PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
Franconia PA to repeal prohibition on guns in parks :: 01/22/2015
Rules prohibiting guns in township parks are being taken off the books in Franconia.
The move comes following Pennsylvania’s Act 192 of 2014, signed into law in November by then-Gov. Tom Corbett.
The law allows residents or organizations to sue municipalities that have rules outside state laws for guns. That leaves the towns open to having to pay legal fees and monetary damages in the court cases.
“I’ve been reading and I’m sure you’ve been reading that many municipalities are changing their gun rules based on this act,” Township Manager Jon Hammer said at the Franconia Township Board of Supervisors Jan. 19 work session meeting.
Franconia’s rules were reviewed after board member Curtis Kratz called attention to the new law, Hammer said.
Township attorneys Frank Bartle and Eric Wert, of Dischell, Bartle & Dooley, outlined the state law and the proposed Franconia changes.
“We cannot in any manner regulate the ownership, possession, transfer or transportation of firearms,” Bartle said.
“This is the law. We have to comply with it,” Bartle said, “which we would do anyway.”
Township rules currently ban guns in township parks.
“We can still prohibit the discharge of a firearm in a park. We just can’t prohibit carrying a firearm in a park,” Wert said.
Under the proposed new rules, the prohibition of discharging firearms in a park will remain, with some exceptions, such as discharges by law enforcement officers or in self defense, he said.
Authorization to advertise the proposed change to township rules was approved at the Jan. 19 meeting. The board could vote on it in February, Bartle said.
