It should come as no surprise that Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney's executive order banning guns and other deadly weapons at city recreation centers and playgrounds did nothing to prevent a 14-year-old boy from getting murdered Tuesday after a football scrimmage outside Roxborough High School.
While Kenney's executive order — which was announced hours before the shooting — was well intended, it underscores the meager gun safety tools public officials have in a country (and state) that has been hijacked by the gun lobby and a perverted interpretation of the Second Amendment. As a result, Philadelphians are left defenseless by Pennsylvania's absurd preemption law that prevents local governments from implementing their own gun safety measures.
At the federal level, mostly Republican lawmakers have refused for decades to implement basic gun safety measures, while conservatives on the Supreme Court have placed gun rights above human life.
