An 18-year-old Pennsylvania man allegedly shot and killed a Temple University police officer near the school’s Philadelphia, PA campus on Saturday night.
The officer was on the job and tried to intervene in a carjacking when the shooting occurred. He later died in the hospital.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney held a press conference to discuss the tragedy that occurred on the Temple University campus.
Now he’s facing criticism for pushing for gun control following his words of condolence to the officer’s family.
“It is simple, too easy to access weapons in our state and in our region. And that turns too many confrontations into fatal encounters, like an argument over a parking space. We are fighting an uphill battle and it doesn’t have to be this way. I will continue to call on state lawmakers for sensible gun reforms that will protect our city’s residents, including the brave men and women who have taken an oath to protect the peace,” Kennedy said.
He added, “You can say you back the blue but if you don’t back gun control and gun availability, you don’t back the blue. We owe it to them to do everything we can to stop this nonsense and stop this tragedy.”
Gun control might be a great way to end endless killings if you ignore the fact that criminals don’t obey gun laws. Or the fact that some people have no regard for human life and will find another way to kill someone.
The reactions abound on Twitter.
“while wearing a Ukraine pin,” author Michael Malice tweeted.
“Empty suit mayor who brought back 90s crime rates to his city wearing a Ukraine pin blaming a police officer being killed by a thug on everybody but himself. Basically the perfect image of today’s liberal politicians,” X Strategies senior digital strategist Greg Price wrote.
A Florida State Board of Education member compared the mayor’s remarks to the ones in his own state following an unthinkable tragedy, “The sounds of a failed mayor looking to blame cast for rising crime under his watch. We heard similar noises from officials in Broward after Parkland.”
Heritage Legal Fellow Amy Swearer shared her thoughts saying, “Actually, ‘cops shouldn’t be murdered in cold blood’ is perfectly consistent with ‘and neither should anyone else, which is why peaceable citizens also have a right to keep and bear arms in their own defense – a right which your gun control would almost certainly infringe.’”
The mayor compared Pennsylvania to nearby states. He said, “If you look at the state of New Jersey, the state of New York, and the city of New York, they border us, don’t have the problems that we have. This is a gun-crazy state.”
Kenney took another shooting incident to trash the Second Amendment last summer. Following a shooting that took place in Philadelphia on the Fourth of July, Kenney disparaged 2A and the U.S. Supreme Court for “telling everybody they can carry a gun wherever they want. “
Taking guns away from law-abiding citizens isn’t going to solve the problem. In a perfect world, nobody would need guns, but unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world.
