By Dustin Slaughter
The National Rifle Association will now be able to sue municipalities to overturn local gun ordinances, Bill Hangley reports at Newsworks.
State legislators in Harrisburg passed the bill yesterday. Governor Tom Corbett is expected to sign the measure into law.
When the new bill goes into effect, a likely target for gun rights groups will be laws that require gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms. Philadelphia is one of about 20 Pennsylvania cities that have passed that kind of reporting law.
Advocates for the legislation contend that this law will merely force towns and cities to remain consistent with state law, which generally takes a more lenient view of gun rights.
Opponents take a different view. Philadelphia Democratic Senator Larry Farnese told Newsworks:
“The fact is that the NRA had difficulty getting the plaintiffs to come into court and sue. So they circumvented the legal process. We gave them the status of U.S. citizens, and we gave it to an organization, and only to them.”
Critics also claim that this legislation would have “a chilling effect on local governments’ ability to legislate.”
Read Bill Hangley’s report “PA OK’s Measure Allowing NRA to Sue Towns Over Gun Laws” at Newsworks.
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