since friday, as in today is monday. unbelievably, the country is on pace for its worst year ever of mass shootings. this according to the gun violence archive. that means at least 246 since the beginning of the year. three-year uptick began in 2019. in 2020, it jumped to 610. and then just last year, we were at 692. but with all those numbers, there s really only one number to keep focusing on. i mean, that s if america wants to do something about these other horrible numbers. and that is the number ten, my friends. what would persuade ten republicans in the 50/50 split senate to sign legislation to reduce gun violence. i didn t say eliminate gun violence. the lawyer in me does not want to lead you astray. how about saving as many innocent lives as possible with some kind of action? whether public defenders in the bipartisan group of negotiators, who s working on a potential deal, said it quite well this morning. there is no one thing that will prevent mass killings. a det
yes, there are challenges excuse me. on that point excuse me. on that point, when you talk about the idea of being a stronger supporter, you have to think about the greater context. you re a former philadelphia mayor. pennsylvania has been far more embracing of it as a concept than maybe other jurisdictions. if you say you can reconcile the two, how can that be? tell me about why you think you can reconcile those two points. of course. you know, pennsylvania, at least in our politics, very, very purple state. but when you look on the other side of pennsylvania, the western side, for instance, and some other parts, but you know, mostly in the west, there is a significant gun culture. that is a culture of families and responsible individuals, traditions, a weapon, a gun being transferred from father or mother to son or daughter with responsibility. those are not the folks that we re worried about because on
the eastern side of the state and other parts of the state, that gun culture is about shooting and killing people. and so reasonable gun regulation, increasing background check, even senator manchin talking about possibly raising the age, but also that we should not have access to ghost weapons, ghost parts, high capacity magazines. again, these are weapons of destruction. they are not for sport. they are not for hunting. as the great tradition is in pennsylvania. so, there is no conflict between the second amendment and the first amendment. this is about weapons that kill and injure people. there are certain weapons you cannot buy even in a second amendment society. you can t buy a machine gun. most people can t. mayor, hold on i want to be clear. i want to be clear. there are two different conversations that are happening, and we re in part having part of them right now. right. on the one hand, there s the idea of hunting and guns as a