Philadelphia mayor signs gun control ordinances. NRA threatens lawsuit

[ericire12]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/city/20080411_Nutter_defiantly_signs_five_gun_laws.html

Nutter defiantly signs five gun laws
Council's measures appear to fly in the face of state law and legal precedent. The NRA says it will sue.

Mayor Nutter likened himself and City Council members yesterday to the band of rebels who formed this country as he signed five new gun-control laws that defy the state legislature and legal precedent.

"We are going to make ourselves independent of the violence that's been taking place in this city for far too long," he said.

The five laws - called everything from unconstitutional to criminal by critics - do the following:

Limit handgun purchases to one a month.

Require lost or stolen firearms to be reported to police within 24 hours.

Prohibit individuals under protection-from-abuse orders from possessing guns if ordered by the court.

Allow removal of firearms from "persons posing a risk of imminent personal injury" to themselves or others.

Outlaw the possession and sale of certain assault weapons.

Nutter said he would begin to enforce the laws immediately, with the exception of the one-gun-a-month requirement, which takes effect in six months.

He and Council are in for a fight, however. The city has tried and failed for three decades to buck the 1974 state law that reserves gun regulation to the state legislature. The state's preeminence appeared to be cemented in a 1996 Supreme Court ruling that allowed the legislature to prevent Philadelphia and Pittsburgh from enacting local gun laws.

Recent efforts include a 2005 referendum in which city voters, by a 4-1 ratio, demanded that the state allow the city to pass its own gun laws. Council members Darrell L. Clarke and Donna Reed Miller sponsored a set of gun-control measures bills last year, then sued the legislature to allow them to move forward. That case is pending.

National Rifle Association spokesman John Hohenwarter said he expected the organization to sue "within a short time frame."

But Evans, she said, also is a leader in the House of Representatives and "believes that everyone needs to allow the process to work, even though the process, at times, may be excruciatingly slow and incredibly unresponsive."

Phil Goldsmith, president of the gun-control advocacy group CeaseFire PA, said "it's worth trying" to enact and test the laws.

[ismram]

Mayor Nutter...............I think that say's it all!!!

[tombogan03884]

He calls himself a "rebel", I call him a criminal and after the Pa. courts overturn it on Pre emption grounds he will be called a fool.

[ismram]

He calls himself a "rebel", I call him a criminal and after the Pa. courts overturn it on Pre emption grounds he will be called a fool.

HEAR!! HEAR!!