Rep. Arvind Venkat (D-McCandless) is an emergency physician who says a safe gun storage law could have prevented the death of a young child his hospital admitted. He spoke alongside other gun-reform advocates outside the Harrisburg Capitol on April 8, 2025.
Tom Reise / 90.5 WESA
Tom Reise / 90.5 WESA
Rep. Arvind Venkat (D-McCandless) is an emergency physician who says a safe gun storage law could have prevented the death of a young child his hospital admitted. He spoke alongside other gun-reform advocates outside the Harrisburg Capitol on April 8, 2025.
More than 100 gun-reform advocates, community leaders and students from across Pennsylvania made a pitch to lawmakers in Harrisburg Tuesday: Enhanced gun-safety laws could prevent 1,600 fatalities annually in Pennsylvania. It’s a case they’ve argued before, but reformers say they haven’t seen much action.
Calise Cowan, a Woodland Hills High School junior, said gun violence claimed her father’s life just weeks ago.
“And if politicians had done what they were supposed to do, if systemic racism wasn’t so normalized … I would still have my father with me,” she said. “And for that, I am and will always be angry.”
The event was led by gun-reform group CeaseFirePA. Democrats in attendance, including North Hills state Rep. Arvind Venkat and House Speaker Joanna McClinton, said the legislature must pass laws, such as safe gun storage requirements, to lessen the impact of gun violence on urban and rural communities alike.
Venkat, of McCandless, still works as an emergency department physician. In his nearly 20 years as a doctor, he said, he’s cried only twice: once when he lost his very first patient, and again when his hospital admitted a 2-year-old child with a fatal, self-inflicted gunshot wound. He said a state law mandating gun owners to store weapons in lockers, or to use cable-locks that keep the weapons from firing, could prevent similar deaths.
“We as a society and as a community have not been willing to do the obvious to take action to address this public health crisis, to recognize that gun violence can be prevented and that we can move forward,” Venkat said.
McClinton said opponents of such bills often offer “thoughts and prayers” after communities experience violence.
“Thoughts and prayers are good, but not good enough,” she said. “We want to save lives.”
State Democrats say they will again seek to pass measures to require universal background checks for gun purchases; establish extreme risk protection orders to temporarily confiscate guns with aims to prevent suicide; crack down on 3D-printed “ghost guns” which are largely untraceable; and ban certain gun conversion devices. Bills to do so have previously died in the legislature, where Democrats hold the House by a one-vote margin and Republicans control the Senate.
Critics of the legislative proposals have long argued that new laws will simply be ignored by criminals, harm law-abiding gun owners, and encroach on Second Amendment rights. They’ve also noted some federal laws already have Pennsylvania covered.
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget proposal for the coming fiscal year seeks a total of $100 million for gun violence prevention, including community-led intervention, support for district attorneys’ investigations, and efforts to address blight.
But the groups assembled Tuesday said the community intervention proposal alone should be at least $100 million. “We know that these strategies actually work,” said Rev. Audrey Scanlan, Bishop of the Central Pa. Diocese. “They curb violence before it begins, before it escalates into losing lives.”
Scanlan cited a March report from CeaseFirePA to argue such programs can have an impact.
“Gun deaths have dropped 38% in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia experienced a 52% decrease in gun violence over the last two years, the lowest levels in a decade,” she said. “And Allegheny County also saw a remarkable drop, reducing gun violence by over 30% in the last two years.”
An increase in funds would help the South Pittsburgh Coalition for Peace, said outreach worker Larry Harris. The organization seeks to mediate disputes that might otherwise lead to violence, and Harris said he’s seen benefits working with high-risk students at Pittsburgh’s Carrick High School.
“A lot of children were getting into skirmishes that were turning into gun violence,” Harris told WESA. “So we’re just trying to disarm the whole situation before it starts.”
But the coalition can only do so much without “firmer gun laws,” Harris added.
“A youth that we worked with was playing with a gun, shot his best friend and killed him,” he said. “We need more education. We need more funding. We want everybody to step up.”
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
