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State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-12th, of Butler County, announced yesterday he will introduce legislation to strengthen Pennsylvania’s ban on allowing municipalities to enact their own gun control ordinances.
His bill would require any local governing body that ratified its own gun laws to pay damages and legal costs to a plaintiff who successfully challenges those laws in court.
“The purpose of my legislation is to financially deter and/or punish any local government official for blatantly violating the clearly established boundaries of our state law and our Constitutions,” Mr. Metcalfe said at the state Capitol Rotunda yesterday. Several hundred supporters of gun-ownership rights gathered for the occasion, his Fourth Annual Right to Keep and Bear Arms Rally.
Currently, only the General Assembly can pass gun control laws for the entire commonwealth, disallowing individual cities, townships and boroughs from independently passing their own gun ordinances. Gov. Ed Rendell, D, has repeatedly asked the state General Assembly to allow municipal anti-gun ordinances.
Philadelphia’s City Council passed several such ordinances in 2007, imposing limits on gun purchases and requiring gun owners to promptly inform the police if their weapons get lost or stolen. Council members sued the General Assembly for the right to keep these measures in effect, but the Commonwealth Court dismissed the lawsuit.
Mr. Metcalfe said Pittsburgh passed a similar gun-control ordinance that he believes “clearly needs to be challenged.”
Last week, Mr. Rendell renewed his call for similar measures and added he thinks Congress should send President Barack Obama a bill reinstating the defunct assault-weapons ban.
The governor would like to see a state law passed that would prohibit the purchase of more than one gun per person per month. The General Assembly has defeated legislation that would have done that before, but Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said recent police deaths in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and elsewhere in the state show the need for such a law.
“He believes that recent attacks on law enforcement officers across the commonwealth should cause legislators to reconsider their positions on commonsense crime-control measures,” he said.
Mr. Ardo said the legislation would not likely interfere with the desire of gun buyers to purchase specialty guns for collections. He said the legislation would simply serve to prevent illicit firearm traffickers from buying many guns at once.
“There are exceptions for antiques and collections and things of that sort,” he said.
For now, it appears the gun-control laws Mr. Rendell and his allies in the Legislature favor don’t have the votes to pass. But pro-gun activists at Mr. Metcalfe’s rally said a more aggressive anti-gun campaign could seek to institute statewide registration of firearms, something they view as a worst-case scenario.
National Rifle Association President John Sigler told those at the rally a state registry of gun ownership would simplify the process by which the state could begin taking guns from law-abiding citizens. That result would come “as surely as thunder follows lightning,” he said.
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State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-12th, of Butler County, announced yesterday he will introduce legislation to strengthen Pennsylvania’s ban on allowing municipalities to enact their own gun control ordinances.
His bill would require any local governing body that ratified its own gun laws to pay damages and legal costs to a plaintiff who successfully challenges those laws in court.
“The purpose of my legislation is to financially deter and/or punish any local government official for blatantly violating the clearly established boundaries of our state law and our Constitutions,” Mr. Metcalfe said at the state Capitol Rotunda yesterday. Several hundred supporters of gun-ownership rights gathered for the occasion, his Fourth Annual Right to Keep and Bear Arms Rally.
Currently, only the General Assembly can pass gun control laws for the entire commonwealth, disallowing individual cities, townships and boroughs from independently passing their own gun ordinances. Gov. Ed Rendell, D, has repeatedly asked the state General Assembly to allow municipal anti-gun ordinances.
Philadelphia’s City Council passed several such ordinances in 2007, imposing limits on gun purchases and requiring gun owners to promptly inform the police if their weapons get lost or stolen. Council members sued the General Assembly for the right to keep these measures in effect, but the Commonwealth Court dismissed the lawsuit.
Mr. Metcalfe said Pittsburgh passed a similar gun-control ordinance that he believes “clearly needs to be challenged.”
Last week, Mr. Rendell renewed his call for similar measures and added he thinks Congress should send President Barack Obama a bill reinstating the defunct assault-weapons ban.
The governor would like to see a state law passed that would prohibit the purchase of more than one gun per person per month. The General Assembly has defeated legislation that would have done that before, but Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said recent police deaths in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and elsewhere in the state show the need for such a law.
“He believes that recent attacks on law enforcement officers across the commonwealth should cause legislators to reconsider their positions on commonsense crime-control measures,” he said.
Mr. Ardo said the legislation would not likely interfere with the desire of gun buyers to purchase specialty guns for collections. He said the legislation would simply serve to prevent illicit firearm traffickers from buying many guns at once.
“There are exceptions for antiques and collections and things of that sort,” he said.
For now, it appears the gun-control laws Mr. Rendell and his allies in the Legislature favor don’t have the votes to pass. But pro-gun activists at Mr. Metcalfe’s rally said a more aggressive anti-gun campaign could seek to institute statewide registration of firearms, something they view as a worst-case scenario.
National Rifle Association President John Sigler told those at the rally a state registry of gun ownership would simplify the process by which the state could begin taking guns from law-abiding citizens. That result would come “as surely as thunder follows lightning,” he said.