💌 Love Philly? Sign up for the free Billy Penn newsletter to get everything you need to know about Philadelphia, every day.
At one of Mayor Jim Kenney’s biweekly briefings, when Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw dropped a note that her department was using the “Eddie Eagle” program to teach kids at city rec centers, ears immediately perked up.
Did she really mean Philly police were embracing an initiative created and promoted by the National Rifle Association?
Turns out that yes, she did.
No matter that the NRA had sued Philadelphia in 2015 to stop the city from enacting gun safety laws. No matter that the mayor and other local officials often lamented the NRA’s role in making it harder to get guns off Philly streets.
The gun lobby’s Eddie Eagle videos were being deployed on city property. (On background, leaders at the Department of Parks and Recreation were quick to clarify they had nothing to do with it and no prior knowledge of the program.)
Within 24 hours of Outlaw’s mention, after widespread backlash and reporting on the topic, the PPD announced it was pulling the program.
Score one for the idea to hold those biweekly briefings, which just started a month ago.
