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In wake of Liczbinski slaying, a push for assault-weapon ban
The assassination of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski is reigniting a variety of political efforts to ban semiautomatic assault weapons, including the SKS rifle used in the killing.
Gov. Rendell, Mayor Nutter and other elected officials were expected at a news conference today in City Hall to ask the federal government to officially get involved and take action.
"I don't understand how anyone can stand up and make any kind of argument or defense as to why someone should have an AK-47 or an SKS or whatever," Nutter said yesterday, while he paid tribute to fallen officers at the Living Flame Memorial in Franklin Square Park.
"These weapons . . . are for one purpose only, to maim and destroy human beings," he said. "We should have statewide legislation. The federal government has a role to play here as well."
Rendell and Nutter aren't expected to endorse any particular legislation related to assault weapons at their news conference, their spokesmen said last night.
U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., said yesterday he is co-sponsoring a gun-control bill that would prohibit for 10 years the sale or transfer of assault weapons, except through licensed dealers.
The bill, the Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2007, targets semiautomatic weapons like the AK-47, the SKS, the Uzi and a variety of other firearms.
In a statement, Sestak said Liczbinski's slaying is a "tragic reminder that we must immediately address the crisis of violence that is striking our region."
CeaseFire PA, meanwhile, sent letters to state gun shops yesterday, asking sellers to voluntarily halt sales of the SKS assault rifle, which police say Howard Cain, 33, used to kill Liczbinski on Saturday.
In the letters, Phil Goldsmith, the board president of CeaseFire PA, said: "a weapon this destructive has no legitimate place or purpose in Pennsylvania." *
