Heard in the Hall

The NRA has Pennsylvania in a choke hold and it is important for any elected official in Philadelphia who cares about protecting not only the citizens of Philadelphia, but citizens from states around the region who have an increased proliferation of guns due to PA's ridiculously loose guns laws to fight back against the NRA anyway possible.

Secondly, the difference between gay rights and african american rights and gun laws is common sense! The proliferation of hand guns in Philadelphia, due to the Commonwealth's strict and outdated interpretation of the second amendment is a major contributing factor to the homicide rate while discrimination against black, gay or Catholics is based a on a racist ideology that should not be tolerated in 2008. The only thing they have in common is they both stem from outdated and irrelevant way of thought based in the 1700 and 1800s.

Thirdly, if the homicide rate is still escalating by July 4th, which it very well may be, it will not be due to the fact Philadelphia increased its guns laws. It will be due to all the other social ills that still exist and cause people to kill each other. Removing guns from the streets does not eliminate an individuals inclination to kill another person, it simply removes their means to do so and with the amount of guns on the streets of Philadelphia today, it would take much longer than a few months to remove enough guns to have an effect on the homicide rate.

Finally, if Philadelphia decides to ignore state law than it will create the process of arbitration. It effectively allows the City to argue its case for stricter guns laws in a venue other than the NRA dominated state legislature - the courts. Nutter should not accept the fact that others have failed in the courts as a reason for not acting. He should be applauded for continuing the fight.

Philadelphia's need for gun control supersedes Jeff Shields' sense of self-importance. I give Nutter credit for bringing attention to this injustice and trust he will not bankrupt the coffers in the process. The NRA and its apologists need to be exposed- even if they have the judges in their pockets, eventually their time will come.

Actually, bigotry is bigotry whether the perpetrator hates legal gunowners, Mormons, Muslims, or women.

People need to tone down the bigotry long enough learn the facts. Private firearms ownership is a civil right in PA - deal with it. Today, and every day since 1947, every single handgun sale in PA must be registered with the state police and a background check done on the owner. What more is Nutter and the anti-gunowner crowd in Phila. going to add to that strict anti-crime law? Delaware doesn't even have that law, so why is PA accused of "weak regional gun laws?" It's bigotry, that's why.

"Anti-gun owner crowd" member here, BIGOTRY?????
Are you serious? I have plenty of friends who are gun owners and I guess I'm just their bigoted friend, thanks for letting me know what they really have been thinking. Oh and I think you are a bigot for assuming I'm a killjoy trying to take away your "legal" gun just because it's an automatic or semi-automatic killing machine. Keep your hunting rifles and handguns- I don't even care if you register them, but please don't tell me you need semi-automatic or automatic weapons, especially on my streets.

LOL! Thanks for the comments, and providing Exhibit A for my point.

You really loaded a lot of code words into your comment; let's take a look.

1) I can't count the number of times that I have had interesting verbal exchanges soon after hearing someone utter "Now, some of my best friends are _____, BUT . . . ."

2) Your use of Chis Farley's "quotation marks" around the term "legal" implies that you do not believe it possible for someone to actually be a gunowner and a decent law-abiding member of society. I wonder what your buddies would think about that one.

3) The loaded code words "automatic or semi-automatic killing machine" conjures up a certain crowd's blithe use of the term "gangbanger." If a golf club is used to kill someone, is that now a "killing machine." Self-loading firearms are no more dangerous than any other firearms, no matter how many times myths to the contrary are repeated. Is someone getting shot at with a pump-action shotgun any less upset because it doesn't use detachable magazines? If you keep such a pump-action shotgun for defense of your home, is that a "killing machine" since, you know, what else is it kept for?

4) The code word "hunting rifles" implies that gun ownership by a certain mainly rural, mainly white, demographic is politically correct, while other populations, well, wink-wink, that mainly live in the cities, wink-wink, can't really be trusted around guns, you know what I mean.

5) Again with the "semi-automatic" code word, coupled with "on the streets." If I own a self-loading target shooting rifle that I keep only at home and the shooting range, would that be OK since, you know, it's never "on the street?" If I have a duly issued carry permit for a handgun, is that OK since the state of PA and my local police department issued it, and 90% of handguns nowadays are self-loading? Since self-loading handguns tend to be more accurate to shoot than revolvers, I would think that their use among legal owners would be ENCOURAGED rather than discouraged? If I were out and about in Kingsessing, the last thing I would want to face is a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot; each blast releases nine 9mm pellets indiscriminately. Shotguns routinely hold seven shells with the potential to launch 63 9mm shot pellets in seconds without reloading, way more than any self-loading rifle could fire shooting one round at a time and with a maximum potential magazine capacity of 30.

Thanks for the opportunity to point all this out.

you know what, i'd love it if the NRA started having meetings in west philly, you know, so they could really get to know whose right to bear arms they were protecting.