Local municipality ordinances

**weaselchew** · February 3rd, 2009, 01:15 AM

I was thinking it might be nice to have a place to note relevant firearms related codes / ordinances for municipalities. It could be a drill down option under the "Counties" section (e.g. York could expand and list "York Township", Dallastown Borough", "Spring Garden Township", Windsor Township", "York City", and so on)

Or maybe a wiki type setup would be better so members can add/update info in their own municipality.

If not, I suppose users that feel inclined to do so could always add a thread under their respective region (what I was thinking of doing & where my idea stemmed from)

Thoughts?

**General Geoff** · February 3rd, 2009, 02:06 AM

There aren't too many municipal firearms-related codes that are valid in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania...

**Paradigm** · February 3rd, 2009, 08:33 AM

Here you go: http://www.keystatepub.com/search/search.cgi

If your borough/city/township provided info, it should be listed.

**LittleRedToyota** · February 3rd, 2009, 12:06 PM

i think it could be a really short list:

PA Consolidated Statutes; Title 18; Chapter 61 (The PA Uniform Firearms Act):

§6120. Limitation on the Regulation of Firearms and Ammunition.

(a) General rule. No county, municipality or township may in any manner regulate the lawful ownership, possession, transfer or transportation of firearms, ammunition or ammuni*tion components when carried or transported for purposes not prohibited by the laws of this commonwealth.

**Paradigm** · February 3rd, 2009, 12:21 PM

One item that might make the list of laws more robust would be "discharge" regulations.

Our borough code prohibits discharge of firearms in the borough or parks without approval. It was also written in that the Constitutions of US and PA trump any local provision.

Your local city/borough/township is likely to have differing laws.

**weaselchew** · February 3rd, 2009, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by General Geoff

There aren't too many municipal firearms-related codes that are valid in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania...

Many of the townships/boroughs in my area do have firearms-related ordinances. EDIT: I see you are talking about "valid" ordinances... As I mention below, it still would be nice to see where areas are overstepping themselves.

Originally Posted by Paradigm

Here you go: http://www.keystatepub.com/search/search.cgi

If your borough/city/township provided info, it should be listed.

That looks nice for the municipalities on the site, but it looks incomplete for the most part - I only saw 2 townships out of the dozen or so I looked for. For the most part, municipalities do not adhere to any standards for ordinances... some have searchable databases, some have PDFs or text files (or scanned pages) to look through, and some aren't even online at all.

Originally Posted by LittleRedToyota

i think it could be a really short list:

PA Consolidated Statutes; Title 18; Chapter 61 (The PA Uniform Firearms Act):

I'm referring to areas not directly covered by the PA UFA (e.g. discharging firearms, etc.) Although it would also be nice to see where municipalities are in violation as well.

Originally Posted by Paradigm

One item that might make the list of laws more robust would be "discharge" regulations.

Our borough code prohibits discharge of firearms in the borough or parks without approval. It was also written in that the Constitutions of US and PA trump any local provision.

Your local city/borough/township is likely to have differing laws.

This is what I'm talking about.

My township prohibits discharging of firearms, with a few exceptions (self-defense being one) It even prohibits discharging airguns w/o a trap inspected by the local police chief.

**gnbrotz** · February 3rd, 2009, 05:53 PM

Originally Posted by weaselchew

Many of the townships/boroughs in my area do have firearms-related ordinances. EDIT: I see you are talking about "valid" ordinances... As I mention below, it still would be nice to see where areas are overstepping themselves.

Check this thread. Be sure to visit the map noted in the first post. From there, you can see the known violations geographically and get linked back to the specific details of each.

**Statkowski** · February 3rd, 2009, 06:52 PM

A vast multitute of counties/townships/boroughs/cities have parks & recreation ordinances regulating the discharge of firearms. Since state law does not preempt such, they are within their authority to do so.

Where it gets sticky is if there's no self-defense exemption to the discharge prohibition. This, I believe, would be in violation of Article 1, Section 21 of the state's constitution.

Some counties/townships/boroughs/cities have parks & recreation ordinances prohibiting the possession of firearms. It is up to each and every one of you locally to work with your local elected officials to resolve that issue. Yes, state law does prohibit such prohibitions, but no easy mechanism exists to resolve that issue. Many of the parks & recreation ordinances were written well before preemption came into being. Getting the ordinances amended to comply can be a long, drawn-out process, but it can be done. Again, it's up to you local people to work locally.