Posted on 02/10/2022 3:41:27 AM PST by marktwain
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Governor Tom Wolf has vetoed Pennsylvania Bill HB 979 on 4 February 2022.
The bill would have imposed penalties on Pennsylvania municipalities that violate Pennsylvania law. HB 979 passed the Pennsylvania House with 124 to 79 votes on June 8th, 2021. It passed the Pennsylvania Senate on January 25, 2022, with 32 to 17 votes.
As promised, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has vetoed a Republican-penned bill that would punish municipalities from enacting firearm ordinances stricter than Pennsylvania law.
The legislation, authored by state Rep. Matthew Dowling, R-Fayette, that would make towns and cities responsible for all legal costs in successful court challenges to local restrictions, was approved by the GOP-controlled General Assembly last week.
In Pennsylvania, a two-thirds vote in both chambers of the legislature is necessary for a veto override. In the House, HB 979 received 61% of the vote. In the Senate, HB 979 received 65% of the vote. An override of the veto is highly unlikely.
Pennsylvania has a strong firearms pre-emption law to ensure the uniformity of firearms law across the state. When the law was passed, it was assumed local governments would obey the law. It was a bad assumption. Over 50 local governments have snubbed their nose at the state law. HB 979 is the current attempt to bring the scofflaw governments to heel.
(1) A person adversely affected by any manner of ordinance, resolution, rule, practice or other action promulgated or enforced by a county, municipality or township in violation of subsection (a) or 53 Pa.C.S. § 306(a) (relating to regulation of firearms and ammunition) or 2962(g) (relating to limitation on municipal powers), may seek declarative and injunctive relief and the actual damages attributable
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
Government flagrently and proudly disobeys the law, but we are expected to toe the line and be perfect saints.
Effing a-holes.
I don’t have all the details on what happened here, but I think the governor of Pennsylvania acted stupidly.
King Wolf is a tyrant of the worst sort, and it took two Constitutional amendments passed by voters in May 2021 to defang him and end his perpetual emergency declaration. But with everything else, the Democrats in the state legislature back him to the fullest.
The state’s preemption law is an affirmative defense to any local violation charges. The offending law would then be struck down.
The State Attorney General could also file suit against cities passing laws that run afoul of the preemption laws.
So what would this law accomplish?
Thus, the cities cannot be protected by the AGs who refuse to uphold the law.
When they are held to account, they change their tune.
It would punish city governments who violate the pre-emption laws with local ordinances or administrative rulings.
Laws without punishment features can be and are routinely violated by local governments. The city may lose on a lawsuit, but their policy is "Go ahead and sue, we got more lawyers than you".
It is expensive to challenge a local ordinance and even when the plaintiff wins, they are out a bunch of money. Meanwhile the city can still try to revise the offending ordinance, and the same officials are still running the city government.
The proposed law would change the balance of power in that sort of conflict.
Wait, so this benefits gun owners? The legal language here is confusing.
Governor Wolf is term limited. A new governor will be chosen this November.
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Hope Republicans are making this governorship election a priority — from President Trump on down.
Yes.
Pre-emption laws, in this context, forbid local governments at the city and country level from passing ordinances which are more restrictive of gun ownership than what state laws permit.
The usual problem with pre-emption laws in states that have them is that there is no penalty for violating them. City governments in metropolitan areas are always trying to restrict ownership or use of firearms by law-abiding people in their jurisdictions.
Under a pre-emption law, a lunatic leftist city council cannot pass an ordinance which forbids possession of firearms within the city limits or requires registration and liability insurance to own firearms.
Yes, this just happened in California, but they do not have a pre-emption law. And their governments absolutely do not want any law-abiding citizens to have firearms for any reason. They encourage "local control" on this topic in order to produce a chaotic and inconsistent collection of "rules" that make it too risky for law-abiding citizens to own firearms
Criminals are not affected, of course. Criminals are allies and shock troops for the government as long as they target the correct victims.
Not doubting you at all, but why did leftist Wolf support this?
He did not support this. He vetoed a proposed stronger pre-emption law with penalties to the local governments who violate it. If he ever said anything favorable about the proposal it was a lie to appease the factions that were bringing it up.
This directly encourages local urban governments, who are dominated by Leftists, to ignore or violate the existing pre-emption laws. After all, there are no real consequences to them for trying. And it is too expensive for individual plaintiffs to resist with lawsuits.
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