State gun law firing blanks -- mayor

[michaelchica]

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-...,3304273.story

Anyone who lies about lost or stolen guns would face tougher penalties under state legislation passed this week, a measure that might reshape the debate over city gun laws in the Valley.

The Democratic mayors of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton back city ordinances imposing fines or jail time on people who don't report lost or stolen handguns quickly. Allentown's City Council passed that ordinance last week, and Easton officials agreed Thursday to introduce a similar bill for a City Council vote next month.

But state gun legislation passed Wednesday made the city laws ''a moot issue,'' Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said Thursday. Under the state law's toughened penalties, anyone caught lying to police about a lost or stolen firearm would face up to two years in jail and $5,000 in fines.

Martin, a Republican, had opposed Allentown's gun law and still believes it's unenforceable and unconstitutional because, he said, only the state can control guns.



Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski disagreed with Martin on the state law's impact, saying, ''I don't think it does anything to change our ordinance.''

Unlike the city ordinance, the state law doesn't include a requirement to report lost or stolen guns, so it wouldn't make it any easier to catch people lying about their guns going missing, he said.

It's not clear how the state law might affect debates over the yet-to-be-passed gun laws in Bethlehem and Easton.

Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan said Thursday he hadn't yet read the state legislation, but he noted the city gun ordinances were always intended to spur the Legislature to pass gun laws.

''If that's happening,'' he said, ''then that's very encouraging.''

Callahan said he has held off introducing his gun ordinance while city lawyers make sure it complies with state law and recent court decisions.

The city ordinances would require handgun owners to report their weapons lost or stolen within 24 hours of discovering that they're missing. Penalties include fines of up to $1,000 or 90 days in jail.

The mayors have said the ordinances are intended to target straw purchasers -- people who buy guns, pass them along to criminals and then say the guns were lost or stolen. The city ordinances create a penalty for making that claim after the fact, the mayors said.

Similar ordinances were proposed by the Democratic mayors of Reading, York, Pottsville and Lancaster, and all are modeled on a new Philadelphia law that already faces a court challenge from the National Rifle Association.

Martin said the state law's stiffer penalties also give it the advantage over the city ordinances. ''It's a no-brainer,'' Martin said. ''What would you rather have, the potential of a 90-day sentence [and fines], or a maximum sentence of up to two years and a $5,000 fine?''

But Pawlowski responded that the new state law would still leave police the difficult job of proving that a straw purchaser was lying about losing the gun. That's no different from the current system, ''which obviously isn't working,'' he said.

The mayors have acknowledged that only the state may regulate legal guns, but ''this law is about illegal guns,'' Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said. The mayors' argument is that the guns become illegal once they're lost or stolen.

Panto added that the people who oppose the ordinance, including Martin, ''just don't understand what the bill is about.''

Martin called the mayors' distinction between legal and illegal guns ''nonsense.'' He cited a Commonwealth Court decision from two weeks ago that tossed out related Philadelphia gun laws, ruling that the city can't enact gun laws that are tougher than the state's.

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, a Democrat, could not be reached.

[adymond]

They need to get better lawyers in Bethlehem if they can't see any ordinance passed that is not done at the state level is unconstitutional.

[Dave in PA]

There should be a law that states that anybody who proposes a new law that is infact unconstitutional (state or federal) is fined, fired without pension, and jailed.

[shooter357]

I can't get passed the part where the Mayors keep talking about "illegal" guns as opposed to"legal". The state law as written has to do with what happens when it becomes "illegal". Such as straw purchases or transferring a handgun to an individual without going through an FFL. So why would they feel the need to make an ordinance that deals with the same thing and, as DA Martin noted, with a lighter sentence. They have a need to curb the violence but are going about it wrong.

[Plinker]

My money's on DA Martin on this one. As other's have said, the mayors have no clue how to fix their crime problem and trumpeting their attack on so-called "illegal guns" makes it look like their really trying to do something. Another display of symbolism over substance.

Plinker