HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (PNN) - March 4, 2015 - The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has long prohibited towns and cities from enforcing local firearm ordinances that impact the ownership, possession, transfer or transport of guns or ammo.
But gun-rights groups have long complained that scores of municipalities ignored the 40-year-old prohibition by passing their own, piecemeal gun control enactments, which rarely got tested in court.
So a new state law went into effect in Pennsylvania at the start of the year, making it easier for gun-rights groups to challenge such illegal local ordinances.
It seems to be working. Nearly two dozen Pennsylvania municipalities have agreed to get rid of their illegal ordinances rather than face litigation, reports Joshua Prince, an attorney for four pro-gun-rights groups, who cited the new law in putting nearly 100 Pennsylvania municipalities on notice that they would face legal action unless they rescinded their gun edicts.
At least 22 of those municipalities have already repealed them, or indicated they plan to do so, according to Prince.
Under the new state law, gun owners no longer have to prove they’ve been harmed by the local measure. Instead, “membership organizations” like the National Rifle Association can stand in to sue on behalf of any Pennsylvania member, seeking damages.
The Reading City Council indicated in January it intended to repeal laws that ban firing weapons within city limits and require owners to report lost or stolen weapons. Officials said the city couldn’t afford a legal fight.
“We get ourselves in trouble in terms of trying to circumvent a state law,” said Councilman Jeff Waltman. “We’re not going to solve this with a local gun law anyway.”
But so determined are the cities of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Lancaster to maintain their unconstitutional gun-control regimes that they’ve sued to overturn the new Pennsylvania law.
The city of Harrisburg also plans to defend its ordinances, claiming they comply with state law. The measures ban gunfire anywhere in the city and weapons possession in city parks. There’s also a reporting requirement for lost or stolen weapons.
Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse denounced the new state law as representing “a fringe ideological view.”
But “What gives a town or a city the authority to say, ‘We’re in Pennsylvania, but we don’t care about Pennsylvania law?’ It’s laughable,” replied Dave Dalton, founder of Amerikan Gun Owners Alliance in the Pocono Mountains, one of the groups represented by attorney Prince.