In a surprise to absolutely no one who reads The Philadelphia Inquirer, the editors decided to use the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse to call for more gun control. Frist, Adam Garber, executive director of CeaseFirePA Education Fund, a gun violence prevention advocacy organization, was given OpEd space:

Amid a spike in shootings, Pa. legislators are giving us the kinds of gun laws that we don’t need

Gov. Wolf is expected to veto a bill that would allow state residents to carry concealed handguns without a permit. That the measure made it this far should alarm us all, writes Adam Garber.

by Adam Garber | Monday, November 22, 2021

Each year, roughly 1,500 Pennsylvanians lose their lives to a rapidly rising epidemic of gun violence. In our city, these deaths are hollowing out a generation of Philadelphians with 60% more shooting victims under 18 so far this year than in all of 2019. There isn’t a part of the commonwealth from York to Erie to Pittsburgh that isn’t seeing the same deadly violence. But instead of debating numerous evidence-based solutions, the Pennsylvania General Assembly voted this month to make our commonwealth an even less safe place to live.

Senate Bill 565, known as permitless carry, would allow anyone over age 18 to carry a loaded, concealed handgun in public without a permit.

Let that sink in a minute.

The person next to you on the subway, at the deli counter, or at the grocery store could have a hidden firearm. Such a law would dismantle the existing concealed carry permit process, which includes enhanced safeguards to help law enforcement ensure concealed firearm carriers do not endanger public safety. It would also allow for open carry of a firearm without a permit in the City of Philadelphia.

There’s more at the original, but Mr Garber’s statement that “The person next to you on the subway, at the deli counter, or at the grocery store could have a hidden firearm” ignores the obvious: in the City of Brotherly Love, the person next to you on the subway, at the deli counter, or at the grocery store might already have a concealed firearm, and not give a hoot that he doesn’t have a permit; he has his weapon because he wants his weapon.

Then there is this, from the Editorial Board:

In Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal, a lesson about laws that allow more guns to be carried in public

Advocating for more people to be armed in more situations does nothing to make Pennsylvania safer.

by The Editorial Board | Monday, November 22, 2021

The story of the night of Aug. 25, 2020, in Kenosha, Wis., is the story of an American dystopia — one that is induced by guns and one that Pennsylvania’s Republican lawmakers seemingly want to move the commonwealth closer toward by allowing permitless concealed carry of firearms.

It’s the story of a nation armed to the teeth.

It’s the story of, in the words of the Black sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois, a “double system of justice, which erred on the white side by undue leniency and the practical immunity of red-handed criminals.”

In the midst of a summer marked by Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Kenosha police shot and severely injured Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man. The shooting sparked protests nationwide. Two days after the shooting, Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old white resident of Illinois, arrived in Kenosha armed with an AR-15-style automatic rifle. By night’s end, Rittenhouse had shot three people who’d participated in a protest, killing two.

Another bit of lying by not telling the whole truth. Yes, Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber, and Gaige Grosskreutz “participated in a protest”, but Mr Rittenhouse did not shoot them for “participat(ing) in a protest”; he shot them in self-defense because they chased him down and attacked him! Mr Rittenhouse was legally armed; Mr Grosskreutz, who has a concealed pistol, was not; his concealed carry permit had expired. Mr Rittenhouse was there, with his AR-15, because the Mostly Peaceful Protesters had not been quite so peaceful the previous two nights.

Then again, who knows: perhaps the Editorial Board believe, as David S Cohen seems to imply, that arson is a legitimate part of a “racial justice protest.” The Inquirer did, after all fire get Executive Editor and Senior Vice President Stan Wischnowski to resign over the “Buildings Matter, Too” headline.

In Pennsylvania, there are more than 1,000 people serving life without the possibility of parole despite never having killed anyone — about 70% of them are Black.

Well, that’s true. It is also true that, in 2020, black victims accounted for about 86% of the city’s 499 homicide victims, and 84% of the 2,236 shootings. That 70% of roughly 1,000 people currently serving life without the possibility of parole are black doesn’t seem terribly out of line with the homicide rate among black Philadelphians is so high. The city is just three killings behind 2020’s 499, with five weeks left in the year!

Inquirer reporter Anna Orso reported on a double homicide we mentioned Sunday:

Police are questioning a suspect in the killing of a pregnant woman in Northeast Philadelphia

Authorities said Jessica Covington, 32, was shot multiple times in the head and stomach. Detectives believe she had just left her own baby shower.

by Anna Orso | Monday, November 22, 2021 | Updated: 7:14 PM EST

Philadelphia police were questioning a suspect Monday in the weekend killing of a pregnant woman and her unborn child, but investigators say they were still collecting evidence and charges were not yet filed.

Also see: Killadelphia Update, by Robert Stacy McCain.

Authorities said Jessica Covington, 32, was shot multiple times in the head and stomach just after 8:30 p.m. Saturday on the 6100 block of Palmetto Street in Crescentville, where she lived. Detectives believe she had just left her own baby shower and was unloading gifts from her vehicle when shots rang out.

Joanne Pescatore, assistant supervisor of the homicide and nonfatal shootings unit in the District Attorney’s Office, said Monday that police had identified a suspect, but she would not identify the person or comment on a potential motive. She said investigators had recovered video footage from the block where the shooting occurred, but said several streetlights were out, and the video is “extremely” dark.

Police Chief Inspector Frank Vanore said homicide detectives were conducting “a lot of interviews,” but could not confirm a suspect was among them. He said they were executing search warrants and analyzing other evidence and described the investigation as “very active.”

According to District Attorney Larry Krasner, who said during a news conference that the slaying made him “sick,” it is “very likely” that whoever is charged in connection with the killing will face two counts of murder, one each for the mother and her unborn child. He said homicide detectives “have been working nonstop and doing an amazing job with this case.”

There’s more at the original, including a notation by the reporter that six people had been murdered in Philly over the weekend. According to the Police Department’s Current Crime Statistics page, there had been only five homicides, but perhaps the police were not counting Miss Covington’s unborn child, where Miss Orso, perhaps influenced by Mr Krasner’s statement, did.

But there’s an obvious question for the Editorial Board: do they think that the only reason Miss Covington could be murdered like that was because her killer had a concealed carry permit? If he didn’t have a permit, would that have meant that he wouldn’t have had a gun?

This is the point that seemingly baffles the left. It’s as though they just can’t wrap their heads around the idea that criminals don’t obey the law, and that if someone was willing to go out and deliberately murder Miss Covington and her unborn daughter — remember: she was shot in both the head and the abdomen, so the unborn child was targeted as well — that someone wouldn’t care one bit that he was carrying his firearm illegally.

—————————–

Update: Tuesday, November 23, 2021 at 8:20 AM EST

The Philadelphia Police Department’s morning tally has city homicides up to 497.

In looking at the Inquirer’s website this morning, I found no stories about anyone being murdered in the city yesterday, so it’s possible that the increase to 497 includes Miss Covington’s unborn daughter, but I don’t know that. What I did find was this ending paragraph from an overnight story by Robert Moran:

Gregory Keleman was charged with murder, attempted murder, and unlawful possession of a weapon.

It seems that Mr Keleman, assuming he is guilty of the charges, didn’t care much about not having a permit to carry a weapon. You’d think that the editors of the Inquirer would notice such things, and they would inform their opinions, but if you did think that, you’d apparently be wrong.