It should come as no surprise that Mayor Jim Kenneys executive order banning guns and other deadly weapons at city recreation centers and playgrounds did nothing to prevent a 14-year-old boy from getting murdered Tuesday after a football scrimmage outside Roxborough High School.<\/p>\n
While Kenneys executive order which was announced hours before the shooting was well intended, it underscores the meager gun safety tools public officials have in a country (and state) that has been hijacked by the gun lobby and a perverted interpretation of the Second Amendment. As a result, Philadelphians are left defenseless by Pennsylvanias absurd preemption law that prevents local governments from implementing their own gun safety measures.<\/p>\n
At the federal level, mostly Republican lawmakers have refused for decades to implement basic gun safety measures, while conservatives on the Supreme Court have placed gun rights above human life.<\/p>\n
Kenneys executive order was in response to a Department of Parks and Recreation worker who was killed by a stray bullet while sweeping outside of a center earlier this month. The ink was barely dry on the order when a spokesperson for the corrupt National Rifle Association called it illegitimate.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: With 750 shootings since Memorial Day, Philadelphia records another summer of mayhem | Editorial<\/p>\n
Hours later, a 14-year-old boy was killed and four other teens were shot as they were ambushed while walking off a football field to their school bus. It was the 23rd shooting death of a child and the 400th murder in Philadelphia this year, leaving the city on pace to match last years record of 562 homicides.<\/p>\n
Children have been shot in barbershops, on porch stoops, and in their own bedrooms in Philadelphia this year.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia has tried numerous times to pass gun safety measures, only to be stopped by the state. Most recently, the city filed a lawsuit challenging the states firearm preemption statutes, which say a local municipality cannot enact its own gun laws. The city argued the GOP-controlled General Assembly has violated the right to life and liberty enshrined in the state constitution by declining to pass gun safety measures.<\/p>\n
But in May, a Pennsylvania appeals court rejected the lawsuit. The majority Republican court panel voted 3-2 along party lines. The court ruling and the continued inaction by the General Assembly came despite polls that show the majority of Pennsylvanians want stronger gun laws.<\/p>\n
Roadblocks are everywhere when it comes to gun safety.<\/p>\n
Despite the rise in gun violence, roadblocks are everywhere when it comes to gun safety. More than 40 other states have preemption laws similar to Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
In June, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan gun safety bill that was hailed as the most significant measure passed in three decades. While the law will help save lives, it is hardly a game changer.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has paved the way for the return to frontier lawlessness when it comes to guns. In June, the court struck down a New York law that had been in place for more than 100 years that placed strict limits on carrying guns in public. The 6-3 ruling by the conservative majority was expected to spark legal challenges in other states and give Americans broad rights to carry guns virtually anywhere.<\/p>\n
The ruling builds on the courts 5-4 landmark 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller that, for the first time, said the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia. The idea that the Second Amendment extends to individuals is a concept that began in the 1980s during the Reagan administration and was aided and abetted by the political rise of the NRA.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: As shootings continue unabated, they exact an emotional and economic toll | Editorial<\/p>\n
Former Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, a conservative, called the concept of an individual right to bear arms a fraud. Former Justice John Paul Stevens, another conservative, said the Heller decision was the courts most clearly incorrect ruling of his long tenure.<\/p>\n
In 2018, Stevens said the Second Amendment should be repealed. That is not happening anytime soon, but gun safety should be treated as a public health crisis and regulated like cars, where owners are required to get licenses, training, and gun locks. But that wont change until voters hold pro-gun lawmakers accountable.<\/p>\n
Until then, there will be more and more senseless shooting deaths.<\/p>\n
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The rest is here: It should come as no surprise that Mayor Jim Kenneys executive order banning guns and other deadly weapons at city recreation centers and playgrounds did nothing to prevent a 14-year-old boy from getting murdered Tuesday after a football scrimmage outside Roxborough High School. Continue reading
\nThe shooting at Roxborough High and the absurd state law that limits local gun safety measures | Editorial - The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"