October 5, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Locals travel to capitol to advocate for gun control
by KRISTIN PAZULSKI

Tomorrow, Sophia Fleming should be celebrating the 20th birthday of her son, Adam. Instead, she’ll spend the day reflecting on the 17 years he was in her life and hoping that she made a strong impression on state legislators Sept. 26, when she attended the gun-control rally outside the state Capitol while inside the State House of Representatives discussed about 100 pieces of crime legislation.

Fleming lost her son two years ago when he ran from a group of young men attempting to rob him at a Sunoco gas station, only blocks from their Germantown home. As he ran away, one of the four shot him with a semi-automatic pistol, Fleming said. He was struck in the back and arm, and died a week before his 18th birthday.

Fleming’s story was one of many shared during the prayer vigil and rally two days before the second anniversary of Adam’s death.

Hundreds of Philadelphians, fed up with the increasing homicide toll in the city, boarded buses to Harrisburg sponsored by the city’s Operation Safer Streets and the Pennsylvania Coalition to End Handgun Violence. Their goal was to raise awareness of the need for gun control, and hoped their presence would inspire legislators to support such measures.

On Tuesday the House of Representatives discussed and straw voted on the crime prevention initiatives. The vote was only to gain a better understanding of the amount of support each proposal had in the House, not to vote them into law.

The discussion extended over two days, Sept. 26 - 27 and continued on Oct. 3. On Sept. 26, proposals to hire more police, stiffen sentences on violent crimes and crack down on gangs were supported by the House, as reported in the Inquirer. Other proposals included funding anti-violence education programs for adults and youths.

The legislation most Philadelphians focused their attention on was the one-gun-a-month proposal, which would restrict firearm purchases to one a month for each person. The proposal was scheduled to be discussed on Oct. 3, said Pamela Smith, spokesperson for state Sen. LeAnna Washington. Washington is a sponsor of the same legislation on the Senate’s end.

But during the rally, the impression that local participants got from visiting legislators’ offices was a bleak one for the gun control bills.

Fleming said she found out about the rally and bus trips in a newspaper before she was contacted by Mothers In Charge, one of the groups that sponsored the rally, of which she is a member. She wanted to get involved and signed up immediately on her own.

“I got chills up my arms, just to see the crowds,” Fleming said, referring to the approximately 2,000 gun control activists she observed when she arrived in Harrisburg. “We should be united in this.”

While the crowd — which others considered lacking in numbers — thrilled her, she said she was saddened by the amount of families there that had suffered a loss similar to hers.

“When I saw the face of Casha’e Rivers’ mother [mother of the five-year-old girl who was killed by a stray gunshot on Sept. 24], I thought ‘my God, she’s so young!’” Fleming said. “We’re not supposed to bury our children.”

Rivers’ death was on the minds of many of the Philadelphians who traveled to Harrisburg with Fleming. A Local reporter stopped and talked with some of them as they boarded a bus at the Church of the Annunciation on Lincoln Drive and Carpenter Lane.

Carolyn Scott, 59, a semi-retired high school teacher and a member of the Unitarian Society of Germantown, said she was tired of hearing about children who have been killed by stray bullets. She has been a resident of Philadelphia for 38 years and said this summer was the first time that she’s heard gunfire only a few doors down from her home.

Barbara Bloom, an active volunteer in Mt. Airy and a resident of Chestnut Hill, was energetic and smiling as she awaited the bus at 8 a.m.

“We need to make our state legislators, that are not in Philadelphia, realize that is this an issue for all humanity, especially our children,” Bloom said.

Many of the legislators represent regions with an overwhelming number of hunters, and are therefore strongly anti-gun control. Anti-gun control activists repeatedly claim that gun control violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Rev. Kent Matthies of the Unitarian Society of Germantown does not find this argument justified.

“The Second Amendment was written when muskets, which took minutes just to load, were used. It was not written for the technology of this century,” Matthies said.

Recently, a 29-year-old was fatally shot only four doors from his home in the Fairmount section of the city. A memorial service for the victim was held in the street on Sept. 29.

