Brady Campaign lawyers to join 'team effort'
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
By Rich Lord and Dan Majors, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Two opposing national groups will duke it out in court over Pittsburgh's new ordinance on lost and stolen guns, with the announcement that the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence will join the city's Law Department in fighting a National Rifle Association lawsuit.
Pittsburgh Council President Doug Shields said he will propose legislation enabling the city to receive help from two lawyers with extensive experience tussling with the high-powered NRA.
"It will be a team effort," Mr. Shields said.
Council passed an ordinance in December that compels gun owners to contact the police within 24 hours of the loss or theft of a firearm, or face fines and, for repeat offenders, imprisonment.
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said the ordinance was unenforceable and let it go into law without his signature, but the city will defend it against the NRA in court.
"When the NRA sued Pittsburgh, it made the national press," Mr. Shields said. "I was contacted by a representative of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which offered pro bono services to the city.
"I spoke with the city solicitor, and he was more than pleased that help was on the way. He and two other attorneys were working on it, and our Law Department is stretched already."
Although the lawyers' services will be free, Mr. Shields said his proposal calls for the city to pay $5,000 for the Brady attorneys' travel out of the Law Department accounts. It should not see strong opposition from council, he said, because the vote on the ordinance was 8-1.
"The members are serious about this," he said. "We feel that it's a common-sense approach. People say, 'Well, this won't solve all the gun violence.' It's not our objective to solve all of it, but we at least want to target what we call the 'straw purchase,' where somebody with a clean record goes in to buy the weapons used in gun violence."
Meghan Jones-Rolla, one of three lawyers with firm Meyer Darragh Buckler Bebenek & Eck that are representing the NRA, said the entry of an outside group doesn't change the basis of the Common Pleas Court suit.
"It really just comes down to the fact that this is about a city council that went beyond the scope of its power," she said. "It's enacting a law that they know, or should know, that they don't have any authority to [enact]."
The NRA complaint cites a state law reserving most, if not all, power to regulate firearms for the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
"Members of City Council and the mayor have indicated that they understand that they are not permitted to do this and that it was unenforceable," said Ms. Jones-Rolla.
Mr. Shields said the city isn't involving itself in the ownership, transfer, transportation or purchase of guns.
"We're saying that this is a post-possession matter," he said. "It is the world's deadliest consumer product, and when it is lost or stolen, we're requiring you to notify [authorities] within 24 hours."
Mr. Shields said the Legislature has shown little interest in helping cities fight gun violence, so it is up to the cities to start a grass-roots effort.
"There's national interest in this," he said, adding that a victory in court would "open the door for every municipality in the state."
Jon Lowy, who along with fellow Washington, D.C.-based lawyer Daniel Vice will assist the city, said the courtroom is the place to settle the matter.
"One of the great things about going up against the NRA in court is that their supposed influence in legislatures, their scare tactics, their bullying, none of that helps them at all," Mr. Lowy said. "We're going to have a good, fair judge deciding the case based on the merits, and that's why we're confident that we'll prevail."
Mr. Lowy said it's up to the court to decide what's enforceable.
"The only people that would have a problem with this reasonable ordinance are people who are trafficking or otherwise supplying the criminal gun market and then want to get away with it by later claiming that their gun was lost or stolen," he said.
The Brady Campaign helped Philadelphia in its defense of a raft of gun control ordinances, including a lost-gun reporting rule. Those ordinances are subject to appeals by various parties before several courts, and the campaign has not been involved with the appeals.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09132/969457-53.stm
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