Activists Worry Pittsburgh Proposal May Adversely Impact Minorities

By Tom Knighton

Race is probably the one issue that may be bigger than gun control right now in the United States. Despite having elected a black president–twice–there are those who still claim we’re a racist nation and everyone is racist and everything is racist. All the “racial healing” under the Obama Administration, am I right?

Now, the two issues have collided in the debate over Pittsburgh’s proposed gun control, though, as activists worry that it will have an outsized impact on minorities within the city.

Since Pittsburgh’s leaders vowed to pass gun control legislation after the Tree of Life shooting, local debate has largely focused on friction between pro-gun groups and officials hoping to ban assault-style weapons, bump stocks and armor piercing bullets.

But as the bills near a vote at Pittsburgh City Council, Rev. De Neice Welch, president of the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network, explains a far different concern.

“Any ordinance like this… always lands on the backs of young African-Americans,” Welch said broadly about gun control laws. “Always.”

She generally supports gun control measures after the Oct. 27 mass shooting that left 11 people dead in a Squirrel Hill synagogue. Welch’s concerns about over-policing are based on scenarios where police across …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms