{"id":38717,"date":"2018-03-09T08:27:39","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T13:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=38717"},"modified":"2018-03-09T08:27:41","modified_gmt":"2018-03-09T13:27:41","slug":"kennett-sq-oks-gun-violence-resolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=38717","title":{"rendered":"Kennett Sq. OK’s gun violence resolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eliza Mohler<\/strong>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kennett Square residents address Borough Council about gun control.<\/p><\/div>\n

KENNETT SQUARE \u2013 In the wake of recent school shootings in the United States, Kennett Square Borough Council is advocating for stricter gun control legislation. At Monday night\u2019s meeting, they voted unanimously to approve a resolution urging lawmakers to enact stronger protections against gun violence.<\/p>\n

\u201dThoughts and prayers won\u2019t bring back the Parkland kids,\u201d said Council member Wayne Braffman, who presented the resolution. \u201cThoughts and prayers won\u2019t protect the kids over at Mary D. Lang (Elementary School). \u201d<\/p>\n

The resolution calls for trigger locks on all firearms in homes with children present and a ban on “assault-style weapons.” It says \u201cknown and suspected terrorists\u201d and those convicted of hate crimes or who have a history of domestic violence should not be allowed to purchase guns.<\/p>\n

It also recommends restricting firearm ownership by people with mental illness, ensuring background check performances for all gun purchases, and preserving the Pennsylvania Instant Check System.<\/p>\n

The resolution will be sent to 13 local, state, and national elected officials, including Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, Senators Bob Casey and Pat Toomey, and President Donald Trump. It will also be posted on the borough\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

However, not all borough residents who attended the meeting agreed with the Council\u2019s action. \u201cThe resolution sounds unformed, honestly, and uneducated,\u201d resident Jessica Casson said, adding that the terms used in it are \u201cvague and misleading\u201d and that it is outside the council\u2019s rights and responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this resolution is well within the scope of our mandate to protect our citizens,\u201d Braffman said in response to Casson\u2019s comments. \u201cIt\u2019s an attempt to try.\u201d He added that the resolution is especially valid given a state law that prohibits municipalities from passing their own gun registration laws.<\/p>\n

Mayor Matt Fetick said he would sign the resolution once it was passed, and that he agreed with all eight of its points. \u201cI personally, as the mayor, am responsible for the public safety of the borough,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe that we can have this conversation at a local level, neighbor to neighbor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the guns\u2019 fault,\u201d resident John Thomas said during public comments prior to the vote. \u201cThe problem\u2019s bigger than an anti-gun proclamation. I really don\u2019t want you speaking for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Braffman and Fetick noted that the resolution respects the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which gives people the right to bear arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to prevent our children from not growing up,\u201d Council member Brenda Mercomes said. \u201cWe\u2019re asking our legislators to do their job.\u201d Council member Doug Doerfler said he supports the resolution but understands the viewpoint of those who don\u2019t want the council to speak for them.<\/p>\n

In other news, the council voted to accept the resignation of former borough solicitor Marc Jonas and agreed to approve William Gallagher from the firm of MacElree Harvey as the interim solicitor. Jonas had resigned in mid-February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Eliza Mohler, Staff Writer, The Times KENNETT SQUARE \u2013 In the wake of recent school shootings in the United States, Kennett Square Borough Council is advocating for stricter gun control legislation. At Monday night\u2019s meeting, they voted unanimously to approve a resolution urging lawmakers to enact stronger protections against gun violence. \u201dThoughts and prayers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3466,7426,3656,10051,90],"class_list":["post-38717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-borough-council","tag-featured","tag-gun-control","tag-gun-violence","tag-kennett-square"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38718,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38717\/revisions\/38718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}