EDITORIAL: Action needed on both guns, mental health
With the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue still fresh in our minds, Gov. Tom Wolf and gun-control advocates this week renewed their call for more action on measures they believe can reduce the threat of gun violence in Pennsylvania.
During a rally Tuesday in the Capitol Rotunda, Wolf said lawmakers in Pennsylvania and at the federal level must address the issue.
“It is not just synagogues in Pittsburgh that are at risk,” said the governor. “It’s churches in Lancaster, it’s mosques in Allentown, it’s schools in Erie, it’s movie theaters in Johnstown, it’s concert halls in Philadelphia, colleges in Scranton and even streets in Harrisburg.”
Among the steps favored by gun-control advocates and proposed in the Legislature is an end to the so-called gun show loophole, which allows for private sales of rifles and shotguns without background checks. It’s mind-boggling to us that a person can still go to a gun show and buy an AR-15 as easily as they could pop into their local Giant Eagle for bread and milk.
“We must pass legislation that requires all those who wish to purchase a firearm to go through a state police background check,” said Wolf. “Universal background checks are one of the best ways we can keep weapons out of the hands of dangerous individuals. We put our communities at risk by allowing individuals to buy long guns, including AR-15s, through private transactions without a background check.”
According to a report from PennLive.com, Wolf also pressed for passage of an “extreme risk protection order,” which would allow police or family members to go before a local judge to seek temporary confiscation of weapons from a person considered to be mentally unstable.
While overall crime is down in Pennsylvania and across the nation when compared with figures 20 years ago, PennLive noted that the number of homicides in Pennsylvania has risen each of the past four years, and nearly 70 percent of murders in this state are committed with guns. PennLive also said there were more than 9,000 robberies, shootings and murders in Pennsylvania in 2017 that involved a gun.
Prospects for closing the gun show loophole in the Legislature are uncertain. Both houses are controlled by Republicans, who typically lean in favor of gun-rights forces.
That was reinforced by comments from the incoming House Judiciary Committee chairman, Republican Rep. Rob Kauffman of Franklin County, who told PennLive that he will consider gun-related measures “with the Second Amendment rights of Pennsylvania citizens in mind.”
But House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler, a Republican from Lancaster County, told PennLive that he is interested in taking a closer look at the proposal for “extreme risk” orders. Cutler said that with many of the worst mass-shooting incidents, “the one commonality, other than just the firearm, is that most of these individuals really needed intervention much sooner in terms of treatment, medication, or whatever.”
There is no doubt that this state and this nation need to do a much better job of providing mental-heath intervention and care to those who need it, but that alone does not address the threat of gun violence in our society. Combining improved mental-health care with improved gun-control measures is the proper formula.