Eddie’s Doing A Bang-Up Job Again

The Philadelphia Inquirer tells us here that PA Governor Ed Rendell this morning…

…urged a legislative committee to grow a "backbone" and finally pass a package bills aimed at curbing gun violence.

"Those who argue that violence is a Philadelphia problem caused by judges, police and prosecutors who do not enforce the laws on the books are dead wrong," Rendell told the House Judiciary Committee shortly after 10.

"It's time for us to stand up and say enough," the governor added, pounding his first.

…

At the outset of his half-hour before the panel, Rendell stressed that he was not attempting to attack law-abiding gun owners.

"I don't come here to demonize anybody. I believe we have a strong and proud gun heritage in Pennsylvania. I believe hunting is a way of life for so many of our citizens," Rendell said. "If we seek to demonize anybody here...it is to demonize criminals who use our police for target practice, it's to demonize criminals who sell guns to felons and juveniles."

Even before Rendell spoke, Committee Chairman Tom Caltagirone (D., Berks) said "I think everyone knows how they are going to vote on these bills."

If the panel endorses the bills, they still would require approval from the entire House and then an even higher hurdle, the GOP-controlled Senate, before they could go to Rendell's desk for his signature.

And as Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney tells us here, PA House Speaker Dennis O’Brien appeared at Archbishop Ryan High School in Philadelphia last Thursday night to discuss crime and violence, but somehow managed to avoid the subject of guns (actually, given O’Brien’s dismal track record on the matter, that’s not entirely surprising).

However, given the fact that six Philadelphia police officers have been shot in the last two months during a year of 350 homicides and counting, as Kinney notes, I would state rather emphatically that we need an approach to this trend that constitutes something other than business-as-usual politics.

And as you can read from this account of the death of Richard Johnson, who had just graduated from St. Joseph’s Prep, as well as this unctuous holiday moment, it is long past time for O’Brien to actually take a risk on the horrific issue of gun violence in this state and expend some political capital in the name of saving lives.

(On the topic of guns, I forgot to note that the Courier Times ran its full-page display ad for "Surplus City" in Featerville today, just in time for holiday shopping I suppose. Now I know where to go to get my Polish Tokarev pistols, Remington/Winchester .30/03 Caliber WWII-Issue rifles and Model A Uzis. The paper's logic is impeccable, however; I should note that the ad appeared right next to the obituaries.)