City leaders call for action against gun violence following shooting near SEPTA station
PHILADELPHIA - City of Philadelphia and state leaders want legislation to reduce gun violence. They met at the Olney Transportation Center Friday where eight people were shot last week.
Reverend David Brown made note of the obvious ambulances on the regular as stakeholders and officials called on Harrisburg to pass stricter gun control laws or grant Philly the power to do it. Mayor Jim Kenney led off.
"The Pennsylvania General Assembly has not only refused to enact common sense gun regulations at the state level. It also continues to block cities from enacting their own local gun laws," Kenney said.
It's a call often made but one rarely heard by enough in the state capitol to make a difference.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner called for more funding for local programs and though the mayor didn't stick around for questions Krasner did. He punched back at critics who call his progressive policies soft.
"It's a very old kind of politics. You don't look at whether things are going well. Would they like to discuss the fact that our conviction rate on shootings and homicides in the first quarter of 2020 was 85 percent? And it's one of the highest rates over the last five years and we did it without cheating, or do they want to discuss the reality that terrible crimes happen and they don't express a trend?" he said.
Senator Sharif Street organized the event. He knows that no legislation becomes law before it's brought to a vote by the current Republican majority but says the work is in changing peoples' minds.
Olney Transportation Center is where eight people were shot in the middle of the afternoon last week. Commissioner Danielle Outlaw put out more information Friday on the suspects who have not been caught.
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