PA Bill Number: SB1198
Title: In plants and plant products, providing for plant and pollinator protection; conferring powers and duties on the Department of Agriculture and ...
Description: In plants and plant products, providing for plant and pollinator protection; conferring powers and duties on the Department of Agriculture and .. ...
Last Action: Referred to AGRICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Last Action Date: May 17, 2024
Gun-rights attorney wants names of donors to Lancaster's NRA legal defense fund :: 03/03/2015
A gun-rights attorney wants to know who's given money to Lancaster's legal defense fund set up to fight the National Rifle Association's lawsuit against the city.
Mayor Rick Gray said Friday he doesn't think the information is subject to the state's Right to Know Law, though the city's solicitor is checking.
Joshua Prince, a gun rights lawyer and blogger from Bechtelsville, Berks County, filed his request Wednesday.
The request, Gray said, is "just part and parcel of their (gun rights groups) attempt to intimidate people."
Prince isn't an NRA attorney and said in an email that he isn't asking for the information on the NRA's behalf.
"I requested the records, as I am curious as to who has donated to support the city’s fight of its illegal ordinance," he said by email Thursday.
Prince has contacted dozens of Pennsylvania municipalities asking them to get rid of gun ordinances he contends are illegal. Many municipalities, including Brecknock Township in northeastern Lancaster County, have repealed ordinances or are in the process.
Prince wants donor names, addresses and how much they've given to commonsenselancaster.com. He also wants contracts and communications with law firms the city is using related to the NRA's suit and "any other record in any way relating to the current litigation..."
Prince also acknowledged, as posted on his blog, that he wants donors prosecuted on grounds that they are conspiring with the city to violate state laws by contributing to the city's defense.
Gray, an attorney, was perplexed by that.
"That whole concept is beyond the fathom of any lawyer I talked to," Gray said. "No one could understand what he's talking about."
Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman declined to comment on Prince's goal.
And Gray hasn't asked Stedman about it either.
"... I wouldn't bother him with such a trivial question. He's got important things to do. This certainly isn't one of them," Gray said.
Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico said while he believes local gun ordinances are prohibited by state law, donors won't have to fear prosecution.
"Anyone contributing to a legal defense fund would not have any criminal intent and could not be prosecuted," he said.
Gray said donors were exercising their right to free speech by supporting the city's fight, just as gun rights' groups such as the NRA have the right to collect from donors.
Former Lancaster mayor Art Morris, who's donated to Lancaster's fund, said Prince's request was an attempt to scare donors.
"For me, honestly, it doesn't work and I think it's ridiculous and I've increased my give from $1,000 to $1,500 now and hope that other people do it," he said Friday. "It just doesn't make sense that you're not allowed to give money in support of somebody's legal defense."
The fund has raised more than $16,000, Gray said.
Shira Goodman, executive director of CeaseFirePA, said in a statement, "This effort to obtain donor names and intimidate the public into believing it is somehow wrong or even criminal to contribute to a legal defense fund is unconscionable."
The NRA sued Lancaster last month in Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas under a law that took effect this year under which gun owners no longer have to show they've been hurt by a local ordinance to challenge it.
Goodman said Act 192 and lawsuits by the NRA and other gun groups make it clear that the goal isn't to protect law-abiding gun owners.
"... they were about punishing towns and fighting any and all regulation in pursuit of a 'guns for everyone, anywhere, any time' agenda," she said.
At issue for Lancaster is its 2009 ordinance requiring that residents tell police if a gun they own is lost or stolen within 72 hours of realizing it's missing.
The NRA claims the ordinance violates a state law that prohibits local governments from regulating the lawful ownership, possession, transfer or transportation of guns. The city maintains its ordinance is legal.
Meanwhile, a Dauphin County judge has ruled that Harrisburg cannot enforce three of its five gun laws. Harrisburg is also being sued over its gun laws, but not by the the NRA.
But the judge left stand Harrisburg's ordinance requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen guns. That doesn't have bearing on Lancaster's case, though Gray said judges do read other judges' opinions.
One of Harrisburg's gun ordinances that won't be enforced had prohibited gun possession in parks.
Lancaster had a similar law, but Gray said, the city repealed it around 2008 without having to be asked or sued because it was clear it was illegal.
"Similarly, we looked at lost and stolen. We feel that we have a very strong legal ordinance," he said. "We didn't just pass these things ... we made sure we didn't interfere with state law."
