It’s easier to get a gun in Pennsylvania than it is to get a driver’s license. There should be a definitive penalty for carrying an illegal gun. There should be legislation in Harrisburg to allow us to stop straw purchases.
— Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney in Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney Has Honest Conversation With CBS3’s Jessica Kartalija After Challenging Year
If you compare the number of people who die In vehicular incidents to that of firearm related incidents, his statement might be justified.
Stupid voters elect stupid politicians.
Yep…. If there are more stupid people than people-who-know-better, then it doesn’t matter what he says. People will lap up this garbage and take it as sacrosanct. After all; when was the last time a Pennsylvania politician (Democrat or Republican) screwed over the public trust?
Possible that the voters in Philadelphia are as dumb as they come, but also likely that the corrupt political machine keeps Democrats in power.
And did any ‘reporters’ call him out on his blatant ignorance? Rhetorical question, folks. Of course not is the answere.
Well, I don’t know PA gun laws, but it might indeed be easier to get a gun than to get a PA driver’s license. It should be. After all, gun ownership is a right, and driving is a privilege. On a practical level, just navigating the paperwork and lines at a DMV office is almost certainly more of a hassle than dealing with one’s friendly smiling local gun store.
As for the rest, well, ignorance of the law is no excuse, as they say.
Under federal law you need the drivers license (or ID) to get the gun. In PA handguns have to go through an FFL (some technical exceptions but that’s the general rule). Long guns do not currently have to go through an FFL, but in my experience it is a PITA to buy a long gun from a private seller due to rampant paranoia brought on by watching too many bullshit crime shows. Many private sellers want a copy of you DL/ID and a bill of sale or receipt signed by both parties.
So no, it isn’t easier. But you are correct that it should be.
One could argue that advocating for personal credible substantiation of a voluntary private firearm transaction is immanently rational.
In fact, one might argue it would be egregiously imprudent and naïve not to do so.
But, to each their own.
If you’re a private buyer OR a seller, it’s just common sense to document your purchase or sale, and info off the DL included on a Bill of Sale is an excellent way to do so.
The last thing you want is to find out a gun your bought or sold was used in a crime and not be able to prove you didn’t possess that firearm at the time the crime was committed. Good luck explaining that ‘some dude’ bought/sold you the gun.
I moved from NJ to PA 8 years ago. So, that recently, I did go through the process of getting a PA driver’s license and a PA license to carry firearms. Before moving, I bought handguns and long guns in NJ and got my NJ driver’s license. From most-to-least difficult, I’d rank the experiences:
1. – PA driver’s license
2. – NJ handgun permit-to-purchase
3. – PA purchase of mail-order battle rifle from CMP
4. – NJ purchase of firearm at dealer
5. – PA purchase of firearm at dealer
6. – PA license to carry firearm
It’s certainly easy enough to buy a gun in PA; but, it wasn’t at all easy for me to complete the paperwork to get my driver’s license. Nor was it hard to buy either long-guns or handguns in NJ. But, that’s just my individual experience. YMMV.
You could also ask Carol Bowne; lately of NJ. She is still waiting on her permit to purchase a handgun. Her ex stabbed her to death in her driveway 43 days after she applied. They are in no hurry there.
Honest conversation? That was anything but.
What’s the ignorance here? It may, indeed, be easier to buy a gun (illegally) than to get a driver’s license (particularly as this follows a comment on juvenile homicides). The other two statements are opinions. That there should be a penalty for carrying an illegal gun is a valid opinion, and believing that there should be a state law to supplement federal law prohibiting straw purchases is a valid opinion. To the extent these latter two are directed to reducing illegal gun sales and use, it doesn’t appear that there should be much controversy.
If I were to encounter an illegal gun, how would I recognize it? Does it have a particular cry, or a distinctive waving of its tail, or something? Please, let’s not just accept stupid comments like this as if they mean something, or have even been considered in any thoughtful way. I would be seriously tested to come up with a description of an illegal gun, and I would bet $100 that jackass would not dare to even try. “Valid opinion” my ass.
PA has a de facto form of handgun registration…although, by law…they cannot call it that…but regulation of long guns is about the same as everywhere else where it’s minimal…have noticed can’t seem to get certain types of non-firing replicas shipped to a PA address lately…go figure….
“It’s easier to get a gun in Pennsylvania than it is to get a driver’s license. There should be a definitive penalty for carrying an illegal gun. There should be legislation in Harrisburg to allow us to stop straw purchases.”
First, Commie Kenney is an idiot, so consider the source.
Second, the gun isn’t illegal (unless its stolen). Kenney should say “There should be a definitive penalty for unlawfully carrying a firearm.”
There are existing definitive penalties in both Pennsylvania and Federal law for unlawfully carrying a firearm.
