Wolf, Shaprio, anti-gun violence group ask for stronger gun laws

Wolf, Shaprio, anti-gun violence group ask for stronger gun laws

By Sam Dunklau

March 24, 2021

Anti-gun violence groups are asking state lawmakers to change Pennsylvania’s laws in the wake of two mass shootings in Colorado and Atlanta.

The group, led by gun reform organization CeaseFire PA, says enacting emergency risk protection orders, requiring gun owners to report their lost or stolen firearms and tightening background check requirements are key steps..

USA Today reports Pennsylvania experienced 34 mass shootings last year alone.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro says each one could have been prevented.

“It doesn’t have to be this way at Tree of Life in Pittsburgh, and it certainly doesn’t have to be this way at a supermarket in Boulder, and it certainly doesn’t have to be this way every single night on the streets of the great city of Philadelphia.”

A Giffords Law Center analysis shows Pennsylvania’s gun laws are already among the nation’s strictest.

Even as the pandemic raged, 500 people were shot and killed in Philadelphia alone the highest number in three decades.

Dr. Dorothy Johnson-Speight lost her son in 2001 when a man shot him seven times over a parking space.

“There’s no pain in the world like having to bury a loved one. Not to an illness, but to a conscious decision that someone made to take their life,” Johnson-Speight says. 

Jason Gottesman, House Republican Caucus spokesman, says while the GOP condemns “senseless acts of violence,” the Commonwealth already has strong gun laws, and enacting new ones would do little to prevent future tragedies.

Republican leaders in the state House and Senate didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

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