Pennsylvania gun laws are causing legal battles between state and local governments. State legislators are looking for ways to maintain control over cities.
There are 30 cities in the state that have passed their own strict gun codes that extend beyond what the state legislature has passed. The problem is a specific constitutional statute concerning Pennsylvania gun laws requires that they are standard throughout the state.
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That means that the strict gun codes in a city like Philadelphia, which require, among other things, every gun to be registered and every gun owner to be fingerprinted, are irrelevant.
This has immediately made some smaller municipalities worried about their ability to fight legislation.
The new legislation also opens these cities up to lawsuits from special interest groups such as the National Rifle Association. While some cities cannot afford to fight potential lawsuits over these laws, larger cities such as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have vowed to fight it.
"Cities across this commonwealth enact gun regulations in an effort to save lives, period," Philadelphia City Council President Darrell L. Clarke
told The Philadelphia Examiner. "To meet such efforts with the threat of costly and frivolous litigation by special interests is heartless at best."
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The City of Philadelphia has joined with several other municipalities in challenging the constitutionality of the new law.
In the past,
the State Supreme Court refused to hear a case about the constitutionality of a Philadelphia lost and stolen gun law. Among the laws in question are rules that gun owners must report their lost and stolen guns.
The municipalities that have passed these laws include: Abington Township, Aliquippa, Allentown, Ambler, Baldwin, Braddock, Brentwood, Bridgeport, Castle Shannon, Catasauqua, Charleroi, Cheltenham, Chester, Clairton, Conshohocken, Duquesne, Easton, Erie, Glassport, Harrisburg, Hatfield Township, Heidelberg, Homestead, Jenkintown, Lancaster, Liberty, Lincoln, Munhall, Norristown, Oxford, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Plymouth Township, Pottsville, Radnor Township, Reading, Sharon Hill, Swarthmore, Upper Merion Township, West Chester, West Conshohocken, West Homestead, West Mifflin, Whitaker, Whitemarsh Township, Wilkinsburg, Wilson and York.
This article does not constitute legal advice. Check the current gun laws of your state and destination before travel.
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