Pennsylvania lawmakers defeat gun control measures

HARRISBURG, Penn. (Reuters) - Pennsylvania state lawmakers rejected two gun-control measures on Tuesday in a rebuff for Gov. Ed Rendell, who argued passionately for approval after a spate of shootings of police officers.

The House Judiciary Committee defeated one bill that would have limited handgun purchases to one per person per month and another to allow Philadelphia and other cities to make their own gun laws independently of the state.

The vote by the Democratic-controlled panel was the latest defeat for gun-control advocates in a largely rural state that has a quarter of a million members of the National Rifle Association, America's biggest gun-rights lobby.

Rendell later said the legislators were out of touch with public opinion and had been "brainwashed" by the NRA.

Reacting to a news report that the committee handed him a "stinging rebuke," Rendell told reporters: "If this is a stinging rebuke to anyone, it's a stinging rebuke to the people of Pennsylvania."

Pennsylvania has some of the country's loosest gun laws and would have vaulted to the forefront of gun-control states if the measures had passed.

The state does not require a license for a handgun, allows gun owners to carry concealed weapons, and places no limits on the ownership of assault weapons such as AK47s.

But the panel did approve another measure that would impose a minimum 20-year prison sentence on anyone who fires on a police officer, and deferred action on a plan to require the reporting of lost or stolen guns.

Rendell, a Democrat, argued for the bills after six Philadelphia police officers were shot, one fatally, in the past six weeks.

"If you don't act now, we will have more illegal handguns, more shootings, and more police deaths," he told the hearing.

CITY VS. STATE AUTHORITY

Gun-control advocates want tighter laws in the city, where handguns were used in nearly all the 406 homicides last year, the most in nine years.

The advocates say Philadelphia, which has the highest per-capita homicide rate among the 10 biggest U.S. cities, should be allowed to make its own gun laws rather than be subject to state laws.

Those laws are heavily influenced by rural constituencies where gun owners argue that their right to bear arms is protected by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Rendell rejected NRA arguments that gun crime can be controlled by tougher law enforcement.

"It hasn't worked for one simple reason: there are too many handguns out there," the governor said.

He said he knew the bills would fail but addressed the panel anyway because "the movement needed galvanizing."

Leaders in surrounding states, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have called for tighter gun control in Pennsylvania because many weapons acquired there are used by criminals across state lines.

Rep. Todd Rock, a Pennsylvania Republican who voted against the bills, said stricter laws would not reduce urban violence. "Guns are not the problem," he said. "It's the people holding the guns that are the problem," he said.

(Editing by David Storey)