Call for change after Parkland getting louder
They’re calling it the Great Gun Debate. We had the debate when two teens shot up their high school in Littleton, Colo. That was nearly 20 years ago.
Eventually the discussion died down. Then kids started dying again.
A troubled teen killed his mother, then took her semi-automatic rifle, strolled into the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and started shooting.
Twenty “innocents” lost their lives, along with another six adult staff members.
They were kids, 6 and 7 years old. The nation vowed to take action. We didn’t. That was five years ago. Since then we’ve seen more carnage.
Orlando. San Bernardino. Last Vegas.
Two weeks ago it was another school. This time Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., just outside Fort Lauderdale.
Another troubled young man armed to the teeth with an AR15 rifle and lots of ammo killed 17 people, most of them high school students.
The echoes of that gunfire are once again resounding across the nation. This time, young people are not just mourning and burying their friends. They are demanding action.
They are planning a massive march on Washington, D.C. on March 24 to seek changes in the nation’s gun laws. Those voices are being heard. Right here in Pennsylvania, among other places.
State Rep. Steve Barrar, R-160, of Upper Chichester, one of the region’s staunchest Second Amendment advocates, has had a change of heart.
Barrar was the only elected representative in Harrisburg in the Delaware County delegation who had not signed on to a measure proposed by fellow Republican Rep. Jamie Santora, R-163 of Upper Darby, to beef up the state’s policies on background checks for firearms purchases. That changed after Parkland. Barrar is a realist. He makes it clear that House Bill 1400 is not going to solve the gun problem.
But he’s willing to support it, as well as offer several amendments in the hopes of making it even better.
“I am planning to co-sponsor this legislation not because I believe it to be the panacea it is being sold as, but I do believe we need to have a debate on this issue and maybe come away with some amendments to improve the legislation and compromises to tighten up failures in our system,” Barrar said. Amen to that. House Bill 1400 would basically expand mandatory background checks to all gun sales in the Commonwealth. Currently those checks apply only to guns with a barrel less than 15 inches. It also would extend a background check to private transfers of weapons done at gun shows.
Barrar admitted that he had been deluged with calls and emails from constituents since the latest mass school shooting in Parkland.
“Many were seeking answers and many just wanted to vent and express their concerns about this failure to protect our children,” said Barrar, himself a grandfather of five.
The longtime state rep makes clear that he wants to make the bill even better, and offered several amendments to do just that.
He fears that the focus on background checks has a tendency to lull people into a false sense of safety.
He bemoans that when a person fails a background check, there is very little follow-up. Barrar wants local and state law enforcement notified in those instances and possible charges filed in the case of a person trying to buy a firearm who is clearly ineligible.
He also wants local law enforcement to have the ability to red-flag a person who is known to be a problem in the community from purchasing a firearm. He also points to the role of the insurance industry in limiting coverage for those dealing with mental health crises.
House Bill 1400 has been sitting in the House Judiciary Committee for months. Santora vows that will change. He’s planning to meet with Committee Chairman Rep. Ron Marsico, R-105 of Dauphin County, about getting his legislation out of committee and in front of the full House for a vote.
We urge Marsico to do just that.
We’ve been here before and done nothing, only to see more kids die.
This time the echoes from Parkland are not going away. They’re only getting louder.