Further, straw purchases are prohibited by both Pennsylvania and Federal law and no one is stopping the Philadelphia Police from enforcing the laws against straw purchases.
All of the above won’t matter as long as the Philadelphia District Attorney (Larry Krasner) refuses to prosecute firearms law violations against most of the perpetrators in Philadelphia because they are minorities.
There are a couple things Kenney could do about illegal possession of firearms if he really wanted to. One would be to get on Krasner’s ass about his failure to prosecute. Try privately and, if that doesn’t work, go public. The second would be to order his police department to arrest everyone they catch carrying illegally. If Krasner refuses to prosecute, Kenney can point to the good arrests his cops are making and lay the blame on Krasner. Kenny won’t do either because both of them depend on votes from the friends and family of the criminals who carry illegally.
Constitutional Carry will fix it.
how does a gun break the law?…it should more properly defined as illegal possession….
The solution is to make getting a driver’s license easier, IMHO.
Replying to: Serpent_Vision March 13, 2021 At 08:50
Pennsylvania law already contains the provisions Kenney is asking for, that’s why he is ignorant.
His DA won’t enforce them against most of the perpetrators in Philadelphia because they are minorities.
The system keeps marking my comment as spam.
Thanks! Would have been helpful if that information had been included in the TTAG article.
“It’s easier to get a gun than a driver’s license”…..
uh, ok….. where’s the problem?…
SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED
Gun Control Azzhats like the mayor know better than to go all out gun confiscation KKK style so they go at it indirectly. If it’s not straw purchases it some other “problem” they want to fix by purposely not separating the good guys from the bad guys but throwing the whole bunch into one pot.
Make no mistake about it. For their vision of utopia to become reality they need to get your firearms out of their way.
Their senister gun control plans are concealed behind the faces of little kids and gullible moms and dads. The kind of moms and dads who drop their kids off beneath Gun Free Zone Signs and drive away whistling Dixie. Never mind the bureaucrats who mislead those parents with a false sense of security it’s the fault of the NRA and every gun owner within a 5000 mile radius.
There are serious penalities on the books already that cover firearm misuse. That misuse includes placing a firearm in the wrong hands. With that said…Let’s see if the mayor is held reponsible if he puts a firearm in the hands of a bad guy and the bad guy does something bad.
Bottom line…It’s already illegal as illegal can get to assist in criminal activity directly or indirectly. Of course those who plaster signs all over schools that invite a criminal maniac to the party are exempt.
Of fun note: “sinister” is latin for “on the left side”.
You pick the masculine form? Is that your patriarchy is showing? LOL.
Also of note, sinis-ter/tra/trum could also mean favorable or lucky (in Rome) or unfavorable, perverse or unlucky in Greece. It has to do with the traditional directions faced in each area when an augury was taken. If the word is plural it refers to soldiers on the left flank of a given unit.
Somewhat strange how we take a Latin word and decide to use the Greek meaning.
Romanes eunt domus!
LoL
As usual, pandering to the uninformed or just plain STUPID! But it works for em, most of the time.
This Mayor is the epitome of a bufoon! He and his ilk, play on the public’s ignorance of what stupid laws are in place already, that they do not enforce anyway. His solution is to pass more laws, to make it super-duper, double triple illegal to break the law! Just another shitstain on politics!
He could always make it easier to get a drivers license.
Of course there are plenty who drive without a license anyway.
Speaking of being ‘beclowned’, where is that sentient traffic cone Geoff TG?
at your moms.
I’m moving to PA!
I live in PA and if we could sell Filthadelphia to New Jersey or get a rent to own deal, we would be better off. That POS city is the only reason any Democrap ever gets elected. I feel sort of bad saying that since the democrats in my area are good folks for the most part…concealed carry and lots of 2A support. Then again, it’s hard to forgive a vote for senile and corrupt.
Philadelphia is the sewer down which most of our tax money flows…nothing new there..
WHEW THA COMMENTS . YEAH CAN’T FIT STUPID . DUMB GETS DUMBER .
TRUTH IS I HAVE VOTED FOR SOMEONE THAT THERE WAS ALWAYS PROs N CONs TO THEM.
VOTED RED , BLUE , SPLIT TICKET . JUST TRIED TO VOTE FOR ONE THAT / WANT / WHAT I WANTED . TAKING CARE OF SSA , THINGS LIKE THAT .
this jerk should read the PA constitution before he makes ridiculous comments….
Straw purchases, ha ha ha.
Nobody buys or sales NOTHING without government permission. How bout that for an idea.
We want Our sales tax.
It’s probably also easier to buy drugs or get booze underage than it is to get a driver’s license.
The first two don’t require any interaction with government or it’s employees.
It’s a dumb comment on multiple levels but it’s also nice to see some honesty about bureaucratic incompetence.
Right now, it is difficult to get a driver’s license in Texas too.
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