Gun Violence

WHEN IT comes to cracking down on gun violence, New York has become America's model city. Word is out that police and prosecutors in the Big Apple don't mess around when they catch people who carry or use illegal weapons. It is unlawful to carry a gun without a New York license, even if the owner has a permit from another municipality. Hunters avoid driving through the city, fearing they could get nabbed. And punishment is swift and harsh. In 2007, New York passed a 3 1/2-year mandatory-minimum sentence for illegal gun possession.

LETTER-WRITER Kevin Allen asks if he, as a "white guy with a clean record and a permit to carry," should care about the gun violence that affects African-Americans. Aside from the obvious response that he should care if he retains an ounce of human decency in his soul, Mr. Allen should care because the increase in murders stains a city that drives the economic engine for this entire region. If Philadelphia descends into lawlessness, the repercussions will be felt far beyond the neighborhoods where violence is greatest and the city renaissance will be short-lived, indeed.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey has been tapped to join a meeting about gun violence with other leaders in law enforcement that is taking place in Washington, D.C. this week with Vice President Joe Biden. The discussion was arranged in the aftermath of the school shooting in Newtown, CT and is aimed at addressing issues surrounding gun violence and formulating solutions, according to the White House. President Obama announced on Wednesday that he had asked Biden to lead an effort to come up with a set of proposals in the coming weeks.

TRENTON - In a step aimed at reducing gun violence in Camden City, a single judge will be taking charge of a big chunk of firearms cases in Camden County, riding herd on plea bargains and speeding cases to their conclusion. Camden County Acting Prosecutor Joshua Ottenberg said that too many accused gun criminals go free on bail while they await their formal indictment several months after arrest. With a judge accelerating the process, more will stay behind bars, Ottenberg predicted. "Camden is not a big town," Ottenberg said yesterday.

One month after 20 children and six adults were massacred at a Connecticut elementary school, nearly a dozen Delaware County mayors from both major parties came together Monday to call on national leaders to restrict assault weapons and curb gun violence. The news conference in Media was one of a number held nationwide Monday by the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns to push for change and to announce the release of a television advertisement featuring family members of gunshot victims.

New Jerseyans' concern about gun violence has fallen slightly as the two-month anniversary of the shooting in Newtown, Conn., approaches next week, according to the latest Rutgers-Eagleton Poll. The number of respondents who were "very concerned" about the amount of gun violence in the United States fell to 69 percent from 77 percent in a similar December poll. Rutgers University's Eagleton Institute of Politics surveyed adults in New Jersey by phone from Jan. 30 to Sunday. The results of that poll, which had 796 respondents, have a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

The hearing featured the mayor, the district attorney and other important officials, but it was the guys in wheelchairs who brought the issue home. Mark Chilutti had recovered from serious injuries inflicted by a drunk driver and was running his own jewelry store when he was robbed in December 1996. "I was a cooperative victim . . . but I got shot anyway," Chilutti told City Council at a special hearing on gun violence yesterday. "The bullet went into my chest, pierced my lung and severed my spinal chord.

New Jerseyans' concern about gun violence has fallen slightly as the two-month anniversary of the shooting in Newtown, Conn., approaches next week, according to the latest Rutgers-Eagleton Poll. The number of respondents who were "very concerned" about the amount of gun violence in the United States fell to 69 percent, from 77 percent in a similar December poll. Rutgers University's Eagleton Institute of Politics surveyed adults in New Jersey by phone from Jan. 30 to Feb. 3. The results of the new poll, which had 796 respondents, have a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

I HAD a very good Mother's Day weekend. I got some unexpected presents and spent time with my husband and kids, my parents and my grandmother. But I also spent important time with some mothers who are not as lucky, who no longer have their kids to celebrate with. I stood with these mothers, who lost their children to gun violence, as well as with survivors of gun violence, and called for change that will spare others the tragedies they have suffered. Together we sent a clear message: We are not going away; we are here for the long haul.

In a strong, clear voice, Yancy Harrell intoned the words of the 23d Psalm as he stood on the sidewalk Sunday afternoon in front of a brick rowhouse in Philadelphia's Overbrook Park section where two teenagers were shot to death on Tuesday. Harrell knows firsthand the pain of losing a child to gun violence. His son, Charles Andre Johnson, 18, died Jan. 12 - a victim, he said, of mistaken identity. He was one of about three dozen people - some clergy, many elderly, African American and white - who stood under the broiling sun for 20 minutes outside the house on Westbury Drive where Christopher Malcolm, 17, and his brother, Ronan Bennett, 13, were gunned down in their home in what police said was a drug deal that went bad. The vigil was organized by Heeding God's Call, which executive director Bryan Miller described as a "faith-based group movement to prevent gun violence.