GUNS: Violent crimes and gun sales increase simultaneously Continued from page 6 legislative session, but the idea of the law has persisted into debates in multiple cities statewide. Since the bill to report a lost or stolen handgun failed to be includ ed with the crime bill, five cities, Pittsburgh, Pottsville, Reading, Allentown and Philadelphia, have all passed some type of law re quiring gun owners to report lost or stolen handguns. Lancaster and York have also considered similar laws. The Harrisburg City Council most recently passed a law re quiring gun owners to report to city police the loss of theft of a handgun within 48 hours or face a fine of $5O to $l,OOO or up to 90 days in jail, That bill awaits Mayor Stephen Reid’s approval for adoption into law. NRA representatives refute the legality of cities passing these types of laws. They assert that firearms can only be regulated at the state level and the cities are outside of their authority said Hohenwarter. “It is [CeaseFire- PA] perspective that these cities do have the legal right to pass laws requiring the report of the loss or stolen handgun, and that question will be decided soon in the state appellate court,” Grace said. “Lost or stolen hand gun re porting is just one more tool for the po lice to trace and stop the flow of illegal handguns and straw purchasing from hap pening in Pennsylva •_ »* ma. “We have a state preemption laws. So what they are doing violates that law and I would aigue also violates our state constitution,” Cutler said. Cutler said all forms of proposed and recently passed laws requir ing reporting of loss or stolen fire arms will all fail because the law, at is core, is unconstitutional. The most prominent legal precedent that Cutler said supports his claim is the 1968 Supreme Court ruling,. Haines v. the United States. “Even though the idea is being advanced on cutting down straw purchases, with purchasing fire arms and giving them to felons illegally, those folks are already exempt from reporting because it would be self incriminating and violates their fifth amendment constitutional [right],” Cutler said. “Our Federal government actu ally modified our federal firearms act after the Haines v. the United States case and specifically put in a provision that said that none of that information obtained during registration would be utilized for criminal prosecution.” Both Cutler and Hohenwarter both said they think the cities le gal challenges to pass gun legisla tion will fail in court. If the laws passed by the cities are overturned in legal challeng es, Grace said another form of the loss or -stolen firearm reporting legislation will reach debate in the state house of representative this year. “If the city laws fail, we will continue to work very energeti cally to see this reform come back Artsonis Wlnois North Carolina Michigan Louisiana Georgia New York Pennsylvania Texas California 0 200 before the full legislature,” Grace said. “In the long run, statewide reform is the best way to reduce gun violence, but the city-by-city approach, we think calls atten tion to the issue and that’s a good thing in keeping this issue on the forefront. Make no mistake and no doubt that is the reform we working toward passing, “ The reason why Grace said his organization is so compelled to help establish a law to report law of lost or stolen because it gives law enforcement more tools to deter illegal straw purchasing. THE CAPITAL TIMES “There is really no constitu tional right implicated here at all,” Grace said. “There is noth ing about this reform that would stop a person from purchasing a gun. This reform had everything to do with just having a simple re sponsibility to report it lost, miss ing or stolen. There really isn’t any second amendment right. I don’t think you are going to find any court in the land, here at the state or federal level suggesting that a constitutional right is being impaired.” Cutler countered Grace when he said the need for more legislation to regulate and deter illegal straw purchases of handguns. “Straw purchasing is illegal here in the state,” Cutler said. “Giving a firearm, or falsely purchasing a firearm so that you can sell it on the street or give it to a felon is already illegal.” “We don’t need new laws, we Incidents of Murd«r by SUM 800 1000 Firearm Murders just need to enforce the ones we have,” Cutler said. “It is already illegal for a felon to own a gun, we already have the right to en hance their sentencing if they utilize a firearm during the crime. The fact that were willing to in fringe on the rights of law abiding citizens in order to advance a po litical agenda is very disconcert ing to me. 1 don’t see the sense in burdening honest people with additional regulation when the criminal themselves disregard the laws anyway.” October 7.2009 Cutler said he and his base of pro-gun constituents are ready for another fight this year on the state house floor concerning require ments to report a loss or stolen firearms. He predicts that the gov ernor and CeaseFirePA still won’t find enough votes to pass a form of this legislation. Joe Grace said legislation like this is just a common sense ap proach to possibility preventing violent and illegal gun crime. In states with such broad legal gun freedoms, a law like reporting a loss or stolen handgun is really a small inconvenience. “ Generally speaking, Pennsyl vania has fairly lax gun laws, when you compare them with some neighboring states,” Grace said. “That is one of reasons that we are working so hard across the state to generate support for change, for strengthening our gun laws in reasonable common sense 1200 1400 Graph by FRANK MAGNI .° f the ° nly Certainties ways.” The state requires no licence to own a handgun, allows gun own ers to carry concealed weapons and places no restrictions on hav ing assault weapons. Some of the only provisions Pennsylvania has require are gun show background checks. Delaware and Ohio remain just a lenient in terms of restrictions, with Delaware only placing limi tations on carrying a concealed weapon. Maryland has some of the tough- est gun laws in the nation with one gun a month restrictions, permits required for purchases of firearms and “Saturday night specials” limitation on junk handguns. These handguns are targeted be cause inexpensive manufacturing method make these the weapons of choice for people that want to use a gun once for a crime only to discarded it to hide evidence. Maryland’s laws also include as sault weapon registration with law enforcement, a waiting period on gun sales along with limitations on carrying a concealed weapon and restriction on certain types of assault weapons. New York mir rors Maryland in many of their laws with the exception of the one gun a month restriction. New Jer sey also has similar laws to New York, but doesn’t place restric tions on junk handguns. In 2007, Pennsylvania was third in the nation in total firearm re- lated murders with 527. Of the top ten states, Pennsylvania was rank sixth in the rate of murder com mitted with firearms. Of the states border ing Pennsylvania, only Maryland has a higher rate of mur ders with firearms, according to Federal Bureau of Investiga tion Uniform Crime statistics. Other than Mary land though, Ohio, New York, Delaware and New Jersey all have substantially lower rates of mur ders occurring with firearms, according to 2007 FBI Uniform Crime statistics. While voting trends in both the state and the country signal an uncertain future, one is that the gun control debate will rage on. Pennsylvania isn’t the only state the balances the adverse affects of gun vio lence along with is populations rights to purchase and own hand guns. Many times this issue most affects decision made at the ballot box. What is certain is Americans, along with Pennsylvanians, are arming themselves at higher rates. Increased level of firearms among the population requires each American to evaluate gun ownership for themselves in many ways.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers