Photo credit: Kingdetector
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This week marked the beginning of school for more than a million Pennsylvania school children. Many kids returning to school were walking through metal detectors, some wearing bullet-proof back packs and too many leaving anxious parents at bus stops and school curbsides wondering if their sons and daughters will return home safely. Parents are concerned and teachers are conducting active shooter drills, in part, because our legislature has failed the test of keeping our schools and streets safe from gun violence. Harrisburg Republicans earn a failing grade in gun safety While some incremental progress was made on common sense gun reforms in Congress, we totally missed the bus in Pennsylvania. The far-right extremists who have a stranglehold on my Republican colleagues in the legislature succeeded only in doing the bidding of the NRA and corporate gun lobbyists. In the Pennsylvania House we had a smorgasbord of common-sense gun reform legislation ready for debate and votes, but nothing made it off the table. Gun reforms as obvious and popular as passing “Red Flag” laws, eliminating high-capacity gun magazines, banning assault rifles, safe storage regulations and giving local authorities more power to regulate guns in their communities were all blocked in committee without debate or due consideration by the extremist Republican majority. In total this legislative session, House Democrats had at least 16 gun bills in the hopper ready for debate, ending up stuck in common-sense gun reform purgatory because the gun lobby has more clout than the 1.7 million students enrolled in Pennsylvania schools. Republicans play gun reform limbo Instead of seeking any kind of common ground or compromise on gun reforms, Harrisburg Republicans chose to push gun laws to further extremes, as in limbo, seeing how low they can go. But for the Governor’s veto pen, we would have unvetted, no-permit-required right to carry concealed weapons for anyone 18 or older in Pennsylvania, gun stores would have been exempted from business closures during the pandemic, and local municipalities would have lost any ability to regulate guns beyond any restrictions in state law. Republican extremists’ bills that have not yet made it to the Governor’s desk include Rep. Metcalf’s bill making federal gun laws unenforceable in Pennsylvania, Representative Dowling’s bill to require local governments to pay legal fees and court costs to any group that successfully challenges local laws restricting gun rights and Senator Mastriano’s bill to arm teachers. Facts do not matter Republicans are not fazed by the fact that gun violence has become the number one cause of death for children in America surpassing car crash fatalities. They are unmoved by the fact in the past 20 years more kids were killed with guns than police officers and active military personnel combined. It doesn’t matter to them that America has more guns than people, the highest per capita gun ownership in the world. Pennsylvania has experienced more than 1500 gun deaths per year the last few years and Republicans deny there is any relationship between how many people are dying from gun violence and the easy gun access and staggering number of guns in the Commonwealth. We can’t say this enough, the upcoming election must be presented to voters as a choice between the extreme, grievance-driven MAGA Republicans and the common sense, mainstream public policy and governance pursued by Democrats. Our democracy, our rights, our planet and our safety are on the ballot. Spread the word! Thanks for reading, Kristine |