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
PA Preemption - York County municipalities repeal gun-related ordinances under threat of lawsuits :: 02/12/2015
Dover and North York boroughs have repealed ordinances regarding firearms after receiving letters from a mid-state attorney threatening legal action on behalf of a number of gun-rights groups and individuals.
After a law took effect Jan. 5 that allowed organizations to sue municipalities over the legality of their firearm ordinances, attorney Joshua Prince said his law firm, Prince Law Offices, sent letters to the two York County municipalities — and "over 100" other cities, boroughs, townships and counties throughout the state — in December.
Co-sponsored by state Rep. Seth Grove, R-Dover Township, the law allows any organization that counts Pennsylvanians who can own a gun as their members — such as the National Rifle Association — to take legal action against firearm-related local ordinances anywhere in the state. Several groups have retained Prince's firm in an effort to rid Pennsylvania municipalities of such laws, which they claim violate a decades-old state law, Prince said.
Prince and his clients say there's no proof local firearm ordinances make municipalities any safer, so "the overarching principle is concordance with the law," keeping gun policy at the state level, rather than locally regulated.
Prince said the lawyers in the division of his firm called the Firearm Industry Consulting Group intend to target "anything regarding firearms or ammunition regulation" by municipalities or counties; he and his clients say such laws are illegal.
North York: After receiving a letter, North York's borough council voted to repeal two park-related firearm ordinances, council vice president Rick Shank confirmed. One prohibited possession in borough parks, and the other banned hunting in them, according to the letter Prince sent.
"It's a tough one" in terms of judging what this means for North York, said Jerry Duncan, mayor of the borough of about 2,000.
While Duncan's personal views tend toward the idea that "if you have a legal permit to carry a firearm, you have a permit," and can carry a gun pretty much where you please, his views as mayor lean a bit more toward some light restrictions that local law enforcement can take on a case-by-case basis, he said.
"In a situation like this, there's never going to be a quote-unquote 'right answer'" as to whether this improves public safety, Duncan said. And that's the first priority of an elected official — and is something Prince isn't necessarily taking into consideration, the mayor said.
"I think to some degree he's decided to make this a personal crusade," Duncan said. "There will be boroughs — much like ours — that will be bullied into doing this."
North York is being sued by five former employees for allegedly unpaid severance packages totaling a combined $953,092, so "just the thought or idea to deal with another lawsuit is enough" to persuade the litigation-weary council to just repeal the ordinance rather than fight it, Duncan said.
He said the borough always seeks legal council before drafting ordinances in order to make sure they follow state and federal law.
Dover: Dover's council also voted to repeal an ordinance that banned firearm possession and use in parks.
"Personally, I don't think our ordinance could be challenged in court," said Dover borough council vice president Lori Koch. But "just to be safe" and avoid legal action, the council voted to remove it.
The borough doesn't expect anything to change in terms of park safety, she said.
"I don't think too many know what the park rules are in the first place," Koch said.
Dover's solicitor, John Harrold, also serves as solicitor for Codorus Township. He said he advised the Codorus Township supervisors to repeal a similar park-related firearm ordinance the township had on the books, and they voted to do so in January.
"I'm not sure (the ordinance Codorus Township and Dover had) was in violation of the Pennsylvania statute," he said. "But I didn't want to run the risk of facing a lawsuit that would cost thousands of dollars to defend."
To his knowledge, Codorus Township hadn't received a letter from Prince or anyone with similar goals, Harrold said.
Prince's law firm has sued Harrisburg, which has said it won't change its ordinances, and the firm has sent letters to Reading, Altoona and Bethlehem, according to the firm's website.
Legislative developments: The state law at the heart of these suits has been on the books since 1974. Translated into plain language, it says that if state laws don't specify that something involving guns or ammunition is illegal, local governments can't do so, either.
While that law is far from new, it was brought back to the forefront by an amendment to Act 192, an originally innocuous bill that penalized the theft of metals such as copper and aluminum. The amendment changed the state's firearm law to allow anyone who can legally own a gun in Pennsylvania — and any groups that include such people — to sue any municipalities in the state that they see as violating that 1974 law. There's also a civil component now, too: Municipalities that either lose or settle such cases may have to pay all the legal fees for both sides.
The NRA has filed suit in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Lancaster over gun-control ordinances on their books. One measure all three share is the requirement that owners report lost or stolen firearms. The three cities are fighting this amendment to Act 192 in court, arguing lawmakers didn't follow constitutional procedure for passing legislation and that the mandated-reporting ordinance is legal.
York City: The York City Council in 2009 considered an ordinance to that effect but tabled the matter because of the 1974 law.
In October, York City Mayor Kim Bracey, who was not mayor at the time of those discussions, told The York Dispatch she's "on one hand" glad the measure didn't pass, because at least the city can't be sued. On Wednesday, the York City solicitor's office said the city hadn't received anything from Prince's office; Prince told The York Dispatch he hadn't heard any complaints about York City ordinances, so he wouldn't have sent a letter.
But Bracey said stolen guns remain a contributing factor to crime in the city, and she would support mandated reporting if it were legal.
