This Scrap Metal Law Is Being Used to Disarm Pennsylvania's Gun Laws

[unhappycamper]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/pennsylvania-preemption-local-gun-laws



A new NRA-backed law has cities and towns scrambling to repeal their firearms regulations.

This Scrap Metal Law Is Being Used to Disarm Pennsylvania's Gun Laws
—By Hannah Levintova
| Mon Feb. 9, 2015 6:00 AM EST

In the past month, towns across Pennsylvania have been scrambling to scrap their gun laws. Clairton, Allentown, and West Mifflin have rescinded rules banning guns in city parks or requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen weapons. Other localities, like Reading and College township, have announced plans to imminently repeal all laws regulating firearms.

Some of the city councilmembers and officials behind the repeals are doing so grudgingly. "It's not something I ever intended to do," one Munhall councilman told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review after the town decided to undo a local gun law. Homestead's mayor called the entire thing "absolutely ridiculous." "We're basically being forced to repeal these laws at gunpoint," Doylestown's council president wrote on his Facebook page. "Every local gun law must go!"

The statewide shakeup is the result of a law that morphed from a sleepy anti-theft bill into a blatant attempt to roll back gun control across the Keystone State. In January 2013, Pennsylvania lawmakers introduced House Bill 80, a bipartisan measure to create penalties for stealing scrap metals. It passed the state House handily and headed to the state Senate. But last October, the bill took a detour: With Republican Gov. Tom Corbett facing a tight reelection race, GOP lawmakers tacked a stalled, four-year-old gun bill onto HB 80 in the final hours of the legislative session. The bill passed by a wide margin. A few days later, Gov. Corbett signed the bill before a room of gun lobbyists and activists at a sportsmen's club. Nobody mentioned scrap metals. "By signing this, we are helping protect the rights of hunters and other sportsmen and sportswomen," said Corbett.

The new law, known as Act 192, is one of the first of its kind. It rests on the legal concept of "preemption," which limits localities' authority to regulate firearms beyond what's permitted by state law. Pennsylvania has long had a preemption statute on the books, as do 44 other states. But many towns and cities still have their own rules when it comes to guns. Harrisburg bans guns in parks; Pittsburgh prohibits discharging firearms within city limits. Under Act 192, it just became much easier for gun owners and gun activists to challenge these laws in court—and to pressure local officials to rescind the laws before being dragged into a costly legal battle.

[pipoman]

1. So the state had a preemption law,

Cities in the state were ignoring it, and a new law was passed to put teeth in the existing preemption law?

[Curmudgeoness]

2. Yep, this protects the rights of "hunters and other sportsmen/women".

I cannot imagine how the rights of hunters, or whatever "other sportsmen/women" were infringed upon with laws prohibiting guns in city parks, etc. What do they want to hunt in a city park? Pigeons? Until these so called sportsmen get off of their high horses, I will have contempt for them. It is one thing to want to hunt in places where it is acceptable, but when they start to act as if they need to freedom to shoot in populated public areas, they have crossed a line.

[freebrew]

3. Squirrels...

'you've gotta singe 'em to get 'em stiff'

Idiots with no respect or sense displaying weapons as if they were in some fear of commies or maybe the army or the law...

[Curmudgeoness]

4. That is the exact way I see people who display weapons.....

usually that they are afraid of the law, which means they scare the crap out of me. I know that many would disagree, and tell me that the open-carry guys are the good guys, but I can't help fearing them because they are either crazy from fear of something or just crazy.

[meow2u3]

5. The rider requiring municipalities to repeal gun laws is unconstitutional

https://govt.westlaw.com/pac/Document/N651BA090344811DA8A989F4EECDB8638?viewType=FullText&originationContext=documenttoc&transitionType=CategoryPageItem&contextData=%28sc.Default%29

Const. Art. 3, § 3
§ 3. Form of bills
Currentness
No bill shall be passed containing more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title, except a general appropriation bill or a bill codifying or compiling the law or a part thereof.
Credits
Amended May 16, 1967.
Const. Art. 3, § 3, PA CONST Art. 3, § 3
Current through end of the 2014 Regular Session

Believe me, the gun rider won't hold up in court--unless the NRA pays off the judge(s).