COLUMN	FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
State Rep. Ronald Waters D-Delaware/Phila. www.pahouse.com/waters

Waters: Occupy illegal guns

As a Pennsylvania lawmaker and concerned resident, I, along with the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus Vice Chairwoman Vanessa Lowery Brown, am writing in response to a disturbing political cartoon recently published in the Philadelphia Daily News.

The image depicts five hooded individuals with smoking guns protruding from the hoods in place of faces. The words "Occupying Black Philadelphia" accompanied the cartoon.

Gun violence in the Philadelphia area is a serious problem and no laughing matter.

It is time to move forward in this effort and attack the larger problem: the proliferation of illegal guns.

The No. 1 priority of government is to protect its citizens. Too many innocent lives have been lost in the crosshairs of gun violence. It is a sad fact that within the city of Philadelphia the majority of homicides are committed with hand guns and by minors, as well as offenders with previous criminal backgrounds.

Easy access to guns has cost us hundreds and hundreds of lives and replaced safety with fear. It's time we reclaim the streets of the Philadelphia area and replace fear with determination. As legislators, we need to collaborate with each other to bring about tangible solutions to this problem.

I have been calling on Gov. Tom Corbett and the General Assembly to create a task force on gun violence and trafficking in the Commonwealth. The task force should be composed of law enforcement officials, including the Pennsylvania State Police, as they are equipped with surveillance capabilities and the manpower to handle the influx of illegal weapons in the neighborhoods within our state.

The task force would be charged with investigating the use and transport of illegal guns and assault weapons across the state and how to take them off the street and out of the hands of people with bad intentions who will use them to commit crimes. By creating such a task force, Pennsylvania can be turned into a leader on crime reduction.

I also am requesting for a special session known as a Committee of the Whole to invite the entire General Assembly to meet in a bipartisan fashion to address the concerns of public safety. How do we show our constituencies across the state that we are working together under the common goal of increasing public safety? We must be tough on crime, but also right on crime.

We also need to invest in programs with proven track records of reducing violence and the number of repeat offenders, such as Weed and Seed. Funding for the program was eliminated under the Republican-controlled budget and I am also calling on the governor to reinstate it.

The Weed and Seed program is a law enforcement/community revitalization effort targeting medium-sized communities whose inner cities are plagued by crime, violence and social deterioration. It is a great example of the state doing right by citizens who live in inner cities, as it has been responsible for reducing crime and delinquency, and has enabled police to work with the community, the private sector and social service agencies to revitalize communities.

The program prepares people for jobs, and gives them the real-world skills they need to succeed through training classes and mentoring.

Simply building more prisons is not the answer and neither is cutting a program as a short-term solution to a long-term problem. We cannot simply build our way out of this problem. It is too costly; the state budget reveals that the amount of money allocated to the criminal justice system has increased, yet do our streets feel any safer? We cannot simply arrest our way out of this problem, but we can with the proper evidence-based resources create an environment conducive to building stronger lives.

We will work to build stronger lives by creating opportunities that will add value and purpose to the lives of all of our citizens. Creating these opportunities within our educational system and sustaining real job creation are fundamentals that, when in place, create strong neighborhoods. Investing in early childhood education programs is a proven way to get young people started on the right educational path. Those early educational experiences can lead to positive gains within the job market later in life.

We should increase the number of recreational and enrichment programs to keep our children focused. As a result of their participation in such programming, they stand to become better prepared to be productive contributors to society. We are not undermining the role of parents in our society, but as policymakers, we must best direct our available resources to ensure our children’s long-term success.

Currently I believe we are placing too much emphasis on the stick and not the carrot; we are way too strict on punishment and not on prevention. It is clear that these guns are not in our neighborhoods by mistake. Many of the people who use these guns use them to commit crimes within the inner city against their neighbors and other community members. Let’s become more proactive on crime rather than reactive. We should be mindful that creating safer neighborhoods should be the true public safety goal. When resources are drained from neighborhoods where unemployment and poverty levels are high, the opportunities to gain a valuable education are low. Making the statement of “Occupy Black Philadelphia” with a negative image depicting hooded individuals and guns is speaking to a symptom, but does not address the cause.

Unfortunately, the state can’t legislate an end to violence, but we certainly can create measures to get illegal guns off the streets, make our neighborhoods safer and occupy the real problem of gun violence.

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Waters represents the 191^st Legislative District in the House of Representatives and serves as the chairman of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus.

Brown represents the 190^th Legislative District in the House of Representatives and serves as vice chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus.