Bang Bang, They Shot Him Down

Even before PA Governor Ed Rendell was given the opportunity to testify yesterday to get the state legislature to pull its thumb out and move on pending gun legislation (here), his efforts were politically dead. However, this is an issue where you need to “fight the good fight” anyway, and I thought Rendell did so valiantly.

And I know, “in other news, the sky is blue,” but I’m harping on this again anyway (having posted on it already here).

So let’s hear from the wingnuts then and get their nonsense out of the way, shall we?

"I respect everything he's trying to do, but we do not believe these will help reduce crime," said Melody Zullinger of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Club. "The one gun a month, it's not been seen to work. Three states have that, and it doesn't work."

Oh brother (here)…

On December 31, 1998, the New York Daily News reported that gun deaths have dropped in New York City from more than 1,500 in 1992 to their lowest level since 1963. New York has some of the strictest gun licensing laws in the nation, and Mayor Rudolf (sic) Giuliani has attributed his city’s drop in crime directly to that city’s gun control laws. New York Police Commissioner Howard Safir agrees and supports even stricter laws including one limiting handgun purchases to one a month.

On December 29, 1998, the Washington Post reported that gun deaths in the District of Columbia have also dropped dramatically. According to the report, "police officials attribute the latest decline in homicides to, among other things, the increasing difficulty of purchasing guns in Maryland and Virginia." Both states have passed anti-gun trafficking laws which limit handgun sales to one per person per month. Such laws greatly reduce "straw purchases," in which an individual who may legally purchase a firearm is hired to purchase firearms for an individual who is either prohibited by law from making the purchase (i.e., felons and minors) or does not want to be traced

One-Gun-A-Month laws work. Virginia passed a law limiting handgun purchases to one per person per month in 1993. A 1995 study showed that in the first year alone, Virginia's law has greatly reduced the number of crime guns recovered in other states that were purchased in Virginia. Maryland passed its one-gun-a-month law in 1996. One year after enactment, the number of Maryland multiple-sale guns turning up at crime scenes in Washington, D.C. dropped from 23 to zero, and from 26 to four in Baltimore.

And this Courier Times report provides the following, which may qualify as the most delusional quote from a politician this entire year…

"Public safety has not been a priority for this governor," said Rep. Ronald S. Marsico of Dauphin County, the (PA House Judiciary) committee's ranking Republican.

Rep. Marsico, we know you’re in the NRA’s hip pocket, but do us all a favor and bother to complete the National Voter Awareness Test from Project Vote Smart here the next time you grovel to your masters for donations when you run for office again, OK? It would help with the whole “full disclosure on the part of our elected officials” thing, though I suppose you’re not familiar with that.

Update 11/28/07: Kudos to PA State Rep. Daylin Leach for this.