for BigTrial.net
During his now famous "I'll be happy when I'm not mayor" speech, the buck-passing Mayor Kenney blamed the Second Amendment, the state legislature and the U.S. Supreme Court for the proliferation of guns in Philadelphia.
"If I had the ability to take care of guns I would, but the [state] legislature won't let us, the U.S. Congress won't let us," Kenney whined. "It's crazy. We are the most armed country in world history and we are one of the least safest. Until Americans decide they want to give up the guns and give up the opportunity to get guns we're going to have this problem."
Nice speech, Mr. Mayor. But instead of passing the buck, there is something you can do right now to stop the proliferation of guns on the streets of Philadelphia. And it doesn't require the approval of the U.S. Supreme Court, or Congress, or the state legislature.
You can pick up the phone right now, Mr. Mayor, and order your hand-picked police commissioner to stop the big giveaway that's going on right now over at the Philadelphia Police Department's Gun Permit Unit. That's the place at 660 East Erie Avenue where, over a 18-month period from January 2021 until the end of this past June, they've issued a total of 79,779 new licenses to carry concealed firearms.
Last year, that amounted to a more than 700% increase in new licenses to carry over the previous year.
It used to take 40 days to get a gun permit in Philadelphia; now it only takes one week. That's because in the middle of an unprecedented epidemic of gun violence, the PPD basically blew out all of the previous local safeguards that had been in place for decades.
