Rather than go after criminals, the Philadelphia Mayor and City Council have decided to become criminals themselves. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Mayor Nutter yesterday said he would enforce new city gun-control laws even without state authorization to do so - setting up a possible legal and political showdown between the state and the new mayor.

At the first regular meeting of the new City Council yesterday, Council members Darrell L. Clarke and Donna Reed Miller introduced the same package of gun-control measures that languished last year while the state legislature refused to authorize them.

But these bills have a new wrinkle - they don’t call for state-enabling legislation. The previous bills were conditional on companion state laws in recognition of a 1996 Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that said cities could not enforce their own gun laws.

But Nutter, Clarke and Miller, frustrated by the repeated failure of gun-control measures in the legislature, now appear ready to do just that.

“If these bills pass and if I sign them, then I expect to enforce them,” Nutter said.

[…]

The bills would force owners to immediately report stolen guns; set monthly limits for firearms purchases; require vendors to report ammunition sales; and prohibit gun sales to anyone who is the subject of an order of protection.

So if you’re on vacation and your guns are stolen, you could be arrested. And forget about bidding on that pair of dueling pistols at auction. . . .

Once again, it’s “punish the law abiding gun owners” rather than the criminals and if that means violating the Pennsylvania Constitution or state law, so be it.

This seems to be a common thread of late where activist mayors around the country violate their states’ laws, such as “marrying” same sex couples or passing (in SF) gun bans. Apparently the only laws they want to obey are the ones they pass themselves!