Republicans stop Democrats push for more gun control in Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG - The state House, dominated by members from rural areas where hunting is a way of life and the Second Amendment is sacrosanct, resoundingly rejected a series of gun-control measures yesterday, including one that would have allowed Philadelphia to enact its own firearms laws.

Representatives ended the second day of a special informal session on anticrime bills yesterday afternoon without considering the most controversial proposal: to limit handgun purchases statewide to one a month.

That idea likely will come to a vote when the session - convened as a way to gauge support for gun-control legislation through a series of straw votes - is scheduled to reconvene Tuesday. In the end, whatever was approved yesterday will have to be reconsidered in the formal legislative process later.

Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.) said that despite the defeats of several controversial proposals - and the expected failure of one-handgun-a-month - he was pleased that so many anticrime measures were at long last debated on the House floor. . . .