Free Republic

Democratic state legislators urged Pittsburghers on Thursday to support a bill that would ban the use of some military-style rifles by everyone except service members and law enforcement personnel. The lawmakers also said hunters in Pennsylvania don’t need the added firepower of semiautomatic rifles, including AR-15-type weapons, even though the Legislature passed a law in 2017 allowing that. The weapons increasingly are being used in mass killings that are “traumatizing today’s children,” said state Rep. Ed Gainey, D-Lincoln-Lemington, at a gathering sponsored by House Democrats at the Carnegie Library in Homewood. He and others called for support of a bill...

CHICAGO — Nearly 100 teens marched outside Chicago police headquarters Thursday night to protest the department''s plans to equip officers with semi-automatic rifles, saying the weapons could make the streets more dangerous. Carrying signs like "Stop the War on Youth," teens said they didn''t trust police with the high-powered weapons and worried gangs would be encouraged to bolster their own arsenals. "The only people who need these guns are in Iraq," said Arthur McGraw, 19, an organizer with the nonprofit Southwest Youth Collaborative, which organized the rally. "It''ll shoot through brick, car doors. Say your family is in the house...