Gov.Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania Puts Gun Divide to the Test: Will Force a Public Reckoning.

Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania Puts Gun Divide to the Test: Will Force a Public Reckoning.

"Because of the perceived clout of the mythical gun lobby – and we emphasize the word “perceived,” not actual – gun control legislation in most state houses is shot down faster than a pheasant at a “canned” hunt.

What it takes to advance public safety is leadership and an engaged citizenry. Both those forces are coming together in Pennsylvania, even though the state, until recently, had the highest number of National Rifle Association members.

So our hat goes off to Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell this week for getting mad as all heck about the bloodshed in his state, particularly in Philadelphia, caused by guns.

As quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Rendell pleaded: "How much will it take? What does the toll have to be before we do anything?" Rendell said during a news conference. He noted that two more Philadelphia police officers had been wounded by gunmen since Nov. 9, the date he proposed a mandatory 20-year sentence for shooting at a police officer. "We have a problem," Rendell said, pausing. "Houston, we have a problem.""
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<http://www.gunguys.com/>

First crack in PA's wall of unreason
Posted by Bryan Miller November 26, 2007 9:35AM
Categories: Hot Topics, Law & Order

"In unprecedentedted move, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell addressed the Judiciary Committee of the state House of Representatives last Tuesday morning. The governor called for the committee to favorably report to the House floor three bills intended to place barriers to the rampant illegal trade in handguns in Pennsylvania- HB 22, to limit handgun buyers to the purchase of no more than a single handgun in any 30-day period (up to 13 per year); HB 29, to require gun owners to report lost or stolen guns; and HB 18, to allow municipalities to set their own gun regulations.

The illegal gun trade, which moves handguns from legal sale at Pennsylvania gun shops to illegal street sale, fuels gun crime and violence in the Keystone State and throughout the Northeast US (and especially, according to recently published ATF data, in New Jersey).

Rendell did not succeed on Tuesday, but, for the first time in memory, the mountain (and I don't mean Rendell himself) moved. Namely, a bill of exceeding common sense (HB 29), that would simply require the reporting of lost or stolen guns to police, was tabled for future consideration. HB 29 had been defeated by the same committee just six months previously.

Legislation is generally tabled when it makes legislators so uncomfortable that they don't wish to have their votes recorded. Such discomfort in Pennsylvania on gun bills is new and refreshing. In past, legislators felt no hesitation about voting down any bill that had the merest hint of National Rifle Association opposition. Not so now with HB 29, violently opposed by the leadership of the NRA and its ilk. Although hardly a major victory for reasonableness and safety, Tuesday was an important start in a state long viewed as totally dominated by the gun lobby.

The wall of reaction and unreason, built by legislators' fear of the gun lobby, has suffered its first crack. This is important and encouraging news for New Jerseyans, whose communities suffer from the interstate trafficking of handguns, which Pennsylvania's lax handgun laws encourage. Per recent Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms data, only about a quarter of guns recovered from crime in New Jersey during '06 and traced back to their original source were originally purchased in our state. Fully three-quarters of recovered and traced crime guns were originally purchased elsewhere and brought here. Pennsylvania is the leading external source of guns used in New Jersey crimes."
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<http://blog.nj.com/njv_bryan_miller/2007/11/first_crack_in_pas_wall_of_unr.html>

Lets make Reichwing legistlators pledge their allegiance to the gun lobby in public. Three cheers to a fearless Democrat who has beat the NRA several times and would make a hell of a good VP.

I also think he would make a hell of a good VP.

Congrats to Rendell. It takes a lot of gumption to take on the NRA in Pennsylvania.

Pretty good ticket!

I could definitely live with that. :)

...but laws that punish law-abiding gun owners for simply being law-abiding? I'm not buying it.

And then there's Bob Casey, the junior Senator from PA, who is pro-RKBA last time I checked.

and the NRA has tried hard to beat Rendell.

:eyes: