Yes, there are vocal oponents, but Gun Control is not a killer issue for Dems...

"I'd rather be on the NRAenemies list like most of the good people in America"

It's a slippery slope soon the gun pushers will be selling cop killer DU bullets

HARRISBURG -- Even though he went 0 for 3 on major gun-control bills yesterday, Gov. Ed Rendell refused to concede defeat and insisted the fight has just begun to limit handgun purchases and require gun owners to report lost or stolen guns.

He said that rising gun violence in towns across Pennsylvania "has got to stop." He talked to reporters several hours after the House Judiciary Committee rejected two gun-control bills and tabled a third indefinitely.

"How many police officers have to become target practice before it stops?" he asked in an emotional voice. "I have sympathy for legislators. I know they're under a lot of pressure. The National Rifle Association is a machine, but it's time to say 'no' to the gun lobbyists."

The Judiciary Committee did give overwhelming approval to a fourth bill, but it wasn't controversial. It calls for a mandatory 20-year jail sentence for anyone convicted of intentionally shooting at a police officer -- even if the officer wasn't hit.

Mr. Rendell, a former mayor of Philadelphia, where six police officers have been shot recently, one fatally, insisted that he and other gun-control advocates "are not going away. It's the will of the people to get these bills out of committee and onto the floor for a vote. I would love to have success on this as governor in the next three years, but if it doesn't happen until I am Citizen Rendell, that's fine. We are going to win."

As a step in waging the battle, he said a major gun-control rally is planned for the Capitol Dec. 10. "Mayors and people from all over the state will be here, to demand that the House and Senate have the gumption to vote on these bills."

One bill would limit gun buyers to purchasing just one handgun a month. The bill was defeated 17 to 12.

Another bill would have allowed towns and cities to enact their own guns laws, tougher than state law. That bill was defeated by 19 to 10.

The committee then tabled the measure that would have required gun owners to report to police within 24 hours any gun that was lost or stolen.

Principles that Obama supports on gun issues:
Ban the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons.
Increase state restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms.
Require manufacturers to provide child-safety locks with firearms.

http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Barack_Obama_Gun_Control.htm

Most of the "shall issue" states are in the South, which have higher violent crime rates (though there is no evidence this is related to gun carry laws). If we're talking about states where there is NO right to concealed carry AT ALL for private citizens, Illinois is the only one I'm aware of in that category (along with D.C.)-- but several of the "may issue" states, like Mass., have very, very restrictive (and often discriminatory, in practice at least) laws for concealed carry.

By Mr. Shannon, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 1384) of Charles E. Shannon, Timothy J. Toomey, Jr., David P. Linsky and Paul J. Donato for legislation relative to the possession of a machete. Public Safety and Homeland Security


The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
In the Year Two Thousand and Five.
AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE POSSESSION OF A MACHETE

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1.

Subsection (b) of section 10 of chapter 269 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2002 Official Edition is hereby amended by inserting after the word “inches”, in line 67, the following word:- , machete.

SECTION 2. Said subsection (b) of said section 10 of said chapter 269, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by adding the following paragraph:-

For purposes of this section, “machete” means “a heavy knife at least 18 inches in length and having a blade at least 1.5 inches wide at its broadest measurement. This subsection shall not apply to carrying a machete on one’s person or in a vehicle if the machete is carried for the purpose of cutting vegetation or if the machete is being transported for the purpose of cutting vegetation. In a prosecution of a violation of this subsection, there shall be a permissible inference that such carrying of a machete is not for the purposes of cutting vegetation. Such presumption may be rebutted.

Any individual who requires a machete for the purposes of cutting vegetation shall register the machete with the local police department on an annual basis and, upon payment of an appropriate annual registration fee as determined by the local granting authority, shall be issued a permit authorizing him to possess the machete solely for the purposes of cutting vegetation.