“The government of today has no right to tell us how to run our lives because the government of 200 years ago already did!” – Danny Devito, ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’
In a completely (un)shocking twist, more people are up in arms about potentially stricter gun laws in the country that harbors both the most guns per capita and the most gun deaths per capita. (Disclaimer: That’s probably not a coincidence.)
In Pennsylvania, local governments in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Lancaster have imposed measures that include the following, per AP: “require owners to report lost or stolen firearms; prohibit guns from city-owned facilities; and ban weapons possession by people subject to protection-from-abuse orders or who are found to pose a risk of “imminent harm” to themselves or others.” Sounds pretty reasonable, right? Apparently not, says the NRA.
The NRA has sued the cities of Philadelphia, Lancaster, and Pittsburgh for their perfectly valid imposition of gun control measures. In defense of the bizarre lawsuit, Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, had this to say: “The three cities have ‘openly defied’ a 40-year-old state law that forbids municipalities from regulating firearms.”
The NRA certainly has never been a breeding ground for common sense or attentiveness. The cries from their corner usually sound more like “They’re taking our guns away! This is my second amendment right,” but this might be even worse under the surface.
The cities taking this action evidently are more than aware that any type of reasonable law formally taking away people’s guns would never pass through. So they’ve chosen rather to take a step toward trying to take guns out of the hands of those who pose the most significant threat to the public, first and foremost.
But unfortunately for these perfectly reasonable politicians, former Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett, two days after losing his bid for reelection, bitterly signed a bill allowing the NRA to sue cities and towns regulating control, citing such an act as “infringing upon individual rights”. If there’s anything more outrageous and incomprehensibly selfish than refusing to take guns out of even dangerous people’s hands, it’s the fact that it is now legal in Pennsylvania to sue over such grievances.
Philadelphia, Lancaster and Pennsylvania are fighting Corbett’s bill in court, alleging lawmakers didn’t follow constitutional procedure for passing legislation. The NRA filed its lawsuits on Tuesday, February 3. Though the eventual outcome remains unclear, the outlook is bleak for the sensible men and women looking to help get guns off the streets.
