Forums at City Hall take on Phila.'s gun violence

Searching for ways to reduce the tide of gun violence in Philadelphia, a panel of state lawmakers heard testimony from a array of civic leaders at City Hall yesterday.

Led by State Reps. Babette Josephs and Dwight Evans, members of the House Judiciary and Appropriations Committees held a forum that featured officials of city government, the public schools and public health.

Officials said the forum was the last of 11 statewide committee meetings on violence, handguns, crime and drugs.

City Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller stressed the need for legislation to ease the flow of guns into the city. She said Philadelphia needs to be able to draft its own gun laws independent of state lawmakers in Harrisburg.

Miller said a law limiting handgun purchases to one per month would help reduce the number of guns in the city.

"I don't understand why someone needs 12 guns a year," Miller said.

"The state will not let us enact our own gun laws," she added. "We cannot legislate an attitude change, but this legislation is a start."

Citing the 116 homicides reported in Philadelphia this year, Miller said that gun violence has become all too routine.

"Philadelphia has become a place where every day we expect to hear that someone has been murdered. . . . We really need to get a handle on gun laws."

Walter M. Phillips Jr., chairman of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, also urged lawmakers to pass measures restricting the sale of guns.

He later asked the panel, which included State Reps. Tony Payton (D., Phila.); Thomas Caltagirone (D., Berks); and James R. Roebuck Jr. (D., Phila.): "Are not 12 guns a year enough?"

John Mirowitz, Southeast regional director of Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, said, "One gun a month does not work," citing other states that have such laws.

"When you start talking about [one gun a month], you don't understand the sportsmen's community."

Mirowitz told the lawmakers, "If you want to do something about crime, hire more cops and probation and parole officers."

Several of the speakers mentioned the massacre at Virginia Tech, and at noon Josephs called for those present to join a national moment of silence in honor of the dead and wounded.

Paul Fink, director of Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia, a state-funded program aimed at reducing violence, said a critical element is having enough mentors for at-risk youth.

"One of the most important missing pieces in Philadelphia is mentoring," Fink said. "There are not enough African American men coming forward to mentor thousands of kids."

Fink said that a dearth of jobs for young people was a factor leading to violence.

"Ultimately the lack of jobs is the bottom line," Finks said.

The need for jobs was also echoed by Paul Vallas, the chief executive of the Philadelphia School District.

"If I shout, 'jobs,' I'll have 40 kids surround me," Vallas said. "The most frequently asked question I get is, 'Can you help me find a job? Can you get me an internship?' "

In a separate development, a group of black elected officials held an emergency meeting in the City Council Caucus Room to discuss the impact of violence in Philadelphia.

State Sen. Anthony Williams, who led the meeting as the chair of the Black Elected Officials of Philadelphia, said the session was held to "talk about the need to better coordinate our resources to address this problem."

The meeting included mayoral candidates Evans and U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, and most of the city's state representatives and senators and several members of City Council.

Williams said the group also wants to raise awareness that "the lives being lost in Philadelphia are important."

He said the group would meet again next Friday.