Posted on 03/15/2005 4:44:46 PM PST by TorahTrueJew
Philadelphia Mayor's Letter To Pa. Governor On Recent Violence
POSTED: 3:39 pm EST March 15, 2005
March 14, 2005
The Honorable Edward G. Rendell Governor Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 225 Main Capitol Harrisburg, PA 17120
Dear Governor Rendell:
I am respectfully requesting the opportunity to meet with you as soon as possible to discuss a matter of life and death to the citizens of the commonwealth's largest city, Philadelphia.
It involves the urgent need to address the current law that handcuffs our ability to regulate the sale of guns in Philadelphia.
As this past weekend fully dramatized, we need to act quickly. In a three day period, eight individuals were shot to death: A 24 year old male was found with multiple gunshot wounds to the head; a 20 year old man was found with gunshot wounds to the stomach; an 18 year old male had gunshot wounds to the head as did a 21 year old male. A 35 year old male was shot in the chest ; a 22year old and 21 year old were found with gunshot wounds outside a pool hall; another 35 year old male was found bleeding from the head and a nine year old boy was found dead in a mini-van with a gunshot wound in the chest.
I fully understand that the regulation of guns is fraught with constitutional, political and policy issues, particularly in a geographically large state like Pennsylvania with its rural, suburban and urban diversity.
But as this General Assembly well knows the issues of Philadelphia are often viewed differently. Philadelphia has been subject to special legislation, sometimes favorably, sometime not.
Our ability to regulate guns is one of these special needs. We need tighter controls not only to protect our children and families but also to protect our law enforcement officers who are at risk every day as they attempt to safeguard our citizens.
The human cost of gun violence is devastating to the soul of the city and weakens the fabric of our region. Consider:
Almost 80 percent of our 348 homicides in 2003 were committed with a gun.
In a three-year period from January 2001 to February 2004, there were 4859 gunshot victims killed or injured by gun violence, nearly ten percent involved juveniles.
Almost a year ago we had the tragic murder of Faheem Thomas-Childs outside his school. Unfortunately there have been more juvenile murders since, sometimes youth shooting youth.
We have not sat quietly by as gun violence has afflicted Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Police Department has been relentless in its efforts to fight gun violence. Our commitment of personnel to narcotics enforcement, Operations Safe Streets and Operations Safe Schools is a direct attack on gun violence. We have worked cooperatively with federal authorities and the District Attorney. We have had the active support of our City Council and individual legislators.
We understand that there is more involved in curtailing violence than simply decreasing the number of guns. We have aggressively pursued faith-based initiatives and social service intervention.
But we cannot escape the fact that there are too many guns in Philadelphia and they are a significant contributing cause to our homicide rate.
There are approximately 28,000 active Carry Permits in the City of Philadelphia -- compare that to the five boroughs of New York City where there are 16,000 permits. We were compelled to issue more gun permits in Philadelphia in one year --2003 -- than there are permits in the entire state of New Jersey.
Without your support to consider a rational, reasonable and balanced solution, we are stymied to protect our citizens.
I look forward to hearing from you and working with you on crafting a way to find an acceptable solution to regulate the sale of guns in our city. I along with all law enforcement in our city will come to Harrisburg if you like!
As this past weekend dramatized we cannot afford to do nothing but under our current legal restraints we can not do all we should be doing.
We need your help.
With kind regards, I am
John F. Street, Esquire Mayor
If this passes and guns are outlawed in Philly, I will never take my family downtown again. It'll be more dangerous than ever, and I, as a law abiding citizen, will be defenseless!
What evidence does the mayor present that additional regulations will result in lowered violent crime rates? Especially in light of England, Australia, Washington DC, Baltimore, Chicago, etc.
Better yet, look across the river! Camden is currently the murder capital of the country, and it is damn near impossible to get a gun living there.
Dear Slick Eddy,
I am a terrible mayor, and can't stand all these pro-life, pro-gun patriotic flag-waving Americans in Pennsylvania. If it weren't for us in Philadelphia, this state would have voted for that war criminal George Bush and his buddies at Halliburton. I've decided to secede from Pennsylvania and join New Jersey, where no level of corruption will keep me from public office, unless I am gay.
Yours,
Da Street
Puuuleezzeee, I live in the city, I have a 19 year old son that tells me he can buy a gun in a matter of 30 minutes anywhere!
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage rather than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man can be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man"-Jefferson
Couldn't have said it better myself
Dear Slick Eddy,
I am a terrible mayor, and can't stand all these pro-life, pro-gun patriotic flag-waving Americans in Pennsylvania. If it weren't for us in Philadelphia, this state would have voted for that war criminal George Bush and his buddies at Halliburton. I've decided to secede from Pennsylvania and join New Jersey, where no level of corruption will keep me from public office, unless I am gay.
Yours,
Da Street
ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Philadelphia has been subject to special legislation"
I agree, Philly really is full of 'special people'.
All that democrat hell and not one accusation that it's Bush's fault. Someone slipped up.
"Puuuleezzeee, I live in the city, I have a 19 year old son that tells me he can buy a gun in a matter of 30 minutes anywhere!"
Does your son have a criminal record? I'd imagine most of these shootings were done by felons, who are already prohibited from both buying a gun, and from having a CCW to carry the gun. Therefore, they already broke at least 3 laws (I'm sure more since we have laws stacked on top of each other), including buying a gun illegally, carrying a gun illegally, and shooting somebody. Even if these were all law-abiding citizens with valid CCWs, the fact that they shot somebody shows that they don't care about the law, and would break the law to get a gun if there was a law prohibiting them from ownership.
Dear Eddie, Too many released felons from Gratersford prison are wildin thru our hamlet.
Your buddies in voter role creationism.....Milton and John
Dear Mayor Street,
You failed to mention whether any of these cited gun crimes were committed by a citizen who was legally and lawfully carrying a gun. Could it be that none were? Because, see, I have to believe that, if even one could be attributed to someone with a permit, you would have made that the headline of your letter. I'm sure there are some gun deaths that resulted from a legally armed citizen defending himself or his family, but those are not "crimes".
And why cry to the governor anyway? He can't change what the legislature has done by restoring some measure of constitutional freedoms to Pennsylvania's citizens. If you can't get the guns away from the bad guys, just resign. All of Philadelphia would be better off. Besides, aren't you a crook anyway?
My son is a product of the Philadelphia school system, who would come home from school and list the names of drugs that were sold at his High School. This city isn't far from being totally flushed down the toilet. When I was growing up here, I would walk the streets with my friends 1 in the morning and not be afraid. Same neighborhood, 32 years later, I'm afraid to come home alone in the dark.
He STILL fails to address the real problem .. CRIME!!
Under Street's leadership .. Folks from Philly have been moving out in droves
The school system is a joke and the way they fight crime is a joke
Correction .. I wouldn't walk in some neighbors in daylight hours
It's a real shame .. I loved growing up in Philly
Now I avoid Philly as much as possible
I used to have a buddy who worked in Philly and he told me he was reading a history of the city during the colonial period. He said that the history made it clear that you absolutely did NOT go out at night in Philadelphia during that era unless you had a gun with you. Period.
BTW .. have ya see this one?
Jill Porter | Guns and playgrounds? Here's an idea
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1363558/posts
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