The city gets two gun laws outright thrown out before anyone has even tried to enforce them, and the other three are dismissed on standing, which is not the same as the laws being upheld, the city has gone and declared victory. Now the AP seems to have gotten it right, but the city media? Hook, line and sinker baby. Joe Grace, I have to hand it to you. You’re a brash and brazen scheister, but you’re good. Anyone who can do media relations for a guy as corrupt and crooked as John Street has to be.
The Philadelphia Metro should be ahsamed of itself, though. When you’re just a propaganda arm of City Government, what good are you as journalists? Are you doing any service to the citizens of Philadelphia?
I have a copy of the audio segment where the mayor answers my question. The question wasn’t submitted under my alias, so don’t listen for Sebastian :) It starts right off with the gun issue.
In a carefully crafted bit of revenge, done gun blogosphere style, I have a very embarassing photo of SayUncle taken at the Second Amendment Blogger Bash to share with everyone.
Traction Control takes the City of New York to task for their program of destruction of firearms, and says it makes about as much sense as burning money seized off of drug dealers. In a manner of speaking, the city is burning money. Law abiding folks would pay good money for those guns.
The state senate has put the brakes on the smoking ban. Rendell’s Prescription for taking away the rights and freedoms away from citizens of Pennsylvania will have to wait.
… it’s the size of your sausage. I can see the confrontation with law enforcement now:
Cop: “Sir, I notice you’re carrying a knife. Do you have a sausage on you?”
Me: “Why yes, and I can assure you, it’s of sufficient size and variety.”
Cop: “I’ll have to ask you to show me the sausage.”
Me: “What, right here on the street?”
Cop: “If it’s of the size and variety to justify you having that knife, then you have nothing to worry about sir.”
Me: “Oh, it’s big enough alright. A might bit larger than most people carry, I’d wager. When it comes to sausages, I only carry around the best.”
Cop: “Well, they say it doesn’t matter how big it is, it’s what you do with it, and what you do with it better be cutting it up, or I’m taking you in for that knife.”
A fallen empire, indeed. And it’s a pity, I think.
UPDATE: Bonus reaction from cop “Don’t play hide the salami with me sir! Let’s see it.”
KYW actually read my question on the air this morning at about 8:36AM. I was in my car on my way to work. His response basically was that I was incorrect. That his laws were not, in fact, violating the constitution, and that he respects the second amendment. His laws, you see, are only meant to go after criminals. They aren’t meant to target law abiding gun owners. And what reason do law abiding gun owners have to own an assault weapon anyway?  Well, Mr. Mayor, under your law, all the following are assault weapons:
AR-15 National Match Rifle. Most popular target rifle sold today. Banned for having a pistol grip.
Olympic Target Pistol. Banned for having a magazine outside the grip
Ruger 10/22 USA Shooting Team Rifle – Banned for having a thumbhole stock
Competition Target Pistol – Banned for having a magazine outside of the grip
Ruger Charger – Banned for having detachable magazine outside of grip
M1A National Match Rifle – Banned because it has a muzzle compensator.
Now, Mr. Mayor, do you care to try, once again, to tell me I’m wrong? The city ordinances do affect sport shooters Mr. Mayor. Either you’re a fool, because you believe what Joe Grace of CeaseFire PA, and your advisors are telling you, without asking real experts, or you are dishonest for deliberately misleading the citizens of Philadelphia and of this Commonwealth. Either way, it doesn’t look good.
I was happy that the reporter asked a follow up question, from a questioner asking how he expected gun control to be effective in Philadelphia when it hasn’t been effective in Washington DC at reducing crime. The Mayor doged that question by suggesting that things in DC were “complicated” and that it wasn’t a simple problem. He then went to provide the example of New York City, which has what he called “more reasonable” gun laws (New York law amounts to near total prohibition, BTW, except for the rich and famous) and has managed to lower its crime rate.  The reporter fired back at him, again using part of this reader’s question which stated that New York City’s gun laws were decades old, and crime only recently began to drop there.  Mayor Nutter dodged again, suggesting the questioner come live in Philadelphia for a bit, and then see if he feels the same way about gun control.  Well, I can be pretty sure if I had to live there, I would cling to my guns like the most bitter and religious person Barack Obama could possibly imagine!
UPDATE: I originally had an .17HMR rifle and a shotgun in there, but upon further review of the law, neither of those firearms qualified. I have replaced them with better examples.
A Philadelphia judge yesterday sided with the National Rifle Association and struck down city ordinances banning assault weapons and limiting handgun purchases to one a month.
In a blow to the city’s attempt to write its own gun laws, Common Pleas Court Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan ruled that Philadelphia should be permanently prevented from enforcing the laws that City Council passed unanimously in April.
But Greenspan gave city officials a consolation prize by declining to strike down three other laws on procedural grounds, indicating that the NRA and other plaintiffs did not have legal standing to challenge those laws.
The laws that remain standing, for now:
The three laws Greenspan allowed to stand permit judges to remove guns from people declared to be a risk to themselves or others, prevent people subject to protection-from-abuse orders from owning guns, and require gun owners to report the loss or theft of a gun to police within 24 hours.
Oliver said the city would immediately begin to enforce the law requiring gun owners to report lost guns. He said the other two laws would require enforcement regulations.
Shields said it was only a matter of time, as the city attempted to enforce the laws, until the NRA would locate aggrieved parties who could act as plaintiffs.
This fight will continue. Note that the judge didn’t allow the three laws to stand on merit, she allowed them to stand because the plantiffs in the case didn’t have standing to challenge them. Standing is often used by courts when they want to dodge issues. I’m not familiar with Pennsylvania’s standing doctrines, but I would suggest that the ruling makes sense by legal reasoning, even if we don’t particularly like the outcome.
