Worried about crime in his city, Philadelphia Mayor Nutter decides to join the fray and defy state law himself. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
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.
[…]
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.
Ah, yes, that band of rebels — weren’t they armed? . . .Until the Lobsterbacks confiscated their weapons, which is one reason we have the 2nd Amendment today?
As is usual with liberals like him, there was nothing in there about mandatory or increased sentences for the mutants actually committing crimes with firearms.
I imagine that the lawyer for the first arrested under these new “laws” will have a field day in court showing that the “laws” are unconstitutional or illegal under Pennsylvania state law.
Or maybe we’ll have the pleasure of seeing Nutsy dragged off in handcuffs.
22 Responses to “Philly Mayor Preempts State”
on 11 Apr 2008 at 8:08 am # BumperStickerist
First they came for the armed, law-abiding citizens …
wait …
Pastor Niemöller must’ve made some sort of mistake.
on 11 Apr 2008 at 8:09 am # MarkJ
Michael A. Nutter: my nominee for “Mayor Who Most Deserves to be Frog-Marched.”
on 11 Apr 2008 at 8:18 am # holdfast
The first and third are not actually that bad from a practical perspective, though I understand the slippery slope argument at work. The second might be ok at 72 hours, so long as there is a qualifier for actual knowledge/discovery. The fourth and fifth are crap for vagueness.
on 11 Apr 2008 at 8:23 am # ursa5000
The Founding Fathers knew that the tyrants like Nutter would easily trample the rights of citizens without the protection of firearms and the 2A. These illegal laws were designed to create chaos and make lethal confrontation with firearms owners inevitable.
Cui bono? (”To whose benefit?” is a Latin adage that is used either to suggest a hidden motive or to indicate that the party responsible for a thing may not be who it appears at first to be.)
Well there is election in few days in Pennsylvania, there are huge amounts of progressive (Soros and his interlocking foundations) funds going though Philly this week, and Heston’s death reminded folks of his good work for the NRA and gun owners.
Nutter knows these laws are illegal, he is attempting to make his liberal “bones” on the issue of gun control. What is truly reprehensible is the cavalier manner on which 230 years of case law and Constitutional law are thrown overboard.
The true evil of Nutter is that some sherriff’s deputy will be requested to remove firearms illegally, and he will get himself shot. This is the design of these laws, to undermine respect for all laws, to create social unrest, and to injure and harm innocent citizens in the name of progressive politics.
While Nutter “useful idiot routine” creates great press, this misdirection hides a serious, well coordinated, well funded attack on the 2A, by Soros and the progressive Socialist agenda. These interlopers perfectly understands that their plans for successfully turning America into a EU- style Socialist Workers Paradise rest on their long range plans to separate firearms from the general population.
Free citizens without firearms are just subjects, whose life and property entirely depend on the whim of the king.
on 11 Apr 2008 at 8:27 am # Just wondering
So what is the good mayor going to to about rampaging teenyboppers on the subways?
on 11 Apr 2008 at 8:40 am # Ymal Brucker
One gun a month? So if a collector had an opportunity to bid on the brace of pistols used in the Burr-Hamilton duel, he’d be out of luck.
What about the chap who’s just starting out with his new bride and needs the basic household set (pistol, shotgun, carbine, and throw-down) to go along with dishes and linens?
Bah!
This rule discriminates against collectors, historians, investors, gun educators, security services, and more.
on 11 Apr 2008 at 9:27 am # Jr
Speaking of Mr. Heston:
“From my cold dead hands!”
on 11 Apr 2008 at 9:38 am # buckwheat
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.
By confiscating the colonists guns? I think you’re on the other side nutty!
on 11 Apr 2008 at 9:58 am # albo
Section 6120 of Title 18 PACS prohibits political subdivisions from regulating firearms. And it’s not like that section is written in Sanskrit and nobody can read it.
on 11 Apr 2008 at 10:09 am # mac
There is a simple reply to all the gun-grabbers that stops them cold. It’s the straightforward statement that anyone–that means cop, crook, politician, military–ANYONE–who comes to take away my legally owned guns is going to die on my doorstep. I will kill them and as many other gun-grabbers as I can before I go down myself, which I’m sure will happen before that day ends.
The reason is just as simple as the reply. If I go down fighting, it will at least be a quick death and I will have given my life fighting for my country’s Constitution, the Second Amendment of which is its most important part. Supinely submit and the robbers, murderers and rapists out there, for whom I and my family would afterward be unarmed prey, will undoubtedly come at some point and they’ll be much worse before killing us.
Think I’m paranoid? Google “Wichita Horror” or Channon Christian/Christopher Newsom. And those are only two of the ugly stories you never heard about. There are a LOT of others.
