Onorato offers crime plan

Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato announced a crime-fighting plan yesterday that calls for mandatory reporting of lost or stolen guns, would expand gun-violence task forces, and would add violence against gays to the list of hate crimes.

Onorato, in a news conference at City Hall, also said he would seek to close the "revolving door" in state prisons by instituting job-training and substance-abuse programs he has tried with success in the Allegheny County prison.

"If we get the proper funding, we can actually have a drop in the recidivism rate across the board," he said.

Onorato, who is in his second term as the Allegheny County executive, has attempted to establish his heft as a candidate with a series of position papers. He held up his crime plan and said, "It's seven pages long."

In 2006, with funding from the legislature, state Attorney General Tom Corbett joined with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office to create a Gun Violence Task Force in the city.

Allegheny County, in 2007, established a similar task force, combining resources from a number of law enforcement agencies. The county program is funded by a federal stimulus grant. Onorato proposes to expand the task forces to other parts of the state.

Asked about Corbett's program, Onorato yesterday dismissed the question as a campaign issue he did not intend to talk about. Corbett is the probable GOP nominee.

"I'm not going to comment on any other candidates," he said.

Onorato's proposal for mandatory reporting of lost or stolen guns has arisen in the legislature but has not been adopted.

Joe Grace, executive director of CeaseFirePA, a group that seeks to curb gun violence, said independently of Onorato's news conference yesterday that Philadelphia and 29 other municipalities had adopted such requirements on their own.

"We seek that as a statewide reform," he said.

Onorato's move to expand the list of hate crimes is in keeping with a bill that passed the House Judiciary Committee in Harrisburg in November.

A court previously had thrown out legislative language that extended the protection to cover gays, women, and the disabled.