HARRISBURG — A proposal to require handgun owners to report to police when their weapons are lost or stolen was defeated Tuesday in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

The 75-128 vote was a setback for gun-control advocates who said it would have helped prevent criminals from using straw buyers to circumvent Pennsylvania's gun sales regulations.

"Seventy-five is great, on one hand," Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, said afterward. "The reality is, we want to have a law on the books."

Twenty Republicans voted for the measure — all from Philadelphia or its suburbs — and 81 were against it. Fifty-five Democrats supported it and 47 voted no.

FOLSOM — A county councilman and another man shopping in a drugstore are being credited by police with saving the store manager from a shoplifter wielding a box cutter.Delaware County Council Vice Chairman Jack Whelan stopped in at the CVS on Sunday to pick up a few things. Gene Whelan, who is not related, was shopping for candy with his wife and daughter.The two waded in after the manager tried to stop a suspected shoplifter who threatened him with a box cutter, wrestling with the assailant on the floor and disarming him.Cebrian Spence, 49, was charged with criminal attempted homicide, felony retail theft and aggravated assault and sent to the county prison in lieu of $500,000 bail.

BEDFORD — A Bedford County man has been charged in the bludgeoning death of his father.Authorities say 29-year-old Harold Turner struck his father, 60-year-old Harold Turner, on the head Monday morning with a long-handled, wood-splitting hammer.Police say the two had been arguing at the family home in Southampton Township.Police say the son took $400 from his mother and fled in the family car. Authorities say he drove to Summit County, Ohio, where he surrendered to authorities Monday afternoon.