The police aren’t legally obligated to protect you and the honest cops will admit they can’t. The reality is that you’re on your own out there with a lot of wolves prowling who think you and yours would make a great next meal.
on 11 Apr 2008 at 10:54 am # Maggie
The law of denying someone, under so called protection of the
state, being armed for self defense is the best one.
The state has not ever been known to protect anyone from
an immediate and personal attack.
This guy really loves his fellow citizen, by taking away their
constitutional rights while not attending to those who
regularly break the law.
on 11 Apr 2008 at 11:29 am # Roadkill
This situation a prime example of Liberal Fascism at work.
on 11 Apr 2008 at 11:43 am # JKB
One should not use force to oppose the illegal enforcement of these “ordinances”. That would only lead to a conviction on some other charge and loss of your right to bear arms.
Rather, if they come, you should take heart in that the laws will be thrown out and you will be able to sue the police and city for official oppression. Then you can take out a full ad in the paper describing all the excellent handguns, “assault weapons” and other firearms you purchased with your settlement. With a big thank you to the mayor for providing the funds.
on 11 Apr 2008 at 1:07 pm # ruralcounsel
Hopefully the city is accrueing funds or entering insurance contracts in order to pay the litigation settlements or awards (which will hopefully be numerous and massive) for such willful violations of Penn. state law. And since it seems to be so willful, arguably the mayor might be personally liable as well, and maybe the city won’t take care of his legal tab.
Too bad it won’t carry some kind of serious criminal penalty too, so that the mayor will be a ex-felon the next time he runs for office.
Those are generally the two facets of reality that can be used to deal with a loose cannon politician like this.
on 11 Apr 2008 at 1:20 pm # the wolf
Easily the most aptly named mayor in the country.
on 11 Apr 2008 at 1:20 pm # mdmhvonpa
As a resident of the outlander suburban territories of Philly, this is a real horrible thing. We have our citizens being beaten to death on train platforms in broad daylight and this ninny is making sure that we have no means to protect ourselves. Oh, sure, we will hire more swat teams to do drug raids though … right?
on 11 Apr 2008 at 2:19 pm # TTB
Question for the lawyers out there: Is armed resistance to an unconstitutional- or in this case illegal- law a protected activity? That is, is it illegal to resist arrest for violating an illegal/unconstitutional law?
I understand that such resistance may well have fatal consequences for the resistor, but is it illegal? If the cops pull their guns and the resistor then shoots one, would the courts hold that the citizen was engaging in justifiable self-defense?
My musing is this: An unconstitutional law has no legal weight, so a legal arrest cannot be made, therefore resistance is simply to an illegal armed assault.
That seems to make some sense, but I am not under any illusions that the law and sense are congruent.
on 11 Apr 2008 at 5:01 pm # Jack Denver
This “law” is contrary to Pennsylvania law and will go nowhere - cities are subdivisions of the state and they only have as much power to make “laws” as the state legislature grants them. In this case, the PA legislature has expressly withheld firearms control from local control so this purported “law” will not have any validity.
Nutter knows this as well as anyone. He obviously feels he has something to gain politically from making this otherwise meaningless gesture. Philadelphia does have a serious gun violence problem which should not be taken lightly. There is a handgun murder or two every day. Of course his proposed cure is all wrong, but I can’t blame him for wanting to try to reduce the level of violence. Other solutions, such as actually imprisoning everyone who commits a crime, would require more resources (police, jail cells, etc.) than Nutter has at his disposal and would require the imprisonment of a large portion of the population. The problem population he has to deal with (primarily young black males, many involved with the drug trade) cannot really be trusted with weapons - if you give this population guns, then sure as shootin’, they can and will use them to kill each other and now and then some innocent bystanders too. If you wait until they commit a gun crime to take away their weapons it is too late. If you single them out by race or age that is constitutionally impermissible. So as a desperate measure you try to withhold guns from everyone. Of course it’s wrong, but you have to understand where the motivation is coming from.
on 11 Apr 2008 at 5:27 pm # straightarrow
Nutter and the City Council have committed several crimes. Any police officers participating in the enforcement of those ordinances will be committing crime.
Where are the State Police and the Attorney General with the arrest warrants?
on 11 Apr 2008 at 5:55 pm # Tom
and WHO will have to pay for the legal challenges? The people. Perhaps a statewide tax credit or refund should be proposed as well as a forfeiture of salary for clearly passing unconstitutional laws that will result in the deperivation of rights AND a financial burden on the citizens of the state.
remember Always Think Forfeiture! You think there are any PA lawmakers with the balls to introduce that one?
on 12 Apr 2008 at 6:04 pm # Frank
I went out and OC’d today in Philly with a G17 with the problematic 17 round mags today - no issues at the airport terminal D, on the train to suburban station in Suburban Station or on the train back to Wayne - never even saw a LEO…..
on 13 Apr 2008 at 7:07 am # JOHNMCV
Mac…you are a true patriot..but who is going to take care of the cat.