Rally for Tougher Gun Laws Held in Easton

Congress may be on its Easter/Passover recess, but the group Mayors Against Illegal guns doesn't want it to catch a break.

On Thursay, MAIG and Organizing For Action led a series of 100 rallies around the country asking people to contact their legislators to get them to support stronger gun laws.

One of those rallies happened in Easton's Centre Square, where Easton Mayor Sal Panto told supporters current background check laws are "milquetoast" regulations that overlook things like gun shows.

"You get a job today, you get a background check," Panto said. "You rent an apartment, you get a background check."

Yet more than six million guns were sold with no background checks last year, the mayor said.

MAIG also wants Congress to make gun trafficking a federal crime and ban high capacity magazines and assault weapons.

The event—the National Day to Demand Action—was billed as the largest gun violence advocacy event in history, and drew people from around the Lehigh Valley.

At the end, the crowd of a few dozen people were given petitions to sign and send to U.S. senators Pat Toomey and Bob Casey.

In an email sent prior to the event, local organizer Gloria McVeigh said Hellertown and Lower Saucon Township members of Organizing For Action would be among those distributing the petitions and carrying signs, which bore slogans such as "RIP Your Child's Name Here" and "Gun Violence Against Children is Not a Family Value."

One of the people holding signs was Kristen Bruck of Center Valley, who joined a group called "Moms Demand Action" after the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Bruck said it's important to find a way to uphold the Second Amendment and still have "responsible" gun laws.

"If we can put limits on the First Amendment, we can put limits on the Second Amendment," she said.

Many of the speakers Thursday stressed they weren't targeting lawful gun owners.

"The operative word is 'illegal,'" Panto said when speaking of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Fountain Hill Mayor Jose Rosado said he was speaking as both a goverment official and an educator when he said anyone could be "in the wrong place at the wrong time:" students at school, people on front porches, an audience at a movie theater.

"It's not a matter of if, but when," another gun killing happens, Rosado said.

Also speaking Thursday were Easton Area School Board member Frank Pintabone, Bethlehem City Councilman and mayoral hopeful Willie Reynolds, and Easton City Councilman Ken Brown, who said the issue transcends the boundaries of city and borough.

"We're tired of picking up the paper, and seeing that someone's life has been taken too early," Brown said. "We're speaking as a full voice."

Easton recorded six homicides in 2012, four of them involving guns.