PA Bill Number: HB2311
Title: Establishing the School Mental Health Screening Grant and Development Program.
Description: Establishing the School Mental Health Screening Grant and Development Program. ...
Last Action: Laid on the table
Last Action Date: Sep 23, 2024
PA-Allentown moves to reinstate gun restrictions after state Supreme Court ruling :: 06/27/2016
If you're a gun owner living in Allentown, you may once again be required to report a lost or stolen firearm to the police.
The city is poised to reinstate firearms restrictions it lifted last year after state lawmakers passed a law that exposed Pennsylvania municipalities to lawsuits from gun-rights groups such as the National Rifle Association. The state Supreme Court struck down the state law Monday.
Allentown's restrictions, enacted in 2008, banned firearms from city property and parks, and required gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms to police within 48 hours. Mayor Ed Pawlowski said he plans to reintroduce the lost and stolen guns proposal to City Council next week.
"Now that it has been repealed by the state Supreme Court, it's more than appropriate in light of what has happened in Orlando and quite honestly the amount of shootings that continue to occur in cities across the country," Pawlowski said Thursday.
Advocates say requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms makes it harder for so-called "straw buyers." Straw buyers obtain guns for felons or others who are prohibited from purchasing guns, and then claim the gun was lost or stolen if it resurfaces in the commission of a crime.
Gun rights advocates, such as Kim Stolfer, chairman of Firearms Owners Against Crime, say such restrictions don't work and violate state law. Police should simply enforce existing laws making it illegal for a felon to buy a gun, they say.
"Not a single one of these lost and stolen laws was ever enforced," Stolfer said. "All this is is political theater."
Pawlowski said he has asked the city's legal team to research the ban on guns in city parks and buildings to make sure it doesn't run afoul of any other state gun laws.
"I think it's more than reasonable to say we should not have guns on a playground," Pawlowski said. "You shouldn't at least have the ability to carry weapons in a public building like City Hall and council chambers."
City Council President Ray O'Connell said he thinks council will have the votes to reinstate the ordinances, which passed unanimously in 2008.
"I'm in full support, absolutely, [considering] what has been happening lately in this country," he said.
One member of the 2008 city council that passed the restrictions said the city should never have repealed them.
"We as a society have to stop being afraid of the threat of a lawsuit from the NRA and do what is best for the lives of our residents," said state Rep. Peter Schweyer, D-Allentown, who fully supports reinstating both ordinances.
Allentown is not alone in responding to the Supreme Court's repeal of the NRA lawsuit legislation. Easton rejected similar restrictions in 2008, but Mayor Sal Panto Jr. plans to reintroduce them in the coming weeks.
During a Wednesday meeting of City Council, Panto said he will do so in separate bills. One would ban individuals from possessing guns on city-owned property, including public parks; the other would require anyone whose gun is lost or stolen to report it missing within 24 hours.
Easton's current ordinance says it is illegal to discharge a firearm in a public park, but allows gun owners to have them on the property. Panto said guns cannot be brought into Northampton County or City Council meetings.
Panto tried to get council to bite in November 2008 but was turned aside because members didn't think the city should establish an ordinance that didn't match state law, which had no such provisions.
Both bills will be brought before council at its 6 p.m. July 12 meeting.
Bethlehem repealed a $2 fee it had in place for permits to carry a gun in 2015 after the NRA put the city on notice that it could be sued. Solicitor William Leeson has advised the city to wait before trying to reinstate that provision or pass additional restrictions.
The Supreme Court struck down the state law for procedural errors, not on the merits of the legislation, he said. The law was passed after being tacked on to unrelated legislation, a no-no, the court ruled. So Bethlehem may want to wait to see whether state lawmakers try to put the law back in place.
Stolfer said he has already talked with state senators who plan to introduce a new bill.
There is likely to be some effort, but passage will be more difficult in the current political environment, said Shira Goodman, executive director of CeasefirePA, the state's leading anti-gun violence group.
"I think they will have some trouble passing it," she said. "The governor will veto it and there could be some legal challenges if it passes."
State law generally prohibits municipalities from enacting gun restrictions that go beyond state regulations, but firearms rights groups had complained it was difficult for individual residents to show they had been harmed in order to challenge the local laws.
The invalidated law gave groups like the National Rifle Association the ability to sue without being a resident of the municipality that passed the disputed law, and forced the municipality to cover the legal costs of any such group.
About two dozen municipalities repealed local gun laws in 2015 following the law's passage. The National Rifle Association sued several cities that resisted, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Lancaster.
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-reinstate-gun-laws-20160623-story.html
