An open letter to Sen. Lisa Baker, chair of the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee:
Regarding gun safety legislation now pending before your committee, you are quoted in the Tribune-Review saying, “I said we would invite proposals from anyone that represented something of a consensus on approaches deemed constitutional, enforceable and practical. To date, we have not received such a proposal.” (“Pa. Senate committee has ‘no plans’ to move House-approved gun safety measures,” Nov. 23, TribLive).
You are the Pennsylvania Senate’s chief law enforcement legislator. Respectfully, ma’am, what is your proposal?
Five years ago Robert Bowers carried legally obtained firearms and used them to murder innocent Pennsylvanians. He is also quoted in the Tribune-Review, saying that “all Jews should die” moments after he committed his crimes (“Robert Bowers wanted ‘all Jews to die,’ authorities say,” Oct. 28, 2018, TribLive). Bowers, who has still not expressed any remorse, is clearly a psychopath. Of course, he has been subsequently tried and sentenced to death, our most drastic consequence. But evidently even the most drastic punishment was not effective in deterring the kind of gun violence Bowers exercised that morning.
In response to this horror, our city’s legislators passed a series of gun safety ordinances, which the Republican Party successfully fought to invalidate. To date, there has been no state legislative response to this tragedy.
So I ask again, Sen. Baker, what are the laws you are proposing to protect your innocent fellow Pennsylvania residents from a dangerous psychopath whom the state has allowed to purchase, own and possess deadly firearms?
Sean Carroll
Lawrenceville