Pittsburgh joins Philadelphia, anti-gun groups in support of Harrisburg firearm regulations :: 07/10/2020

Pittsburgh is joining Philadelphia and anti-gun groups in a legal brief supporting Harrisburg’s gun control ordinances.

Firearm Owners Against Crime, a Second Amendment rights organization, and several of its members sued Harrisburg in 2015, contending the city’s ordinances were preempted by a state law that prohibits municipalities from regulating firearms. Dauphin County Court ruled the plaintiffs had no standing to sue because they had not been cited under the ordinances.

Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court overturned the county court ruling and Harrisburg is appealing to the state Supreme Court.

Pittsburgh on Wednesday joined Philadelphia and a slew of anti-gun groups in support of Harrisburg, saying the Commonwealth Court decision would trigger a “flood of baseless lawsuits.”

“Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are the Commonwealth’s biggest municipalities,” the legal brief says. “Together, they provide city services, administer justice, and ensure public safety for over 1.8 million Pennsylvanians. Respondents’ lawsuit imperils all three of these basic municipal functions.”

Harrisburg’s ordinances would:

• Bar anyone under the age of 18 from carrying a gun in public unless they are with an adult.
• Prohibit guns within city limits for reasons other than self-defense.
• Require gun owners to report lost or stolen guns within 48 hours.
• Prohibit firing or possession of guns in city parks.

Pittsburgh is facing its own legal problems over passage in 2019 of three firearm regulations crafted after the 2018 killings of 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill.

One would ban the use of certain semiautomatic weapons, including assault rifles. A second would ban the use of ammunition and accessories, such as large-capacity magazines capable of holding 10 rounds or more of ammunition. A third bill, dubbed “extreme risk protection,” would permit courts to temporarily remove guns from a person deemed to be a public threat.

Second Amendment groups sued the city citing the same preemption law used in the Harrisburg case and an Allegheny County Common Pleas judge ruled the ordinances were illegal.

Pittsburgh filed an appeal that is pending in Commonwealth Court.

Bob Bauder is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Bob at 412-564-3080, bbauder@triblive.com or via Twitter .

https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-allegheny/pittsburgh-joins-philadelphia-anti-gun-groups-in-support-of-harrisburg-firearm-regulations/