Oct 14, 2018 By Oren Spiegler 3 min read

On Aug. 30, 2016, Washington County resident Tierne Ewing was shot to death by her estranged husband at a time that he was free on bail for having kidnapped and tortured her previously.

On Sept. 19, 2018, an atrocity occurred at an area magistrate’s office when a man who had threatened on multiple occasions to kill his wife and who had a gun opened fire at her and other innocent individuals. If not for the actions of a heroic police officer who killed the gunman, there could have been fatalities and additional injuries.

To her credit, State Senator Camera Bartolotta (R-Carroll Twp.) sponsored legislation “Tierne’s Law,” which is designed to allow judges a greater ability to set appropriate bail for a domestic abuser when a victim faces such danger. The bill passed and has been signed into law by Governor Tom Wolf.

I am grateful to the General Assembly for overwhelmingly passing House Bill 2060, legislation which will require a swifter surrender of firearms from domestic abusers and for their guns no longer to be able to be turned over to family members or friends. The vote was 131-62 in the House, 43-5 in the Senate with some of the most conservative members supporting the measure. Senator Bartolotta was one of the five nay votes.

Senator Bartolotta has sponsored no legislation to my knowledge to curtail the ability for murderous jilted lovers to retain their firearms, enabling them to shoot and kill the targets of their rage.

I strenuously disagree with, but respect my State Representative Tim O’Neal for responding by phone within twenty-four hours to my inquiry about why he voted against the bill in the House. I made multiple contacts with Senator Bartolotta through her website, her e-mail address, and Facebook with no response to date.

Representative O’Neal told me that he struggled with this vote, that although he agrees that we should act to keep firearms out of the hands of abusers, this bill was not, in his view, the way to do it. He said that Constitutional rights (The Second Amendment) and property rights are at issue and that a protection from abuse order is a civil matter. He objected that the bill removes discretion from judges who would now be required to order an abuser to surrender his weapons within twenty-four hours of the appropriate order rather than 60 days as was the case under the prior statute. Representative O’Neal cited his preference for a Senate bill to address the matter, one which he felt did so without the flaws he sees in the measure that passed.

There are limits on every amendment to the Constitution and the Second is no different. Allowing virtually any individual to amass and keep an arsenal is not a “God-given right.” One of the primary functions of government is to facilitate public safety. I find it sad and regrettable that our representatives, faced with one bill which could help to enhance that goal, sided with gun owners and firearms manufacturers rather than the people. I do not know one tells those who have been a victim of gun terrorism that they were not foremost in the minds of our lawmakers.

Oren Spiegler is a resident of South Strabane Township