PHILADELPHIA ?
? A somber Vice President Joe Biden pledged to take the White House's message about gun laws ? that they're not a violation of Second Amendment rights ? to small-town America after a roundtable discussion with regional law enforcement officials.
"If we can save the life of one single person, one child, without any impact on an individual's constitutional right, then why in God's name should we not do that?" Biden asked. "We're going to be judged very harshly if we don't."
Hours earlier, 45 minutes away in Biden's hometown of Wilmington, Del., a gunman opened fire in the New Castle County Courthouse, killing two women and wounding two police officers. Christine Dunning, the Wilmington police chief, still attended Biden's nearly three-hour event.
There was, of course, a sad irony that gun violence would occur in Biden's backyard as he promoted new gun laws, which have risen to the top of Democrats' legislative priorities since the Sandy Hook school shooting.
The White House proposes subjecting all gun sales to a background check on the buyer, limiting high-capacity ammunition magazines or clips, and banning assault weapons, the semiautomatic guns patterned after military models.
Biden, sitting between Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey at Girard College on Monday afternoon, ticked off statistics of murders in the 59 days since the Newtown, Conn., massacre of 20 elementary schoolchildren and six educators: five in Wilmington and 33 in Philadelphia, he said.
Biden's meeting with Philadelphia-area law enforcement officials and politicians took place on the eve of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. The president is expected to press Congress to adopt universal background checks, to limit high-capacity magazines and to ban assault weapons.
Sprinkled throughout the House gallery watching Tuesday night's speech will be victims of gun violence, including Natalie Hammond, a Sandy Hook teacher who was wounded but survived the spree.
Among those at Monday's event was U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, the Pennsylvania Democrat who had a policy change of heart after the Sandy Hook murders. Once an opponent of some of the more controversial gun-control proposals, Casey now supports an assault weapon ban and limitations on ammunition capacity. He recently described Sandy Hook as "a tragedy that shook me in a way that was just remarkable."
The school shooting just before Christmas created a sense of urgency to find some way of preventing gun violence. Dozens of gun-related bills have been introduced in Congress in the last several weeks. Casey predicted that, at least in the Democratic-controlled Senate, there will be a series of votes in weeks, not months, on issues like universal background checks, limits on magazine capacity and an assault weapon ban.
Only the background check proposal is widely considered to have a chance of passage.
The National Rifle Association and other opponents of new gun-control laws argue that any new restrictions would infringe on the constitutional right to bear arms. Some say it's a slippery slope that eventually will lead to taking away Americans' guns.
Biden said there is zero conflict between the White House proposals and the Second Amendment.
"It's not this notion that somehow we're going to end up taking away my two shotguns because of what we're doing here," Biden said. "That's bizarre."
The Obama administration hopes to use public opinion on gun control to its advantage. Recent public opinion surveys, both in Pennsylvania and nationwide, have shown strong support for the proposals endorsed by the White House and many congressional Democrats.
The roundtable, however, was void of the people who need the convincing ? congressional Republicans.
U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, a likely Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 2014 from the Montgomery County-based 13th District, acknowledged that. She said Monday's group talked about the need to reach out to the areas of the country represented by the Republicans who object to new gun laws.
Pennsylvania is home to many such areas. Biden mentioned Luzerne and Cambria counties, and said, "I'm coming."
"One thing I want to make clear, this message of rational gun safety is a message that will be embraced by the rural communities as well as urban simply because it makes sense," Biden said. "We cannot wait."
citkowitz@mcall.com
202-824-8216
Source: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-joe-biden-philly-guns-20130211,0,5683258.story?track=rss
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