Guns in Pennsylvania

AP/Houston Chronicle:

Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are gingerly threading their way between two of the most politically charged numbers in Pennsylvania: the state's almost 1 million licensed hunters and Philadelphia's nearly one-a-day rate of gun murders.

Gun control arouses deep emotions here. Deadly shootings have earned the state's largest city the ominous nickname: "Killadelphia." One of the strongest antigun control groups, the National Rifle Association, has 250,000 members in Pennsylvania, more than in any other state. This month the Pennsylvania House soundly defeated a bill to require handgun owners to report the theft or loss of their guns to police.

As the state's hotly contested April 22 primary approaches, the Democratic presidential candidates have struggled to avoid alienating either side, to the point of pandering.

Unlike most members of Congress, neither senator has taken a position on the historic case before the U.S. Supreme Court over whether the District of Columbia's ban on handguns violates the Constitution's Second Amendment.

Democrats have shied away from gun control since 2000, when they blamed presidential and congressional losses in part on their aggressive stance at the time.

Clinton that year supported far-reaching measures including a federal mandate for state-issued photo gun licenses, as well as a national registry for handgun sales. Obama repeatedly backed tougher state gun controls as an Illinois lawmaker.

Such proposals have been brushed aside in favor of vague talk about "common sense" regulation and assertions by the candidates that they honor the Second Amendment.

Their ability to duck the issue may end April 16 — the date Clinton and Obama square off in their only Pennsylvania debate.

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The problem in Philadelphia is not guns so much as an epidemic of black on black violence that is creating a death rate that would make Baghdad blush. The focus should be on what is making young black men kill each other in alarming numbers.

During the American Revolution, Philadelphia had to be abandoned most of the summers because people were dying from mosquito born diseases. They finally figured it out and put up screens for the windows and cleaned the water puddles out. They need to figure out why these young black men are killing each other. Just like mosquitoes are never going away, neither are guns.