Republican state lawmakers who have tried to impeach Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner as their scapegoat for gun violence, while refusing to consider gun safety laws, meet Kimbrady Carriker.

Police charged Carriker Wednesday with murdering five people in his southwest Philadelphia neighborhood and wounding four others Monday night.

Carriker is a poster child for several of the proposed gun safety laws that Republican majorities repeatedly have deposited in the state Capitol’s dumpster.

He used “ghost guns” for his alleged rampage. Such weapons are sold in pieces. Unlike fully assembled weapons, they do not include serial numbers and are not subject to background checks. Police say Carriker’s weapons were an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle and a handgun, both assembled from kits.

”If he would’ve dropped that weapon and got away, we would’ve had no way to trace that weapon back to him,” Philadelphia Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said.

Yet the Legislature will not outlaw ghost guns, require background checks to buy them, or even require registered serial numbers so that they can be traced. Philadelphia police recovered 575 ghost guns during criminal investigations in 2022.

Carriker also was deeply troubled. He had posted on social media that “evil spirits” were following him. His neighbors told police that he had been agitated in the days before the rampage, shouting biblical passages at all hours of the day and night. And a relative said he had taken to wearing body armor and other tactical equipment, which he also wore during his alleged murder spree.

Yet the Legislature will not approve a “red flag” law, under which relatives or police may remove weapons from a person whom a court, after an evaluation and hearing, deems to be danger to himself or others.

The latest tragedy probably won’t make any difference in Harrisburg — where lawmakers also won’t allow cities to adopt their own gun safety laws — because, you know, Krasner. But at least Da’Juan Brown, 15; Lashyd Merritt, 21; Ralph Moralis, 59; Dymir Stanton, 29; and Joseph Wamah Jr., 31; the murder victims, won’t have to worry about it.

— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre via TNS