Philly, NRA and Legislature heading to court over local gun rules

[Statkowski]

Isn't everything in Title 18, the Crimes Code, a criminal statute? If not, then why would they be in the Crimes Code?

[GunLawyer001]

Originally Posted by NineseveN

Which is because, correct me if I'm wrong, when the government commits such an act, the courts tend to place great weight on actual damages and rectifying the issue rather than punishing the actions.

For example, if the cops come into my home because the neighbors are complaining of loud noise and they find that I have a bunch of my guns sitting out in the living room loaded, and they find that the noise stemmed from an argument between two people in the household, and then they take the guns (issuing a receipt) citing safety concerns even though no law was broken and they have no authority to do so under the law, the best I could hope for is a 502 motion to return property (or whatever the motion is) to rectify the issue and have my property returned. No judge in this state is going to look at the actions of the police as criminal and once I have my property returned, I don't have much standing for a lawsuit.

That sound about right?

The UFA does provide for limited civil damages (for example, if you have to sue for the return of your guns, the UFA authorizes an award of attorney fees to you). But primarily, the UFA is a criminal code, so whether you suffer damages is supposed to be irrelevant, just as when they nab someone carrying an unloaded gun in his car without a LTCF. There's no victim at all, but you'll still be prosecuted.

In practice, judges give vast deference to the cops who patrol their route from their judge mansions to their judge offices, and they all get their paychecks signed by the same small group of payors. That's one of the reasons that I like the idea of unleashing the Commonwealth AG on the City demagogues, or taking them into Federal court where the judges don't appear on the same set of organizational charts as the defendants.

[GunLawyer001]

Originally Posted by Statkowski

Isn't everything in Title 18, the Crimes Code, a criminal statute? If not, then why would they be in the Crimes Code?

There's other stuff in the UFA, like specifications for the LTCF application, implementing rules for the PICS check, stuff like that. None of that is criminal, it would be hard to argue that Philadelphia commits a new M1 every time it has a LTCF applicant fill out that second sheet of unauthorized application.

It makes sense to put all of the gun laws in the Uniform Firearm Act, even the ones that are not technically criminal statutes. By now, of course, there are other gun laws sprinkled throughout the PA statutes, from machineguns as prohibited offensive weapons, to confiscations resulting from PFA orders. But it was a nice thought.

[NineseveN]

Thanks for the info Gunlawyer001, good stuff.

[Montanya]

The part that amazes me is that a govenor will get head from a call girl and people will call for his resignation but you can violate people's 2nd amendment rights without repercussions.