By Kathleen Kane
HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS Op-Ed: The right to own firearms has been the subject of great debate in recent weeks. As Attorney General, I swore an oath to defend the Constitution.
What I did not swear to do, however, was sit silently in my office while classrooms of children are senselessly murdered. I never swore to defend a “right” that permits dangerous criminals or the mentally unstable to obtain a 100-round magazine that can be used to open fire on dozens of innocent moviegoers. The Constitution that I swore to defend is one that protects our families and allows children to feel safe at school, in the movies, and in their neighborhoods.
Senator Toomey must have read and swore the same oath to the same Constitution that I did. He swore an oath to put his constituents’ right to live in safer communities before the rights of partisan politics and well-funded special interest groups. Senator Toomey stood up and proclaimed that 30,000 senseless and unnecessary gun fatalities each year are no longer acceptable. Senator Toomey had the courage to worry more about the lives of the 90 percent of Americans who want to feel safer in their communities than the vocal and unreasonable minority who threaten to block his reelection efforts… (more)
