City of Philadelphia - File #: 040390

• File #: 040390
• Version: 0
• Type: Resolution
• Status: ADOPTED
• File created: 4/15/2004
• In control: CITY COUNCIL
• Final action: 4/15/2004
• Title: Calling on and urging the 108th United States Congress, the Senatorial and Congressional representatives of the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to move forthwith to enact, for the President of the United States to sign, legislation that would reauthorize, strengthen and make permanent the current ten year federal ban on military-style assault weapons that is set to expire in September 2004.
• Sponsors: Councilmember Clarke, Councilmember Miller, Councilmember Kelly, Councilmember Reynolds Brown, Councilmember Goode, Councilmember Rizzo, Councilmember Ramos, Councilmember Blackwell, Councilmember Mariano, Councilmember DiCicco, Councilmember O'Neill, Councilmember Krajewski, Councilmember Kenney, Councilmember Tasco, Councilmember Nutter, Councilmember Cohen, Council President Verna
• Indexes: WEAPONS

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Tally
4/15/2004	0	CITY COUNCIL	ADOPTED
4/15/2004	0	CITY COUNCIL	READ
4/15/2004	0	CITY COUNCIL	Introduced	Pass

Title
Calling on and urging the 108th United States Congress, the Senatorial and Congressional representatives of the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to move forthwith to enact, for the President of the United States to sign, legislation that would reauthorize, strengthen and make permanent the current ten year federal ban on military-style assault weapons that is set to expire in September 2004.
Body

WHEREAS, The federal assault weapons ban - prohibiting the sale and manufacture of certain military-style weapons and ammunition clips - was passed by Congress as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, and was signed into law by President Clinton on September 13, 1994; and

WHEREAS, Military-style assault weapons are guns designed and manufactured for the sole purpose of killing the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time possible, and are the guns of choice for criminals, enabling them to commit some of America's deadliest crimes - including bank robberies, drug and gangland warfare, schoolyard massacres, serial sniper attacks, and police ambushes; and

WHEREAS, The safety of America's law enforcement officers is significantly threatened by military-style assault weapons, because they have been used to slay at least one in five officers acting in the line of duty between 1998 and 2001, according to FBI statistics, and reauthorization is supported by every major law enforcement organization in the United States; and

WHEREAS, A recent study by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence shows that the assault weapons specifically banned in the Enforcement Act have decreased in overall crime gun traces by 66 percent since the statute was enacted; and

WHEREAS, The United States Congress in 1994, recognized the grave threat to public and law enforcement safety posed by the unrestricted availability of military-style assault weapons, banned the man...