Nearly 50 years of preempting local gun safety laws has cost lives. We will remember them.
Gun Violence Prevention Advocate,
In 1974, the PA General Assembly prohibited any local gun safety policies. It may seem like ancient news, but that decision, combined with the General Assembly's continual choice to not pass life-saving laws, designed a system that has led to today's public health crisis.
Again and again, the General Assembly has ignored clear evidence of life-saving solutions. Research shows requiring a permit to buy firearms prevents trafficking. Extreme Risk Protection Orders prevent suicide.
I couldn't say it better than Judge Leadbetter in her opinion at the Commonwealth Court:
"It is neither just to impose unnecessarily harsh limits in communities where they are not required nor consistent with simple humanity to deny basic safety regulations to citizens who desperately need them. When a child cannot leave his home to walk to the corner of his street without risking the prospect of being caught in a crossfire, we are denying him the most fundamental right, that of life and liberty.”
