Sheriff picked for gun task force
Berks County Sheriff Eric J. Weaknecht has been appointed to Gov. Tom Wolf’s Special Council on Gun Violence.
Wolf formed the commission in mid-August after six Philadelphia police officers were shot by a single, barricaded gunman in the city.
Weaknecht, whose family owned a popular Hamburg area sporting goods store that sold guns, bows and other hunting supplies, said he is an avid gun enthusiast who will advocate on the commission for the protection of Second Amendment rights.
“I think we have enough gun laws,” Weaknecht said. “I think we should start enforcing the gun laws we already have.”
When announcing the commission’s formation last month, Wolf
gave the council six months to recommend how to reduce mass shootings, domestic violence, suicides and accidental shootings.
“Too many Pennsylvanians are dying from gun violence,” Wolf said at the time. “We need to fix our weak gun laws and pass reforms focused on increasing safety and reducing danger to our citizens. The action I am announcing … includes provisions for Pennsylvanians of all walks of life and looks at gun violence from all angles.”
The governor said he also directed the state police and similar agencies under his control to focus greater efforts on preventing
gun violence. He also established the Office of Gun Violence Prevention at the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, and a violence prevention division within the Health Department.
Wolf said state police will expand and support gun buyback programs and increase monitoring of hate groups and white nationalists.
Sheriff’s stance clear
Pennsylvania’s background checks for gun purchases already exceed federal laws, Weaknecht said.
He said existing state laws regarding mandatory minimum sentences for crimes committed with a firearm and straw purchases, through which a person purchases a gun for a convicted felon prohibited from possessing a
firearm, often are used as bargaining chips by prosecutors; they offer to drop mandatory sentences to lesser charges in exchange for guilty pleas.
Weaknecht said reports of involuntary mental commitments and protectionfrom-abuse orders are notorious for how slowly they move through the state’s criminal-records system. He said that process should be streamlined.
Regarding straw purchases, Weaknecht said perhaps no one is more keenly aware of their dangers than he and his deputies. Deputy Sheriff Kyle D. Pagerly was fatally shot on June 29, 2011, with a rifle given to a man previously barred from possessing firearms.
“I’m hoping I can educate some of the members of the council,” Weaknecht said.
He noted that sheriff’s offices, except in Philadelphia, are charged with issuing permits to carry a concealed weapon.
“None of these proposed laws will impact the bad guys who know they can’t pass a background check,” he said. “We (sheriffs) only see the good guys.”
Wolf’s gun violence initiative was warmly received by state Democrats, but got no public show of support from Republican legislators. Wolf is a Democrat, Weaknecht a Republican.
It’s not the first time the Berks sheriff has been tapped for a role in the Wolf administration. He was appointed by Republican Gov. Tom Corbett to the state Sheriff and Deputy Sheriff Education and Training Board, and was reappointed by Wolf when he took office.