Updated Aug 16, 2019; Posted Aug 16, 2019
By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com
Gov. Tom Wolf recognizes there is only so much his executive powers can do to reduce gun violence but on Friday he announced a wide ranging list of initiatives achievable within his power that aim to tackle this problem while calling on the Legislature to pass some gun control measures.
Just two days after a police standoff with a gunman in Philadelphia that brought the nation’s attention once again to the issue of gun violence and one day after five more people were shot in that same neighborhood, Wolf signed an executive order that make changes to executive branch agencies and programs to target what he calls “the public health crisis of gun violence in Pennsylvania.”
“Gun violence is too much of an ordinary part of our community,” Wolf said during the news conference that included some emotional pleas from lawmakers for action to make their neighborhoods and cities safer. “Too many have lost loved ones to gun violence. Too many live every day in fear of being shot on the sidewalk in their neighborhood, the grocery store, at school, or at a concert. We need to protect all of our lives.”
He called on the GOP-controlled General Assembly to strengthen the state’s gun laws to help address the problem saying Second Amendment rights don’t supersede citizens’ safety.
Read more at https://www.pennlive.com/news/2019/08/reducing-gun-violence-to-save-lives-is-aim-of-pa-gov-wolfs-latest-executive-order.html.
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