Gun Safety

Dominick Varacallo (right) instructs Bob Kostaras at a gun-safety and self-defense class at the Langhorne Rod and Gun Club, Holland.

Shivering in a black wool coat, Shira Goodman scanned the small crowd assembled at an Ambler park, listened to the gun-control speeches by local activists and lawmakers, and awaited her turn at the microphone. Aside from the cold - particularly biting for mid-March - this is the type of scene Goodman had envisioned when she accepted the job as executive director of the gun-control advocacy group CeaseFirePA. What she never expected was that she would become something of a household name, a regular on the TV news circuit, and end up sitting on an advisory panel to Vice President Biden.

There's a climactic Vietnam battle scene in the true-to-life best-seller We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young where U.S. soldiers order artillery gunners to shell their own position because it's being overrun by the enemy. U.S. Sen. Larry E. Craig (R., Idaho) must know that feeling of desperation: On Tuesday, he commanded his GOP Senate allies to rain down "no" votes on his own prized but misguided legislation - the gun-industry immunity bill. Craig wasn't besieged by any enemy, though.

With President Clinton and the National Rifle Association trading fire over gun control, state Rep. Andrew Carn is calling for mandated gun-safety training for all new gun owners in Pennsylvania. Carn, a Philadelphia Democrat, long a gun-control advocate, yesterday introduced new legislation requiring certified firearms- safety courses taught either by police or sportsmen's groups authorized by police. "You have to pass a test before you can drive a car," said Carn. "Who can be against gun-safety education?"

The message is spreading. In keeping with the Daily News' recent gun-safety campaign, two local gun shops have started giving away gun locks to customers. Colosimo's Gun Center, on Spring Garden Street near Percy, and Delia's Gun Shop, on Torresdale Avenue near Benner Street, began their own gun-lock giveaways yesterday. Jim Colosimo, owner of Colosimo's, said he was inspired by the Daily News' efforts to promote responsible gun ownership. "I think it was a step in the right direction," he said, adding that not one customer who bought a gun in his store would leave without a gun lock in his hand.

On this page on Feb. 21, former Gov. Ed Rendell called out Pennsylvania's members of Congress to answer some hard questions about their efforts to reduce gun violence: 1. Will you support mandatory universal background checks? 2. Will you support stronger laws to stop "straw purchase" gun-traffickers? 3. Will you support mandates to strengthen our mental-health-reporting system? 4. Will you support limiting the legal sale of magazine clips to those that can hold no more than 10 bullets?

Some stories newspaper reporters write without telling the whole truth. At least about what they suspect. Say a 10-year-old gets killed by a truck. A reporter who goes to the boy's house and speaks the truth might say: "Oh, Mr. Jones, I'm so sorry that 10-year-old Billy got flattened by that Mack truck on the expressway at 2 in the morning on Tuesday while you were lying up here in the house drunk. Could I have a picture of him, please?" But believe it or not, reporters are people, too, so it doesn't get said and rarely gets written.

With several hundred pro-gun activists converging on the Harrisburg Capitol Monday - many wearing Second Amendment T-shirts - it was not the day for Pennsylvania lawmakers to tackle any tough gun measures. Instead, state House members approved several initiatives that bore no resemblance to an actual crackdown on handgun trafficking. In turn, the gun-rights supporters celebrated the defeat last week of a tough anti-trafficking measure. Charlton Heston would be proud. Meanwhile, back on the mean streets of Philadelphia and other cities, the shootings continue.

While the Supreme Court's conservative majority remains fixated on expanding the right to bear arms, millions of other Americans should be more worried about preserving their right to be free from handgun violence. In a ruling that came as no surprise, the court on Monday effectively outlawed local handgun bans - signaling the end of Chicago's 27-year ban as well as one in a nearby Illinois suburb. Two years ago, the same 5-4 majority scrapped a Washington, D.C., ban. In his majority ruling, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. relied on the same tortured legal reasoning - that the Second Amendment assures individuals the right to arm, not merely state militias.

The U.S. Constitution guarantees even the harshest government critic the right to gripe about a legislative decision. It gives citizens the right to worship the religion of their choice and the press the right to publish without government constraint. But it doesn't confer upon Americans an equally clear-cut right to own or pack a pistol. Or does it? The Justice Department this week formally adopted the controversial and troubling view of Attorney General John D. Ashcroft - arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court that the Second Amendment "broadly protects the rights of individuals" to own guns.