With Gun Violence On The Rise, One Mom Fights Back

At the state level, state Sen. Art Haywood, and Rep. Donna Bullock, both Philadelphia Democrats, are sponsoring bills that would create a state-funded, $30 million grant program that would pay for “community-based violence reduction initiatives with demonstrated success at reducing gun-related violence,” Haywood wrote in a memo seeking co-sponsors for his legislation.

Eligible applicants would “need to include detailed plans and coordinate with existing violence prevention and intervention programs and service providers in their community,” Bullock wrote in a similar memo to her colleagues.

Pennsylvania House Minority Leader Joanna McClinton, a Democrat whose West Philadelphia district has seen some of the worst of the violence, said the legislation would help across the state, not just in such large cities as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

“Support is what we need. And we are at the urgent hour,” said McClinton, who added she’d just learned that a 15-year-old girl who’d been shot in her district last week, and was “hanging on for her life,” had died on Tuesday night.

McClinton said plans also are in the works to reintroduce “red flag” legislation, which would allow a loved one or a family member to obtain a court order seizing someone’s weapons if they can show they pose a threat to themselves or to others.

In states that have them, these orders, which have due process, have been shown to reduce suicides and gun violence. The bill failed to gain a vote in last year’s legislative session.

In the meantime, activists such as Garcia will continue working, turning tragedy into action, and a prayer that another family won’t have to bury another child.

“There’s a frustrating sense of normality about murders in our country … the reality is that we are all in the crossfire,” she said. “The only way to reduce gun violence is to work together.”

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An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.