A week after a lone gunman brutally murdered 20 children and six adults in a Newtown, Conn., elementary school, state legislators from Lackawanna County agree that the incident raises issues that must be addressed in Pennsylvania.
"You shouldn't have to be afraid to send your child to school every morning or even let your child out to play. We shouldn't be afraid to go to the mall. We shouldn't be afraid to go to the movies," said Rep. Sid Michaels Kavulich, D-114. "This is a discussion that has to be serious now."
As the issue of gun control dominates the national conversation in the wake of the tragedy in Newtown, one point that continues to arise is reinstituting a federal ban on assault weapons like the rifle Adam Lanza reportedly used in the attack.
"I'm 100 percent for getting rid of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips," said Rep.-elect Kevin Haggerty, D-112, when asked about the possibility of a statewide ban in Pennsylvania. "They're made for war. These are killing machines and they don't belong in the hands of people like the shooter in Newtown, Connecticut."
Himself a gun-owning member of the National Rifle Association and an avid hunter, Rep.-elect Frank Farina, D-115, agreed with that sentiment, while at the same time stressing the need to protect the Second Amendment, which ensures citizens' right to bear arms.
"People have to look at when the Second Amendment was written ... we were using muskets and an expert marksman, it took him 30 seconds to reload one round," he said. "You could put a lot of lives at jeopardy in 30 seconds with a lot of the fully automatic and semi-automatic weapons."
Though he did not commit to supporting a ban on assault weapons, Rep.-elect Marty Flynn, D-113, did concede that it is an issue that warrants significant consideration.
"The one thing that really startled me (in the Newtown shooting) ... the one child had 14 bullets in her. That makes you think about things, you know, like who needs armor-piercing bullets and automatic weapons? Those are two things that I think should be addressed," he said.
While bolstering gun regulations is among the possible outcomes of the tragedy, Mr. Haggerty said what should be addressed first is school security.
To that end, Mr. Haggerty wrote an open letter to President Barack Obama on Tuesday, stressing the need for funding for school security.
"We have to guard our children," he said.
Contact the writer: domalley@timesshamrock.com, @domalleytt on Twitter