* If Toomey and Cornyn have their way, dangerous people would be able to get permits to carry loaded, concealed firearms anywhere in Pennsylvania, and our law enforcement officers would be forced to recognize them.
* That makes Pennsylvania less safe, which is ironic, given that Toomey has made public safety a centerpiece of his campaign. Toomey’s opponent, Katie McGinty, opposes national concealed carry reciprocity, as do the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Major Cities Chiefs Association and many other law enforcement organizations.
Philadelphia Daily News: Commentary: Gun bill is dangerous for Pennsylvania
By Rich Negrin and David Scholnick – November 1, 2016
In September 2010, Marqus Hill shot 18-year-old Irving Santana 13 times, killing him less than a block from a playground in Olney.
Hill’s violent history was well known to police, and he never should have been on the street with a gun, but a federal bill championed by Sen. Pat Toomey would take away some police discretion to determine who can or cannot carry a gun in Philadelphia.
Hill’s permit to carry a gun had been revoked in 2005 after an altercation with police. He appealed that decision in 2008, and when he lost, he assaulted a police officer in court. At least twice, Philadelphia law enforcement determined Hill was too dangerous to carry a gun.
But on the day he committed homicide, Hill had a gun permit, legally obtained from Florida, one of a handful of states that issue concealed carry permits to people who live outside of their borders. This loophole was closed in 2013 when Pennsylvania’s reciprocity agreements were changed, but the bill Toomey supports would erase that progress and require Pennsylvania police to recognize any out of state gun permit.
Introduced by Texas Sen. John Cornyn and co-sponsored by Toomey, the concealed carry reciprocity bill (S.498) establishes a lowest common denominator approach to gun permitting. The bill, a priority of the National Rifle Association, is vehemently opposed by CeaseFirePA, Everytown for Gun Safety and Americans for Responsible Solutions because it would transfer the authority to decide who can legally carry guns on our streets from our police to states such as Florida or South Carolina.
Pennsylvania’s permitting laws are stronger than those of other states, but if Toomey’s bill passes, police will have to recognize permits issued by the more lenient states.
For instance, to get a gun permit in Pennsylvania, the applicant must be at least 21, but some states, including Alabama and Maryland, issue permits to teenagers.
Even more disturbingly, while Pennsylvania law enforcement can deny permits to people known to be a danger to public safety, other states, such as Ohio and South Carolina, don’t give law enforcement that discretion. So even if police in Ohio know that an individual is a danger to himself or others, they may be required to issue a gun permit.
We know the presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation greatly increases the likelihood of homicide. In Pennsylvania, an abuser with an active protection from abuse order is prohibited from getting a gun permit, but if the bill passes, law enforcement would be forced to recognize permits from South Carolina, which has no such restriction.
No example is worse than what we’ve already seen from Florida. Authorities in the Sunshine State have issued gun permits to non-Floridians with violent criminal histories whose gun permits have been revoked in their home states or denied altogether.
The Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that, in the first half of 2006 alone, “more than 1,400 people who pleaded guilty or no contest to felonies” were issued gun permits in Florida. Florida gave permits to people with active domestic violence injunctions, people with outstanding arrest warrants and six registered sex offenders.
Among those Pennsylvania residents who got Florida gun permits were individuals who had been convicted of robbery, drug dealing and firearms offenses. Others had been arrested for assault and even homicide.
Florida’s permitting system is so dysfunctional that the killer of another teenager, Trayvon Martin, was allowed to keep his gun permit even after his arrest. George Zimmerman reportedly continued to carry a Florida gun permit as recently as 2015, despite multiple domestic violence incidents both before and after he ended Martin’s life.
If Toomey and Cornyn have their way, dangerous people would be able to get permits to carry loaded, concealed firearms anywhere in Pennsylvania, and our law enforcement officers would be forced to recognize them.
That makes Pennsylvania less safe, which is ironic, given that Toomey has made public safety a centerpiece of his campaign. Toomey’s opponent, Katie McGinty, opposes national concealed carry reciprocity, as do the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Major Cities Chiefs Association and many other law enforcement organizations.
Toomey’s website says the concealed carry reciprocity bill “would protect concealed carry privileges across state lines.” It says nothing about protecting the lives and well-being of young people such as Irving Santana.
It would seem that the senator is more concerned with the interests of the NRA and the privileges of gun owners from other states than with ensuring the safety of streets and playgrounds in Pennsylvania.
Rich Negrín is a board member of CeaseFirePA and a former prosecutor and managing director of Philadelphia.
David Scholnick is communications director at For Pennsylvania’s Future and former Pennsylvania state director at Mayors Against Illegal Guns.