Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Sen. Casey touts gun control legislation
U.S. senator joined by area survivor of Pulse Nightclub shooting
ARDMORE » In the early morning hours of June 12, 2016, Tiara Parker of Philadelphia was out on the town – but this wasn’t just any night out.
She was inside the Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, a place that would become the scene of the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, the terrorist attack by 29-year-old Omar Mateen.
On that night, 49 people were murdered and another 58 were wounded in what has been called the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
Parker was with U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in Ardmore Monday morning, speaking on what has become an important issue for her over the past year.
“There’s a reason why I am here,” Parker said as she spoke beside Casey to a couple of dozen people at Bethel AME Church of Ardmore. “There’s a job for me to get done.”
Parker and Casey were at the church to announce legislation that would prevent people convicted of a hate crime from purchasing or possession of a gun.
Parker, who was with her 18-year-old cousin Akyra Murray, was shot as she and several others hid inside a bathroom stall while the gunman went on his murderous rampage. While Parker was wounded in the shooting, Murray was one of the 49 people murdered that night.
“I’ve always been fearful of guns,” Parker said. “But I never thought in a million years that I would be in a position that my life would almost be taken by a gun.”
The Disarm Hate Act, as it is being called, is designed to prevent people convicted of a misdemeanor hate crime from purchasing or possessing a firearm.
“Just about a year ago now, in Orlando, 49 people were killed,” Casey told those inside the church. “We’ve never seen anything like it in recent or any part of American history – that many people killed in one place by one individual and I think it was a serious reminder of the reach and the scope and the destructive impact not only of a firearm in this case (but) an individual (with) hate.”
According to Casey, violent crime motivated by hate has been on the rise in the United States for several years.
Citing figures from the Southern Poverty Law Center, Casey said the number of hate groups has been growing since 2000.
“So just in the life of two presidencies — two presidential administrations — we know that the number of hate groups is up by 50 percent in that short time period,” Casey said.
Casey went on to say that over the last few years there have been 43,000 hate crimes where either a gun was used or the threatened use of a gun.
“So we have a major challenge to do all we can to reduce gun violence and also to reduce hate,” Casey said. “But one way to make sure
that hate doesn’t result in the deaths of a large number of people or even one individual is to make sure that if someone has committed a misdemeanor hate crime involving the use of force that they cannot obtain a firearm.”
According to Casey, if a person is convicted of a felony they can be denied a firearm but there is no such provision for a misdemeanor crime.
“One thing we know pretty well, I think, it’s human nature and I think it’s very evident throughout our recent history, especially in these horrific instances that we’ve highlighted today, is that hate unchecked usually grows in almost every instance. And hate unchecked with the use of a firearm can have a destructive endpoint,” Casey said.
Along with the Pulse Nightclub shooting, Casey and others also discussed the terrorist attack and murder by a white supremacist of nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
“In addition to the violence that took place at the Pulse Nightclub, we are also remembering, as well, two years ago now in Charleston, South Carolina, nine killed in, like this, a house of worship where they invited the killer in not knowing … and after being there for a period of time (he) opened fire and killed nine people – again an act of violence, an act of hate,” Casey said.
Although Parker is in support of the bill, she would like to see it go further and make it more difficult for people to obtain guns.
“The bill that’s being presented to the world today – preventing people from getting guns for certain reasons – I would like to see it go deeper,” Parker said. “I would like to know if there is a way that I can help prevent people from purchasing guns so easily.”