Gun violence, mental illness on the agenda in the 5th
SWARTHMORE » While gun right advocates rallied in the morning in Harrisburg to extoll the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, nine Democratic candidates vying to win their party’s nomination in the 5th Congressional District were talking gun policy in Swarthmore by night.
A joint forum by Delco United for Sensible Gun Policy and Swarthmore College hosted a two-hour discussion on what steps the potential federal lawmakers would take to address the number of mass shootings, illegal gun purchases and other topics.
The college hosted a room full of spectators at a lecture hall to hear from the following Democrats: Larry Arata of Haverford; state Rep. Margo Davidson, 164 of Upper Darby; Chester Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland; Mary Gay Scanlon of Swarthmore; Rich Lazer of Philadelphia; Lindy Li of Malvern; Ashley Lunkenheimer of Upper Providence; Molly Sheehan of Philadelphia; and state Rep. Greg Vitali, 166 of Havertown. A participation invitation sent to Democrat Theresa Wright of Norristown and Republican Pearl Kim of Radnor by Delco United went unanswered.
“I’m going to do everything that I can so you can walk down the streets of Delaware County and not worry about getting shot,” said Li. “I think that’s a basic human right.”
Candidates included personal stories of how gun violence has affected them and how mass shootings like in Orlando, Las Vegas and Parkland are remembered because of guns. Li, for instance said she got involved with public service after the Sandy Hook shooting. Arata left a six-figure job to teach students in a Philadelphia school where two of his students were killed by guns.
“This is something that I’ve seen up front and have dealt with,” said Arata. “We have to do something about it … and I think everyone on this panel is very strongly united to have successful gun policy.”
Kirkland said he wants a gun task force which will track guns because, as he said, “guns are coming into our communities quicker and easier than books are coming into a classroom.”
“For us not to track and have a task force in place with trying to find out how these illegal guns and weapons of war are coming into our communities is a disservice to each and every person in this room and everyone throughout the commonwealth,” he said.
Of the points that come up was the ease of access to gun and ammunitions through different platforms. Loopholes, some candidates said, make it easy for someone to buy a gun without a license at a gun show or online, and ammunition can also be bought without a license. Red flag laws, bans on bump stocks and assault rifles were some policies Lunkenheimer, a former federal prosecutor, said she would like enacted.
Access to mental health services is one area Lunkenheimer and others want to see improved in to prevent the wrong people from getting firearms.
“We need to be very mindful that there is underfunding by the federal government in our schools that they don’t have enough mental health counselors to identify these children, and try to help intervene as they struggle with so many issues,” she said. “There are a lot of tools that we have that we need to act on immediately to prevent mass shootings.”
“The reliance on mental health and preventing sales from people who have been committed to mental health proceedings that’s far too late,” Scanlon noted. “Far too many people are ever actually committed. We need to do a better job with traumabased therapy and interventions in the community.”
At one point in the forum a panelist addressed that gun violence includes suicide as well, attributed to about 60 percent of gun fatalities. Lazer addressed this from a mental health standpoint.
“How do we fund mental health? How do we find money to empower our families, empower our schools to be able to pay for resources to be able to try to find early signs that we’re on top of?” he said.
The political power of gun right groups, including the National Rifle Association, were also mentioned and were said to be a strong influence on political races with campaign contributions and starting legal proceedings against local governments. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2015 killed a provision of a law that would give the NRA the power to sue communities that had gun laws tougher than state law.
“If we can give (the NRA) standing to sue municipalities, we can certainly adjust the liability laws in the country to make them liable, because right now they’re now liable,” said Davidson. “If gun dealers and manufacturers were held liable we would see a lot less carnage and a lot less bad actions.”
Sheehan said the NRA wields great power in campaigns and would work to change the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that defined campaign contributions to Super political action committees as political speech.
“They’re in our way because the campaign finance system is broken,” she said. “I will fight to get public campaign finances so that when we need this sort of resolution for the people, the people are the ones with the power to change the minds of our legislators. Our power emanates from the people, not because we’re being threatened by a super PAC.”
Vitali took it in stride that he has a lifetime “F” grade from the NRA after over 20 years as a state representative for sponsoring legislation that would ban assault rifles and let cities, like Philadelphia, to have more strict gun laws. He plans to keep working on gun policy reform if elected.
“I would be supportive, generally, of the measures out there dealing with these issues,” he said. “I’m proud of my lifetime ‘F’ rating from the NRA. I worked hard for that. I will continue to earn my ‘F’ rating.”