Panel urged to back limit on handgun salesBy PETER JACKSON
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Gun-control advocates on Wednesday urged a gubernatorial advisory commission to endorse a proposal to limit handgun purchases in Pennsylvania to one per month when the panel makes recommendations next week.
"We must rid the community of so many guns, make them harder to purchase and teach people other ways to settle their disputes," Diane Edbril of CeaseFirePA told a Capitol news conference.
State Rep. W. Curtis Thomas, who also participated in the news conference, said the unlimited sale of handguns in Pennsylvania feeds a voracious underground market for illegal weapons used to commit crimes.
"This is about whether or not somebody should have the ability to buy 25 guns a month who knowingly ... then put those 25 guns in a stream of commerce in a way that they know is going to end up in death or permanent injury," the Philadelphia Democrat said.
"This is about choosing life over death, choosing peace over a society where people do not feel safe," he said.
The proposal, which Gov. Ed Rendell advocated during his 2002 election campaign, is part of a pending gun-control package sponsored by state Rep. John Myers, D-Philadelphia.
In March, responding to a spate of gunshot killings in Philadelphia and York, Rendell impaneled the Commission to Address Gun Violence, a 23-member commission that includes police, legislators and federal, state and local prosecutors. It is scheduled to make final recommendations to Rendell and the Legislature on Monday.
The commission's chairman, Philadelphia attorney Walter M. Phillips Jr., said the one-handgun-per-month proposal is "clearly on the table, as far as the commission is concerned."
Rendell, a Democrat and former Philadelphia mayor, continues to support the measure, but has not pushed it in the Republican-controlled Legislature because he is convinced it would not pass, said his spokeswoman, Kate Philips.
He believes it is "absolutely reasonable and the right thing to do," Philips said. "But the governor is also a political realist."
The gun-control activists also called for the elimination of a state law that prohibits cities and towns from imposing local gun-control ordinances and passage of legislation to require gun owners to take steps to keep the weapons out of the hands of children or criminals.
Edbril, saying she fears resistance from rural lawmakers will kill the one-a.m.onth handgun plan, noted it would not affect purchases of rifles or shotguns, limit handgun purchases by gun collectors or restrict purchases by people whose handguns have been lost or stolen.
http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-26/1115845018313140.xml&storylist=penn*FW Note: News Flash to PA residents...The Sky is Falling, News at 10. Meanwhile, back to basics: "...
the right to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
:roll:
