A fiery state House debate over a gun bill on Wednesday turned into a close-range shouting matching that included a comment that was taken as a threat and as a racial epithet, according to lawmakers who witnessed the events.

The fight over gun legislation was the most raucous in recent memory, to the point that House Speaker Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, closed the session by admonishing her colleagues and suggesting that some of their behavior had crossed the line from legislative debate into unlawful threats.

“While information is still being gathered, and from this seat I cannot hear what insults and slurs are said across the aisle to each other, let me remind each of you – if you make threats, that could be a crime,” McClinton said. “Our neighbors did not send us here for us to h

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