Searching for answers in gun debate
Sixteen days.
That’s how long it took for Delaware County to record its first homicide.
A 44-year-old man was gunned down in the area of West 10th and Booth streets in Chester.
A few days later, and a few miles away, a similar scene played out in Upper Darby. A 35-year-old man was shot to death Sunday night in the 7000 block of Clover Lane. Police believe robbery may have been a motive.
Tuesday night the friends and family of Angel Perez gathered for a vigil to honor the father of two young girls and seek justice for the person who gunned him down.
At almost the same time, a surreal scene was playing out just a few miles away, just over the city line in the Wynnefield Heights section of Philadelphia.
Gunfire broke out in the crowded parking lot of the Target store in the 4000 block of City Line Avenue about 9 p.m. One man was killed; two others were wounded.
“It’s absolutely dangerous,” said acting city Police Commissioner Christine Coulter, in what could be the understatement of the new decade. “The fact that someone would either want something bad enough or want to protect something bad enough to open fire in a parking lot is absolutely frightening.”
Frightening? Absolutely. Surprising? The danger is that seemingly with each passing day, it becomes less and less so. There was a time when such outrageous conduct, such total disregard for human life, would have sparked outrage. The danger we face today is that as a society we are slowly becoming numb to such incidents. They’re no longer confined to any one geographic area. They happen everywhere.
And there usually is a common ingredient – guns.
Not legal guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens. That’s not our problem.
Our problem is the fact that we are a nation awash in illegal guns, or at least guns illegally possessed by people who are not supposed to have them.
The question then becomes what to do about it, while also respecting the Second Amendment right of citizens to bear arms.
That is still the law of the land. It is not going to change anytime soon, and you can make a solid argument that it should not change.
Unfortunately, something else is not going to change as well. We will continue to see guns used to commit crimes and snuff out lives.
Gun rights supporters insist the answer is merely enforcing the laws on the books. They bridle at any suggestion of toughening background checks or expanding them to cover all firearms sales.
How divided is the country when it comes to guns? Look at what happened earlier this week in Richmond, Virginia. Tens of thousands of gun-rights activists, many openly – and legally – brandishing their firearms, rallied in the state capitol to protest new gun-control legislation being proposed in the state. The Virginia Legislature is considering measures that would institute universal background checks to restrict buyers to a one-handgun-purchase-amonth mandate.
One protester toting an AR15 rifle quipped, “I love this. This is like the Super Bowl for the Second Amendment.”
Fears of violence at the rally, with the images of what went down at a rally in Charlottesville where marchers carried torches and chanted white supremacist slogans, never materialized. You want to debate the definition of “peaceful” at a rally where many were openly toting a wide variety of weapons, be our guest. Some residents – and lawmakers – said they were scared. One legislator received threats. One arrest was made, a woman facing a felony charge for wearing a mask in public.
Here in Pennsylvania, the next battleground likely will be so-called “red-flag” or ERPO laws. That stands for Extreme Risk Protection Order. Such laws would allow family members or law enforcement to petition the court to temporarily remove guns from those deemed a danger, either to themselves or others.
It is being boosted by Sen. Tom Killion, R-9 of Middletown. It is opposed by gun rights groups.
The debate goes on. So does the killing. If you have an idea, by all means now is the time to bring it up.