Pennsylvania has a robust preemption law, but that hasn’t stopped anti-liberty forces from enacting infringements. A win out of Harrisburg, Pa. marked the overturn of their final illegal firearm-related ordinance.
Under Pennsylvania law, Title 18 Section 6120(a), municipalities are forbidden from preempting commonwealth law on firearms. Over the years there have been many cities and jurisdictions that ignore this provision of the law. Harrisburg, the commonwealth’s capital, had several ordinances that infringed on the rights of the people. The most recent ordinance to fall, the court says “constitutes [a] reversible error.”
The preemption law that provided the framework for the challenge states:
No county, municipality or township may in any manner regulate the lawful ownership, possession, transfer or transportation of firearms, ammunition or ammunition components when carried or transported for purposes not prohibited by the laws of this Commonwealth.
According to a post by attorney Joshua Prince, he and his law firm “secured a major victory against the City of Harrisburg’s last remaining, illegal firearm ordinance in Firearm Owners Against Crime – Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action (FOAC-ILLEA), et al. v. City of Harrisburg, et al., 1523 CD 2024.”
The ordinances in question concern the “regulation of firearms related to minors, parks, discharge and lost or stolen. …” Those specific Harrisburg ordinances pertain to sections: 3-345.1, 3-345.2, 3-345.4, 3-355.2, and 10-301.13.
Potentially the most egregious of the provisions of Harrisburg’s regulations was 3-355.2, where if the mayor calls a state of emergency in the city, it’s prohibited to sell firearms, transfer firearms, display firearms, possess in public a long gun; and deemed the “possession in a public place or park of weapons, including but not limited to firearms, bows and arrows, air rifles, slingshots, knives, razors, blackjacks, billy clubs, or missiles of any kind” unlawful.
“Whenever the City chooses to exercise its powers under the Emergency Ordinance’s provisions, its actions will place the Individual Appellants in the unenviable position of having to choose between giving up what they view as their right to armed self-defense, risking criminal prosecution, or avoiding the City to the detriment of their professional, economic, and personal interests,” the opinion says. “To deprive them of an opportunity to challenge the Emergency Ordinance merely because they have not yet been harmed by its provisions would be inimical to the very purpose of pre-enforcement standing.”
The opinion comes from the Commonwealth Court and is being remanded back down to a trial court. The trial court previously held that the emergency provision goes against the commonwealth’s preemption law. The trial court will have to issue a permanent injunction enjoining the city from enforcing the ordinances.
“Please join us in thanking Judge Wolf for upholding the law and congratulating Josh and FOAC-ILLEA for always remaining steadfast in their dedication to defending Article 1, Section 21, 18 Pa.C.S. 6120 and the Second Amendment,” the post on Prince’s website says. “We would highly encourage anyone in a financial position to do so, to donate to FOAC-ILLEA so it can continue to support important litigation defending our Rights.”
Prince’s office, Firearms Industry Consulting Group, has been systematically making short order of unconstitutional laws in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This latest legal battle took over 11 years to bring to this point and will find completion soon when the lower court issues an injunction.
For more information about the lead plaintiff, Firearm Owners Against Crime – Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action, you can visit them on the web at: foac-illea.org. Information on Prince and his office can be found at: FirermsIndustryConsultingGroup.com.
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