State gun law ruled unconstitutional…Municipal limitations reinstated

ED GAINEY
ED GAINEY

Beginning in 2011 municipalities like Allentown, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh enacted local gun ordinances that could for instance, fine or jail legal gun owners who did not report weapons as lost or stolen. Last November, state legislators rammed through Act 192, which allowed legal gun owners—or membership groups like the National Rifle Association—to sue those municipalities that tried to enforce local restrictions.
Last week, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled Act 192 unconstitutional, allowing the municipal restrictions on gun ownership to stand, for now. Community leaders and gun control advocates across the state praised the ruling.
“This law was clearly unconstitutional from the outset, and designed to threaten Pittsburgh and other cities trying to protect their neighborhoods from illegal guns,” said Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto. “I’m overjoyed that the court system is joining us in standing up for citizens and public safety instead of special rights for the gun lobby.”
State Rep. Ed Gainey, D-East Liberty, a longtime advocate for removing guns from the Black community, was even more vocal.
“The day that we are not able to protect our citizens, that is a strike against humanity and we cannot afford it,” he said. “I will stay strong in my fight for the safety of every resident of Pennsylvania.”
Gainey thanked all the state representatives and senators, mayors and advocates like CeaseFirePA that challenged the law and prevailed.
“They’re right that the fight is not over, but the battle right now is a joy to us because we returned the power to our municipalities, and we can protect our citizens,” he added.
The unanimous court decision did not rule on Act 192’s merit, but found it unconstitutional on technical grounds, namely, violating the single-subject rule. The state constitution bars the legislature from addressing multiple, unrelated issues in a single piece of legislation.
Legislators inserted the gun provisions into a bill dealing with penalties for stealing scrap metal.
Given the ruling, and those that came down from the US Supreme Court, attorney and CeaseFirePA Director of Organizing Rob Conroy said it was “a good week.”
“There are no guarantees when it comes to judicial review,” he said. “But after hearing the legal arguments (on Act 192) in April, I was pretty confident of the outcome—but not smugly so.”
Conroy said “lost or stolen” gun laws, which can exact $500 fines for the first failure-to-report offense, are just one tool, but a valuable tool, in fighting gun violence because they can identify the repeat offenders, who are often trading guns for drugs.
Conroy said he doesn’t know whether or not the NRA and its allies in Harrisburg will try again.
“We view this as a victory because it was our efforts that forced them to try this plainly unconstitutional move at the 11th hour rather than push a clean bill in the first place,” he said. “I think it would be a mistake to try again. We have a different governor and a different climate.”
(Send comments to cmorrow@newpittsburghcourier.com.)

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