Commentary: Close loopholes that allow long guns to get in wrong hands

LAST WEEK in Philadelphia, we heard about a gun sale gone horribly wrong. Two men met on armslist.com, a website that connects gun sellers and buyers, and arranged to meet in person. Armslist.com allows potential buyers to search for private sellers who are not required to conduct background checks on their buyers. Federal law regulates only sales by federally licensed dealers, not private sellers. Some states regulate private sales, and in Pennsylvania, the private sale of handguns requires a background check. This particular transaction involved an AK-47, a military-style rifle, defined as a long gun, and exempt under Pennsylvania law, from the background check requirement.

The men met at the prearranged street corner. The seller presented the AK-47, and the buyer held him up at gunpoint, taking the AK-47 and the expected payment. So, a private sale, conducted as the law allows, led to a theft and to a bad actor, possibly a violent criminal, in possession of a dangerous weapon.

Why was this transaction even permitted under the law? From some outdated notion that long guns are not as dangerous as handguns? Even though more crimes are committed with cheaper, easier to conceal handguns, long guns are just as dangerous when they are in the hands of those who would do harm.

In Pennsylvania, half of the law enforcement officers slain with guns over the past 10 years were killed with long guns. That's roughly double the national rate, according to data from the Officer Down Memorial Page.

In June 2011, Berks County Sheriff's Deputy Kyle Pagerly was shot and killed with an AK-47 while serving a warrant on a criminal. The killer acquired the gun from a friend, not at a gun shop, and because of that, no background check was required. Another long gun was used to kill Cpl. Bryon Dickson and severely wound Trooper Alex Douglass during the shooting on the Pike County Police Barracks on Sept. 12, 2014.

And long guns are frequently used by domestic abusers against women. In April 2013, Kenneth Phillip of Bucks County fired a shotgun at his ex-wife, killing her and injuring her teenaged daughter. Phillip was just out of jail and was under a protection-from-abuse order. He never should have had a gun.

Clearly, long guns are dangerous. People prohibited from possessing guns are prohibited from possessing all guns, not just certain types. So how can we, in good conscience, continue to exempt certain kinds of guns from our background check system?

In Pennsylvania, background checks stop more than 10,000 firearms sales per year to felons, domestic abusers and other people prohibited from having guns. Since our national background check system was put in place in the 1990s, it has blocked more than 2.4 million gun sales. Background checks work - they keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them, and, in Pennsylvania, failed background checks lead to investigations and often prosecutions for those who illegally attempt to buy guns.

There is just no excuse to leave loopholes in place. Pennsylvania has the opportunity to close this dangerous loophole and make our state safer. We already have a history of requiring background checks for some private firearms sales - closing the long-gun loophole is a logical next step.

Bills pending in the state House and Senate have bipartisan support, and support from legislators from urban, rural and suburban communities from all parts of the commonwealth.

Gun violence is not just a city problem. No community is immune - homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings are a Pennsylvania problem. Philadelphia and other large urban areas have been leading the discussion about solving this problem, but we are joined by towns and cities across this commonwealth, whose leaders and citizens are tired of losing people to gun violence and gun tragedies.

We can solve this problem. We know how to do it. We should start by blocking access to guns by people who should not have them.

The way to do this is to expand background checks; that's why on Monday, hundreds of Pennsylvanians, from Philadelphia to Allentown to Pittsburgh, are coming to the Capitol to rally in the Rotunda for comprehensive background checks.

We hope you'll join us and be part of the solution.

Shira Goodman is the executive director of CeaseFirePA, a statewide organization working to reduce gun violence and gun tragedies, stop the flow of illegal guns into our communities and keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them. Info at www.ceasefirepa.org