HARRISBURG -- A lot of political heavy hitters, guys like Gov. Ed Rendell, Philadelphia's outgoing Mayor John Street and incoming Mayor Michael Nutter, state Rep. Dan Frankel and a dozen of his colleagues, plus two dozen uniformed police officers, came to the Capitol yesterday to insist that lawmakers move more quickly on three bills to control the sale of handguns.

The speeches went on for more than an hour, but everyone stopped talking and listened when the Hacke family of West Mifflin -- Tom and Mary Beth, and their three young children, Matthew, Tyler and Sarah -- stepped forward to the microphone.

The two young boys held a framed photo of their other brother, Ryan Hacke, who died on Jan. 11, 1997, when a gunman's errant bullet struck him as he sat in his car seat in the back of his dad's car, as it waited at a traffic light in Homestead.

Ryan was only 14 months old when he died.

"Ryan, who we miss every waking and sleeping second, was violently taken from us by a criminal who never should have been able to get his hands on a handgun, but who did," Mrs. Hacke recalled in an emotional voice. "The pain is etched in our hearts forever."

Mr. Hacke said he had just pulled out of a gasoline station and was waiting at the light when for some awful reason, someone at the gas station started firing a semiautomatic handgun.

"Never in my wildest nightmares could I have imagined anything so horrible could happen to us," Mrs. Hacke said.

"But because it is easy for bad people to get handguns in this state, it did."

Mr. Rendell, the former mayor of Philadelphia, which had more than 400 gun-related killings last year and is approaching 400 this year, said something must be done, and soon, to curb handgun violence.

"There are some political risks in doing the right thing," Mr. Rendell told legislators. "But the time has come to say enough is enough."

Three bills he and other gun control advocates support are hung up in the House Judiciary Committee, however, with legislators opposing the measures so as not to upset their hunting and target-shooting constituents or the powerful National Rifle Association. Gun owners say the Second Amendment to the Constitution upholds their right to bear arms and the Legislature shouldn't infringe on that.

Even a number of conservative House Democrats, especially from Western and Central Pennsylvania, have said their constituents are responsible gun owners and don't need Harrisburg telling them what to do. They have encouraged their leadership to deal with legislation they consider more important, like tax reform.

One of the three bills would limit gun buyers to buying one handgun a month. Rifles and shotguns wouldn't be affected.

Mr. Rendell said a recent poll showed that 61 percent of respondents favored such a law, including a lot of gun owners, but legislators are still afraid to enact it.

Another bill would require gun owners to report to police within 24 hours if a handgun is lost or stolen. Mr. Rendell said this would cut down on "straw purchasers," people without criminal records who buy guns and then sell them to people with criminal records, who pay in cash or illegal drugs.

The third bill would let cities and towns enact their own gun control laws even if they are tougher than state law. Now, only the Legislature can enact gun laws. Philadelphia is especially interested in passing its own laws.

Some legislators contend that the problems with illegal guns is mostly "a Philadelphia problem," but Mr. Rendell said that isn't true. Gun violence is up in many towns, including Pittsburgh, Reading, Bethlehem, Allentown, Pottsville, Erie and Williamsport, the governor said.

Some gun advocates said what is needed are tougher prosecutors and tougher sentences for criminals who commit crimes with guns. But Mr. Rendell said sentences are becoming tougher, noting that the state prison population has risen from 36,000 to 45,000 in the past 10 years. The present population is 5,000 over capacity of state prisons.

Mr. Frankel said much work still needs to be done to convince recalcitrant legislators that handgun violence is a serious problem around the state.

Further action in the Judiciary Committee probably won't occur before February.

Mr. Rendell said he would keep hammering on this issue. He said he agreed with Phil Goldsmith, president of CeaseFire PA, who said, "We are not going away."