Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney says he’s ready to not be mayor after years of being ‘worried every day’
After a Fourth of July shooting in Philadelphia that left at least two police officers injured, Mayor Jim Kenney said he’s “worried every day” and cannot wait to be out of office.
“I’m waiting for something bad to happen all the time,” Kenney told reporters Monday night at a press conference following the shooting, according to Fox 29 Philly and to CBS3. “I’ll be happy when I’m not here, when I’m not mayor, and I can enjoy some stuff.”
Kenney mentioned specific events that put him at unease.
“I don’t enjoy the Fourth of July,” Kenney said. “I didn’t enjoy the Democratic National Convention. I didn’t enjoy the NFL Draft. I’m waiting for something bad to happen all the time. I’ll be happy when I’m not here — when I’m not mayor, and I can enjoy some stuff.”
Kenney called out Congress and the legislature for not giving him the “ability to take care of guns,” calling the US “a gun country.”
Another shooting happened Monday, when a gunman opened fire at a parade in a Chicago suburb. Six people died and at least 30 were injured.
President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan gun bill in June, a month following the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 elementary school students and two teachers dead and 17 others injured. The law is one of the most significant gun legislations passed by Congress in 30 years.
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Kenney also called out the Supreme Court, adding that “we have the Supreme Court of the United States telling everybody they can carry a gun wherever they want.”
The Supreme Court in late June struck down a New York law required state residents to have “proper cause” to carry a handgun, a decision that could make it simpler for millions of Americans to arm themselves in public as the nation is reeling from a string of mass shootings.
Contributing: David Jackson, John Fritze