Better communication and transparency can help alleviate our country’s gun violence crisis, especially actions by local municipalities that bridge the gap between police and citizens. Police officers should know the people they are policing in their communities in a positive way to make people feel safer.
In addition, several passed and pending gun legislation bills can help decrease gun violence in our communities.
House Bill 1018 would create extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs) to prevent firearm suicides, mass shootings and domestic violence homicides. This “red flag” bill, which passed 102-99, allows law enforcement to temporarily seize firearms from someone deemed by a judge to be an immediate threat to themselves or others.
HB 714 enacts universal background checks to stop weapons of war from getting into the wrong hands by closing a gap in Pennsylvania’s system that allows long guns to be privately purchased or transferred without a background check. This bill passed 109-92.
HB 338, which would have required the reporting of lost and stolen firearms within three days to reduce the flow of illegal guns fueling community-based violence, failed to pass by one vote (101-100).
HB 731, which would require the safe storage of guns in the home to prevent school shootings, suicides and unintentional shootings, was advanced at second consideration.
Alim Howell
Upper Darby
The writer is a community activist with the Race for Peace Committee.