PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — State representatives from Philadelphia gathered at City Hall Thursday to celebrate the passage of gun safety bills in the state House. The bills are likely to die in the state Senate, but even getting the bills through the House is something that hasn’t happened in years.
The chairman of the Philadelphia House Delegation, Morgan Cephas, boasted that the House had passed three gun safety bills: a red flag bill that would temporarily disarm people in crisis; background checks for all gun sale venues, including gun shows; and, last Friday, a bill outlawing ghost guns.
“We are all standing here together to call on the Pennsylvania Senate to take up the gun bills that we have sent to their chamber,” Cephas said.
That is a long shot, at best, but Cephas considers even getting this far as progress.
“It is a very historic moment to be able to do this because it has been decades — decades — since we have even been able to get a hearing about the way the guns that are flooding our communities need to be further regulated,” she said.
House Speaker Joanna McClinton said the lawmakers haven’t heard from Republicans, who control the Senate, but House Democrats will keep trying to work with them.
“That is to protect our law enforcement, that is to protect our children getting out of school, that is to change the narrative that politicians do nothing,” she added.
The Republican Senate majority leader has not said if the chamber would take up the bills but has said the state has “robust” gun laws on the books, which must be enforced.