Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania can't stop young adults from openly carrying guns during emergencies, U.S. court rules

Published

6 months ago

January 19, 2024

Pennsylvania can't stop young adults from openly carrying guns during emergencies, U.S. court rules

Young adults in Pennsylvania cannot be arrested for openly carrying guns in public during a declared state of emergency, at least while a court fight over the issue plays out, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit judges, in a 2-1 decision, relied on the U.S. Supreme Court’s influential so-called Bruen decision to find that 18- to 20-year-olds enjoy the same Second Amendment rights as other citizens, just as they do the right to vote.

The panel meanwhile revived the lawsuit that challenges the Pennsylvania ban, which a district judge had dismissed.

“We understand that a reasonable debate can be had over allowing young adults to be armed, but the issue before us is a narrow one,” U.S. Circuit Court Judge Kent A. Jordan wrote. “Our question is whether the (state police) commissioner has borne his burden of proving that evidence of founding-era regulations supports Pennsylvania’s restriction on 18-to-20- year-olds’ Second Amendment rights, and the answer to that is no.”

The case is one of many filed around the country by gun rights groups that seek to chip away at gun control measures passed by state and local lawmakers.

The Bruen decision said that judges, to uphold the bans, must look to the nation’s history and tradition when evaluating gun control measures. Courts have since struck down restrictions involving domestic abusers, nonviolent felons, marijuana users and others.

U.S. Circuit Judge Felipe Restrepo, in a dissent, said he did not believe the 19th century founding fathers considered people under 21 to have full legal rights.

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Pennsylvania

Biden makes campaign stop at Northwest Philly church

Published

2 hours ago

July 7, 2024

Press Room

Biden makes campaign stop at Northwest Philly church

‘We thank God’

Morris founded Mt. Airy Church of God in Christ in 1966. It has since grown in size and influence, becoming an important and iconic place of worship for the region. Fenton, who watched Martin Luther King Jr. give his famous “Mountaintop” speech when he was 11 years old, now runs the congregation and often invokes King in his sermons, including Sunday’s.

Parishioner Handsome Newton called the event “an amazing experience.”

“It’s something that’s surreal and something that some people have never gotten to experience in their lifetime,” he told WHYY News. “This is something I’m going to tell my grandkids and great-grandkids about one day.”

Newton downplayed Biden’s age, adding, “I don’t care what people said about the debate. He actually spoke extremely well today and I was blessed to be here.”

Zetta Butler, another parishioner, called Biden’s visit “God’s given gift to the church.”

“We’re seeing so much evil that goes on in the world,” she said. “This is a man of integrity and we are so proud to have him here with us today of all days, any day. I know the election is coming up and we’re going to vote for him. He’s going to be a second-term president, and so we thank God for him and everyone.”

Down in Pennsylvania

While Biden has made Pennsylvania a regular stop in his drive for a second term, this was his first visit since the debate for which his performance has given many Democrats — including prominent elected officials — cause for concern about his ability to win the election.

Earlier in the day, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, a Democrat, told MSNBC that Biden’s TV appearance did not assuage those concerns.

The first major post-debate poll, by Bloomberg, shows Biden moved up in every swing state except Pennsylvania, where he is now down seven points — well outside the margin of polling error. With 19 electoral votes, the Keystone State may be essential to any hope for victory.

In particular, polling suggests Biden is down among Black voters in Pennsylvania and around the country. Whereas he received 92% of the Black vote in 2020, only 50% of Black voters in Pennsylvania say they would vote for him today.

Therefore, the trip to the Church of God in Christ appears to be a strategy to try to win some of those votes back.

“Black history is American history,” the president said at the church.

Fenton noted that Biden’s visit would be reported as such an attempt, saying, “I know the media says President Biden is visiting a Black church. There’s nothing on our program that says a Black church.”

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Pennsylvania

Biden to campaign in battleground Pennsylvania as Democrats mull his candidacy

Published

9 hours ago

July 7, 2024

Press Room

Biden to campaign in battleground Pennsylvania as Democrats mull his candidacy

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) – An increasingly embattled U.S. President Joe Biden will hit the campaign trail in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Sunday, as House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries meets with senior House Democrats to discuss the president’s candidacy.

Biden, 81, facing growing calls from fellow Democrats to end his re-election campaign after a halting performance in a June 27 debate with Republican Donald Trump, 78, has vowed to stay in the race and win the Nov. 5 presidential election.

The president is struggling to put down a slow-boil uprising among some congressional Democrats and some influential donors who fear he lacks the capacity to defeat Trump in light of the debate. A much-anticipated interview with ABC News did little to put those concerns to rest.

Biden kept a low profile on Saturday, attending a church service in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, accompanied only by his sister and key adviser, Valerie Biden Owens.

In Friday’s interview, Biden said only the “Lord Almighty” could persuade him to drop out, dismissing the prospect that Democratic leaders could join forces to try to talk him into standing down. He spoke with the national co-chairs of his campaign on Saturday, the White House said, without providing any details.

On Sunday, Biden will address a Black church service in northwest Philadelphia before traveling to the state capital, Harrisburg, for a community organizing event with union members and local Democrats, his campaign said.

Pennsylvania is one of the half-dozen or so states that can swing Democratic or Republican, which are expected to determine the outcome of what has been a tight race.

He will be joined during the day by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis, U.S. Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and other elected and community leaders, it said.

The trip is part of a July voter outreach blitz by the Democratic Party that includes a $50 million paid media campaign aimed at events such as Olympic Games and travel by Biden, his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband to every battleground state.

The campaign said it aims to have volunteers and staff knock on more than 3 million voters’ doors in July and August.

It will be Biden’s 10th visit to Pennsylvania during the 2024 election cycle.

Pressure from Congress seems likely to ramp up in the coming days as lawmakers return to Washington from a holiday recess, and donors mull their willingness to keep funding his campaign.

The political crisis is unfolding as Biden prepares to host dozens of world leaders at a high-stakes NATO summit in Washington and hold a rare solo news conference.

Five U.S. lawmakers have called for Biden to end his re-election bid, including Representative Angie Craig of Minnesota, the first Democratic member of the House of Representatives from a battleground district, with others said poised to join in.

“Given what I saw and heard from the President during last week’s debate in Atlanta, coupled with the lack of a forceful response from the President himself following that debate, I do not believe that the President can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump,” Craig, a top 2024 target of House Republican efforts, posted on X.

Two letters are circulating among House Democrats calling for Biden to step aside, House Democratic sources have said. Many of those lawmakers had been waiting to see the ABC News interview before moving forward.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia was contacting some fellow Democratic senators to invite them to a possible meeting on Monday to discuss Biden’s campaign. Biden told reporters he had spoken with 20 congressional Democrats, who urged him to stay on, and said knew of no senators ready to join Warner.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Wilmington; Editing by William Mallard)

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