by KYW's Tony Hanson
The Pennsylvania House on Monday pass and sent to the state senate a package of prison reform bills that will ease crowding in county prisons by moving more inmates to state facilities. And the House also approved a gun control package that has gotten the full support of the Philadelphia district attorney.
The proposed gun package will increase the penalties for possessing guns with altered serial numbers -- criminals often obliterate the numbers so the guns can't be traced -- and increase the statute of limitations for prosecuting straw purchasers, from a 2-5 years to 10-13 years.
DA Lynn Abraham (at far right in photo):
"So there is going to be a very much elongated period of time when a gun is the subject of a straw purchase used in crime, the police don't find it, it's found many years later. Now we have a much longer statute of limitations to prosecute straw purchasers, including people who try to get guns for other people by fraud."
The proposal also establishes state penalties for lying on federal paperwork to buy a gun, and increases penalty for making false reports of a stolen gun.
DA Abraham was accompanied at Monday's press conference by Philadelphia Police Department deputy commissioner Richard Ross (far left); Shirley Boggs, founder of "Mothers United Through Tragedy," who lost a son to gun violence; and by Pennsylvania House speaker Dennis O'Brien (at lectern).
O'Brien caught some heat last week for voting against a proposal that would have required people to report lost or stolen guns. But he says that measure had flaws: for example, that people might be prosecuted for guns they didn't realize had been stolen. And he says he believes that people have a responsibility to report lost or stolen guns.
The legislation now goes to the Pennsylvania state senate for action.
(Photo: KYW's Tony Hanson)
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