Philadelphia Mayor Parker signs 3 public safety bills, including ban on bump stocks

This story originally appeared on 6abc.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker signed three bills on Tuesday, saying the new laws will help increase public safety in the city.

The first bill signed will ban bump stocks and other devices that increase a gun’s rate of fire.

“We’ve referred to it as the gun switch bill,” said Mayor Parker.

The bill comes on the heels of several high-profile shootings involving devices that effectively turn a gun into a fulling automatic weapon.

“Do you remember the shooting where we had eight young people shot? Guess what was attached to that glock? One of these switches,” said Adam Geer, Philadelphia’s public safety director.

Geer was referring to a shooting on March 6 when eight kids were shot at a SEPTA bus stop in Burholme. More than 30 bullets were fired in that incident.

“When we have these devices floating around Philadelphia, called switch devices, which can turn a handgun into a machine gun, there is no time to rest,” said Mayor Parker.

However, last week the United States Supreme Court reversed a Trump-era ban on bump stocks. The executive director of Ceasefire PA, Adam Garber, insisted that the decision doesn’t undermine this new law.

“Legislative authority to ban these, and other forms of accessories, is totally legal,” said Garber.

The mayor also signed a bill that will allow speed cameras to be installed along Broad Street.

“When we talk about a safer Philly, we want the public to know that traffic is part of that,” said Mayor Parker.

The city is taking lessons learned from the speed cameras along Roosevelt Boulevard and putting them to use on Broad Street. Officials said at least 50 lives have been saved in the years since cameras were installed on the Boulevard, and moving violations dropped by 95%. Bidding is already underway on the cameras and they will be paid for with parking fines.

The third bill signed will create a licensing process for officers to evict someone in Philadelphia. The requirements include nearly 200 hours of training.

“Any entity carrying out an eviction will have the proper training to do so,” said Parker.