These Pa. House bills can decrease gun violence

Access to guns makes antisemitism deadly.

Access to guns makes racism deadly.

Access to guns makes domestic violence deadly.

Access to guns makes curiosity deadly.

Research shows that strong gun laws decrease gun deaths and injuries, while permissive gun laws increase gun violence. The overwhelming majority of us support stronger gun laws. A recent national Fox News poll found that more than 80% of voters and a majority of gun owners support universal background checks to keep guns out of the hands of felons and others who shouldn’t have them. Sixty-one percent want a ban on assault weapons and semiautomatic weapons.

We can stop the carnage, and the vast majority of us want to. Polling of Pennsylvania voters finds that 95% of us support universal background checks; 90% support mandatory reporting of lost and stolen guns; and 86% support red flag laws, which give families or law enforcement a way to temporarily remove guns from someone who poses a serious threat to themselves or others. Seventy-one percent support banning the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity gun magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

The Pennsylvania state legislature is poised to finally address this epidemic. A raft of four evidence-based bills, the Common Agenda to End Gun Violence, is moving through the state House. The Common Agenda includes HB 338, which mandates the reporting of lost and stolen guns; HB 714, which requires a background check for every gun sale; HB 731, which requires the safe storage of firearms; and HB 1018, which establishes extreme risk protection orders (red flag laws).

This is personal for me. Four and a half years ago, our congregation, Dor Hadash, along with New Light and Tree of Light Congregations, was attacked, and 11 congregants were murdered: Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, and Irving Younger.

Jury selection in the perpetrator’s trial began last month. For months before the shooting, he spewed antisemitic hatred on social media, but it was an assault rifle and three semiautomatic handguns that turned his hatred lethal. Unfortunately, this is far from the only example.

A year ago, a man shot and killed 10 Black shoppers at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y. His online manifesto is filled with racism, antisemitism, and white supremacy. But it was his Bushmaster XM-15 AR-15-style rifle that turned his hatred lethal.

This month, a gunman with neo-Nazi tattoos and an online preoccupation with white supremacy and violence against women and Jews shot and killed eight people at a mall in Allen, Texas. Three of those killed were children. His AR-15 and handgun turned his hatred into murder.

We see the same trend with abusers. Women are five times more likely to be murdered by an abusive partner when the abuser has access to a gun. The presence of a gun also increases the risk of multiple victims — a majority of mass shootings involve or begin with domestic violence.

Even the innocent curiosity of children can become deadly with ready access to guns. Earlier this month, a toddler in Indianapolis unintentionally shot and killed himself. In March, a 5-year-old child in Lafayette, Ind., shot and killed their 1-year-old brother; a 3-year-old girl in Harris County, Texas, unintentionally shot and killed her 4-year-old sister; and a 7-year-old boy in Cleveland unintentionally shot and killed himself.

It doesn’t have to be this way. The Pennsylvania House can vote on these commonsense bills as soon as today. Passage is by no means assured — the gun safety majority in the state House is tenuous. Our voices, the voices of the voters of Pennsylvania, can make the difference. If the bills pass, they will then move to the state Senate, where our support will remain essential.

These bills will not end antisemitism. They will not end racism or domestic violence. But if each of us contacts our state legislators with the message to support the Common Agenda to End Gun Violence, these bills will go a long way toward decreasing the toll that gun violence takes on our communities.

Jo Recht is president of Congregation Dor Hadash. Dor Hadash is an inclusive, egalitarian, community-oriented, and member-led Reconstructionist Jewish congregation and one of three congregations formerly housed in the Tree of Life building in Pittsburgh.