I am so very proud of U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and Pat Toomey for joining the majority in supporting gun reform.

Having a career in serving the mentally ill, I feel it is a wise and healthy move to require background checks for all gun sales — online as well as face to face.

About 88 percent of the people in Pennsylvania, National Rifle Association members included, support the proposed background checks. It’s just common sense.

However, many other (Republican) senators, as well as five Democratic senators, made sure that the background-check legislation did not pass.

Therefore, people should be aware that this state still can pass its own background-checks requirements, and that will be coming up for a vote soon.

Keeping people safe is the goal of background checks.

Pennsylvania residents should call or email their thanks to Casey and Toomey. Then they should call or email their Pennsylvania lawmakers and urge them to support background checks for our state.