To Governor Rendell and legislative leaders:
We, the undersigned groups and individuals call upon you to act now to rid our communities of the scourge of violence caused by illegal handguns.
We support the immediate passage of commonsense laws to require the reporting of lost and stolen guns (House Bill 29) and to limit qualified individuals to the purchase of no more than One Handgun A Month (House Bill 22).
Pennsylvania is unique among major states in the Northeast, according to gun trace data recently published by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), in the prevalence of crime guns originally acquired from in-state gun shops. These are the guns that straw purchasers transfer to illegal handgun traffickers and that end up being used to wound, maim and kill in our state and others.
We will not stem the rising tide of gun violence until we stop straw purchasers from being able to buy handguns in bulk in Pennsylvania.
Enactment of a lost and stolen reporting requirement (HB 29) and a One Handgun A Month law (HB 22) will be no burden on law-abiding gun owners but is critical to disrupting the illegal gun trade that devastates communities across the state.
The legislature must act before more lives are shattered by unnecessary violence.
