I contacted the PA office of attorney general and got the following reply...

[Tmygun]

Dear Mr.:

The Criminal Law Division of the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General is in receipt of your recent email. You may contact us at (717) 783-9995 and speak to an attorney regarding your question about Pennsylvania firearms laws.

I sent this email about two weeks ago about Philly's illegal "Florida loophole law" and received this reply today. Should I call? Will I get anywhere with it? Maybe others here with more knowledge of all things law can also call and make a better presentation.

Anyway, I thought I'd just throw this out there to show that at least they replied back to me.

Tmygun

[Ten*K]

Well... call em!

[soberbyker]

Well, I just gave them a call. A woman answered and I told her the nature of my question and she patched me in to another line. I got an answering machine of a rep. and left my name, number, and the question I had. So let's see if they call me back.
I'll give an update if they do call back.

Tmygun:-)

George Ziser? (or something like that)

If so he's pretty good at getting back to you. I called a few years ago about the DELCO Sheriff and his LTCF practices. Not sure if you'll get the same answer for this issue but the answer I got was basically the AG's office is only jurisdictionally responsible for reciprocity agreements. He also said that he can't/won't offer an opinion on anything that doesn't have case law to back it up.

.

[PaBimmerGuy]

i once got an off the record answer from a lawyer at the ags office. the rest of the time they say that they are not allowed to offer interpretations for anyone other than state agencies.

[Ed in PA]

To me, this whole "We won't do anything to overturn it" crap really pisses me off. They wait until you have to fight it in court (spending real money to do so). Sadly, it's not just this way in the AGs office (nor just about firearm laws.) A few years ago I got a speeding ticket in City of Pittsburgh. I took it to traffic court. The judge told me that he knew the limit could not be enforced in that area but he did not care. I had to pay the fine.

I know the rant was off-topic but I just wanted to bring to light how messed up the enforcement of laws are these days.

[HiredGoon]

Yes, that was the man I talked to today. He basically told me it's an illegal law but that they're not doing anything at present to overturn it.

WHY NOT????????????????

[Edg]

To me, this whole "We won't do anything to overturn it" crap really pisses me off. They wait until you have to fight it in court (spending real money to do so). Sadly, it's not just this way in the AGs office (nor just about firearm laws.) A few years ago I got a speeding ticket in City of Pittsburgh. I took it to traffic court. The judge told me that he knew the limit could not be enforced in that area but he did not care. I had to pay the fine.

I know the rant was off-topic but I just wanted to bring to light how messed up the enforcement of laws are these days.

That is how our system works, until there is precedence there is nothing. Judges have a lot of power.

[soberbyker]

Yes, that was the man I talked to today. He basically told me it's an illegal law but that they're not doing anything at present to overturn it. He just told me that if I'm stopped I may be harrassed or arrested, and that I may need a lawyer to have the charges thrown out. But he said the charges wouldn't stick because of PA preemption.
That was about as far as I got with it, and that's good enough for me. I've been carrying with my FL license anyway, and I will continue to do so. If I'm arrested, the city of philadelphia can expect a nice lawsuit:-)

Tmygun

WHY NOT????????????????

That's a good question. He didn't sound like he really wanted to get into it. Maybe if more people here call and voice thier concern about this illegal law he'll push the matter higher up the chain.
You know what they say about the squeeky wheel....

Tmygun

George is a nice enough guy, however the few times I talked with him the results were the same, they know such and such BUT won't don't anything about it. He also mentioned case law a lot when I dealt with him. What I get from that is the AG won't bother with anything where case law hasn't spelled out the specifics of things. Written laws don't matter, only law that has been defined in a court.

.

[/dev/null]

A bit off topic and probably suited best for a new thread, but how about we ALL start reaching out to our reps to get a NEW law on the books.... one that puts some teeth into punishing the lawmakers that actually create this crap. Say something with a monetary impact to the actual lawmakers that passed the bogus law and some jail time to go with it.

Id love to see a few of these folks think twice before introducing obvious conflicting legislation. Isn't the city solicitor supposed to advise these idiots before they pass there own rules? could the problem lie therein?

[gbrown221]

Yes, that was the man I talked to today. He basically told me it's an illegal law but that they're not doing anything at present to overturn it. He just told me that if I'm stopped I may be harrassed or arrested, and that I may need a lawyer to have the charges thrown out. But he said the charges wouldn't stick because of PA preemption.
That was about as far as I got with it, and that's good enough for me. I've been carrying with my FL license anyway, and I will continue to do so. If I'm arrested, the city of philadelphia can expect a nice lawsuit:-)

Tmygun

As I pointed out in many other threads that many PPD uppedr echelon includinjg Lt. Healy believe the law to be preempted.

Additionally until someone is charged it would be tough to for anyone to have standing. It's kinds hard to fight a law that no one has been charged with yet to date. Does anyone know if Philly has actually charged anyone yet with this bogus law?