In saying that it's easier to get a gun in Pennsylvania than in neighboring states, Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney recently suggested that firearm sales in the state should be regulated just like the sale of alcohol.
"If we control guns like we control the sale of liquor and wine, we'd be in much better shape than we are now. It's ridiculous," said Kenney.
Addressing the media during a press conference Tuesday to discuss the tragic killing of Temple University police officer Christopher Fitzgerald, Kenney called Pennsylvania a 'gun-crazy state.'
"This is a gun-crazy state," said Kenney. "There's too many and they're too easy to get."
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The mayor explained how controlled alcohol sales are in the state with a story of a recent trip to the suburbs where he watched a man "who looked like he was seventy or eighty years old," who, Kenney said, was buying eight bottles of wine.
The man, Kenney recalled, was asked to present ID in order to buy the alcohol and he needed to take two trips to his car, because he was only allowed to buy four bottles from the store at a time.
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Going further, Kenney said he doesn't believe that the founding fathers considered AR-15s and semi-automatic weapons when drafting the second amendment.
"This second amendment stuff is all about money," said the mayor. "All the problems that we deal with in society -- whether it's gun violence or opioids or heroin -- it's all about money. It's about the gun manufactures and the gun dealers and, conning people that somehow limiting that is against their Constitutional rights."
He concluded his comments by calling for state and federal legislators to "do something" to limit sales of guns in Pennsylvania.