Tom Smith, 60, a freelance writer in East Falls who traveled to Mt. Airy to catch the bus, attended the rally with the goal of having his gun control message heard and serving as a “balance” for what he said was a mainly “hunter state.”

But after the trip, Smith and others did not think legislators absorbed their message, even though Philadelphians took it straight to their door.

“Certainly our statement got made about the importance of trying to limit the number of guns sold,” Smith said.

But as they visited the offices of the senators and representatives, he said he felt disconnected because most of the legislators were not in their offices.

“They [the staff persons] didn’t seem interested in talking unless we asked them to,” Smith said.

Bloom said the déécor in two offices — one with a mounted deer head and the other with deer coasters — said enough about where those legislators stood.

“It’s an uphill battle,” she said.

The visitors did get to meet Sen. Washington, who emphasized that she was continuing to support the statewide one-gun-a-month legislation.

“We were basically encouraging her to stick with one-gun-a-month legislation statewide, and not to fall back on the Philadelphia-only provision,” said Ray Torres of Mt. Airy, who is also involved with the Brandywine Peace Community, members of which were arrested in September for an anti-war demonstration in the office of U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.).

But even Washington’s spokesperson, Pamela Smith, said that while the senator promises to continue to support one-gun-a-month proposal, “it seems the bills aren’t getting the support the anti-gun supporters are looking for.” She added that the senator might have to fall back on a Philadelphia-only amendment to get anything passed.

Mt. Airy’s Gloria Hoffman, 68, said having the one-gun-a-month apply only to Philadelphia is pointless, because criminals will just cross the city line to purchase them. She added that the one-gun-a-month legislation was “ridiculous” anyway.

“Do they need 12 guns a year to hunt?” she asked.

Hoffman is a member of the Granny Brigade, a group of older women who protest war and violence. She was proudly sporting her black T-shirt with the date June 28, 2006, on the sleeve, when she was one of the 11 Granny Brigade members arrested for an anti-war protest in Center City.

All participants that spoke with the Local seemed to agree that Tuesday’s rally was just a beginning. They got the impression that most legislators are more focused on crime reduction and increasing the police force than on gun control. They also recognized that this would be a long process.

“A lot of the message [from legislators] was about crime reduction and the police,” Smith said. “That’s certainly what I took away from the conversations and the day. On the other hand, I know the message [for gun control] was delivered, but whether it made an immediate difference, I wish I could say I knew.”

Bloom agreed, saying that the main message she heard from staffers was “we need more police on the street.”

“They didn’t seem to get why stopping guns on the street would make any difference,” she added.

Chestnut Hill’s Shoshana Bricklin of Interfaith Advocates, which helped to coordinate the lobbying group that met at the Church of the Annunciation, encouraged those who attended the rally to ask their friends to write letters of support to legislators.

“We know LeAnna Washington is working hard, but we have to be prepared to partner with her to reach out to the legislators throughout the state,” Bricklin said.

“We have to keep working on these issues, and we still have some time to do that,” Tom Smith added.

“It was just one day, one little step — now we have to take it to the next level,” Matthies said. “There needs to be more open dialogue in Pennsylvania, with the people who are hunting-rifle owners and people in the city affected by the violence here. We have to hear each others’ stories and come to a compromise.”

Fleming has contributed her story to the cause as a member of Mothers in Charge, which encourages mothers to volunteer for the organization “before thy are forced to” by the death of a child, as she was.

“I’m the voice of Adam,” she said.

On Friday, Fleming will be spending her son’s birthday visiting his grave, which she does at least once a week. She said she hopes to make people realize that while murder is devastating, surviving after such an experience is almost equally as devastating and that gun control can possibly help prevent this.

“It can tear a family apart, and it almost did to us,” Fleming said. “Life as I knew it back then ceased to exist. I started my new life, but there’s always a piece missing. I can’t be complete anymore.”

Contact staff writer Kristin Pazulski at 215-248-8819 or Kristin@chestnuthilllocal.com.