the activist borrow from hunters as a way to be seen and stay safe.
“My own son will start kindergarten this fall. The thought of him experiencing active shooter drills as a 5-year-old leaves a hole in my heart,” said Danielson, who went through one of those drills as a teacher and was left mentally scarred. “This cannot be our new normal.”
Democratic lawmakers also are urging passage of other gun-related measures to reduce gun violence and mass shootings like the one at Virginia Beach or the one at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October or the one at a high school in Parkland, Fla., in February 2018.
Among them, a bill that would regulate loaded firearms in vehicles, another that would ban the printing of 3D firearms, and yet another that would require firearm safety courses to obtain a concealed carry permit. Other bills seek to allow municipalities to ban firearms on property they own and require a license to own a firearm.
Many of these ideas are laws that other jurisdictions have enacted that Pennsylvania has yet to adopt, said Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, at a news conference held earlier on Wednesday that focused on Senate Democrats’ gun safety priorities.
Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, discusses Senate Democrats' bills to address gun violence at a Capitol news conference on Wednesday. Joining him were (from left) Sens. Wayne Fontana, D-Allegheny County; Maria Collett, D-Montgomery County; Art Haywood, D-Philadelphia; and some public safety advocates.
“Inaction is no longer an option. We cannot allow ourselves to get numb to these mass shootings which have become again an epidemic in America,” said Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Allegheny County, at that news conference.
But a gun rights advocates argue the fight being waged for more restrictions on gun ownership is wrong-headed.
“These people are just for disarming law-abiding citizens of a means that they have to defend themselves against the criminal element when the police aren’t there to respond,” said Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler County, a strong gun rights proponent. “Maybe if the Democrats would stop getting so soft on crime, we wouldn’t have so many criminals out there trying to commit wicked acts against their neighbors.”
At a Second Amendment rights rally last month at the Capitol, Kelly Ann Pidgeon, head of the group Armed and Feminine said guns can be an equalizer, noting she has friends who have been raped at gunpoint in gun-free zones.
Another indication of how controversial gun bills are in the General Assembly, Haywood said after trying unsuccessfully in the four previous years to get the Senate to adopt a resolution designating a day in June as “Gun Violence Awareness Day”, he finally succeeded on Wednesday.
Over in the House, though, an effort by Rep. Todd Stephens, R-Montgomery County, to pass a similar resolution drew an objection and wasn’t adopted.
