HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County commissioner raised questions Tuesday about the timing of a proposed resolution declaring the county to be supportive of Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.

Commissioner Laura Burke acknowledged during the board’s weekly meeting that Chairman Bruce Erb spoke of the proposed resolution before last week’s shooting death of 15-year-old Devon Pfirsching of Altoona allegedly during an attempted robbery by three fellow teenagers.

Burke, at Tuesday’s commissioners meeting, shared an emailed letter from Altoona Area High School teacher Erin Dunkle, who described the timing of the resolution as terrible.

“Our community is still mourning,” Burke said as she read what Dunkle wrote. “Four sets of parents have lost their children — literally and figuratively. Hundreds of teachers and students are still trying to cope with the trauma of this loss.”

Arrested and facing murder charges in adult court are Owen Scott Southerland, 15, Logan C. Persing, 16, and Damien A. Green, 15, all of Altoona and students at Altoona High.

Erb explained to those at the meeting, including local residents and members of the Blair County Tea Party who criticized the proposed resolution as falling short of Second Amendment protection, that the resolution is subject to review during the coming week.

The vote on the resolution, Erb said, wouldn’t be taken until next week’s meeting.

Commissioner Amy Webster said Tuesday that she would be inclined to vote in favor, even though it’s not as strong as some residents desire.

“It is a step forward,” Webster said of the resolution.

As written, the resolution indicates that the county’s commissioners board is expressing its “deep commitment” to the rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. It also expresses the board’s opposition to any law found unconstitutional under the Second Amendment and efforts to unconstitutionally restrict such rights.

Erb acknowledged that he offered the resolution in response to requests for Blair County to declare itself a Second Amendment Sanctuary. As advocated by gun rights groups, such a declaration typically involves adoption of an ordinance in support of gun rights, with fines and punishments for violators.

Erb said the state precludes counties and other local governments from adopting laws concerning firearms, which is why he chose to propose a resolution.

A resolution, he said, reflects “the conscience and thoughts of the Blair County commissioners.”

Burke said that, in addition to the emailed letter from the high school teacher, she had an additional six letters with commentary on the subject.

Messages within the letters, she said after the commissioners meeting concluded, indicated that the commissioners should spend their time on fiscal issues. She said the letter writers also asked how much time commissioners will spend on future efforts to protect the First Amendment, the Third Amendment, the Eighth Amendment and so forth.

“I think we’re opening up ourselves to other resolutions like this, that also aren’t in our purview,” Burke told her fellow commissioners during the meeting.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.