Monica Yant Kinney: 'A lost cause,' Rendell laments about Pa.'s gun issue

In the waning days of Gov. Rendell's administration, Pennsylvania legislators tried to trap him in a no-win decision.

Conservative legislators attached a controversial measure expanding citizens' right to shoot in self-defense to a no-brainer bill strengthening reporting requirements for sex offenders under Megan's Law. The officials ramrodded the odd bill to passage without debate, hoping Rendell would be more afraid of risking children's lives than his own reputation on the gun issue.

Blessedly, Rendell refused, calling the messy matter both unconstitutional and unseemly in a veto message days after Thanksgiving.

Pennsylvania already has a "castle doctrine" allowing residents to fire a gun without fear of arrest if attacked at home. There's no need, the governor said, to throw open the castle doors and let folks take aim at any perceived threat, anywhere. Whatever happened to walking away?

In a conference call with reporters Monday, Rendell acknowledged the futility of his decision. Come January, Tom Corbett, conservative Republicans, and their NRA handlers will rule Harrisburg. Hold onto your holsters.

As he lamented Pennsylvania's bloodstained past and future, I thought about the time Rendell got so emotional about gun violence that he shed tears. Since he seemed to be in a reflective mode, I asked him to sum up his eight-year quest for a safer state.

"An abject failure," Rendell replied bluntly. "A lost cause."

Guns for everyone!

Residents with clean records can buy as many handguns as they can afford in a shopping trip. Urban leaders, in particular, lobbied hard for one-gun-a-month legislation, but House Judiciary Committee members killed that dream in 2007.

Once they've filled their trunks with Tec-9s, Pennsylvanians often resell on the street for profit to those who use the guns in crime. Advocates believe a law requiring gun owners to report guns lost or stolen would deter such straw buying and trafficking, but the House snuffed out that hope in 2008.