Erie Times-News
A cartoon I like depicts the founders of our democracy writing the Constitution, more specifically, the Second Amendment. The bubble declares “Instead of saying ‘the right of the militia to keep and bear a smooth-bore, single-shot flintlock-based musket’ just say ‘arms’ and they’ll understand.”
But what do we understand? Does “militia” mean designated groups or individuals? Do “arms” include guns, cannons, machine guns, war machines?
According to gunviolencearchive.org, suicides by guns outnumber homicides, and both numbers continue to rise. No matter which source you consult, the conclusion reached is that death by firearms in the U.S. is too high, much higher than in countries like Japan, the United Kingdom, Norway and Australia, where incentives and legislation have been implemented to decrease the number of firearms in citizens’ possession.
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Among many quotes about voting, one made by Dwight Eisenhower in 1949 seems appropriate now: “Our American heritage is threatened as much by our own indifference as it is by the most unscrupulous office or by the most powerful foreign threat. The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.” Or is it in the hands of our legislators?
Pennsylvania Republicans have introduced 14 or more bills to affect your vote in one way or another. These bills, if enacted, would limit a voter’s access to voting by mail, make voter ID stricter, limit successful pro-voter registration policies and make it easier to purge voter rolls.
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Our court system begins at the local level with minor courts. Our statewide court system includes Courts of Common Pleas, Commonwealth Court, Superior Court and at the top, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The judges of these statewide courts are elected in statewide elections.
House Bill 38 is a proposed amendment to our state Constitution that was passed in 2020 and needs passed again this year, then voted on in a statewide referendum. HB 38 proposes to elect judges for our statewide courts by district rather than statewide.