On December 14, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto stood with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and fellow city councilors Corey O’Connor and Erika Strassburger in City Hall and declared war on guns. The trigger for this war was the horrendous shooting that had taken place at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s historically Jewish, but currently diverse Squirrel Hill neighborhood on October 27. Robert Bowers, the person police captured for killing 11 people at the synagogue, was arraigned on February 11 on a 63-count indictment that includes hate crimes, obstructing religious freedom rights, homicide, and firearms charges. And it’s because of this mass shooting that Mayor Peduto wants Pittsburgh to lead a movement of cities across the state and the nation to pass strict gun control measures, despite the steep legal hurdles around gun rights created by the state and federal constitutions.
To that end Peduto is standing behind three ordinances currently pending in Pittsburgh’s city council that would ban assault weapons; ban ammunition, accessories, and gun modifications for semi-automatic guns; and create an “extreme risk protection order”—sometimes called a “red flag” system—to seize guns from people who could cause harm to themselves or others.
