Posted: 9/17/2008 1:50:37 AM EDT
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Nice photo on the front page of the Reading Eagle of 2 Mayors breaking Pa. State Law. Next they will be spending taxpayer money to defend their illegal activities. Story below. Pete A. Mayors, meeting in Reading, back requiring the reporting of lost or stolen handguns By Don Spatz Reading Eagle Irked at the state Legislature, mayors of seven area cities, including Reading, announced in City Hall on Tuesday that they plan to introduce ordinances in their cities requiring handgun owners to report lost or stolen weapons within 24 hours. "We are doing it because our representatives on the state level do not have the courage to stand up and pass legislation for gun safety," said Mayor Rick Gray of Lancaster, referring to a bill that has been bottled up in the House Judiciary Committee since November. "This is something where the General Assembly should be carrying the ball," Gray said. "But the General Assembly is sitting on the bench and is not in the game." An eighth mayor, Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, which passed a similar measure this year, attended the meeting to support the others. State Rep. Thomas R. Caltagirone, a Reading Democrat who's chairman of the state House Judiciary Committee, said he's tried for years to move the bill, but doesn't have the votes. The last time, in November, all Republicans and half the Democrats on the 29-member panel voted against moving it out of committee, and there's no hope for it in this legislative session that ends in two weeks. "I've tried everything humanly possible," he said. "When you don't have the votes, what are you going to do?" Reading Mayor Tom McMahon, who organized the coalition of mayors, said he'd introduce an ordinance in City Council next week that would require owners to report lost or stolen handguns within 24 hours or be subject to a $1,000 fine. The mayors of the other cities - Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Lancaster, Pottsville and York - also said they plan to introduce similar ordinances in the coming weeks. The mayors said that many times police departments trace a handgun used in a crime back to its registered owner, who claims that the weapon was lost or stolen. Mandatory reporting of theft or loss would give police a head start in tracking down the weapon, the mayors said. The mayors claimed that 500,000 handguns are stolen each year and that 90 percent of them end up in the hands of criminals. They also said a poll conducted for the group CeaseFire PA shows 96 percent of state residents and 92 percent of gun owners support the reporting requirement. "We go to the Legislature and continue to push for common-sense gun laws, and time and time again we are ignored," Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski said. "We will take this into our own hands." Philadelphia City Council defeated a lawsuit filed by the National Rifle Association against the ordinance the city had passed this year. "This is not a Second Amendment issue," Nutter told the other mayors, referring to the constitutional right of a citizen to own weapons. "There's no rational argument why law-abiding gun owners would have a problem reporting lost or stolen weapons." •Contact reporter Don Spatz at 610-371-5027 or [email protected]. |
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...all the rage in gun control legislation. When you're not happy with the law of the land, go ahead and make up your own! Don't let a little thing like a ruling by the State Supreme Court (TWICE!), who said that these 'ordnances defy the state constitution', slow you down. If a firearm, stolen in Texas, is used in a crime in Reading; does the Reading DA plan to prosecute the licensed owner in Texas for not reporting the stolen firearm to each of the municipalities that have passed these BS ordinances? What if you are on vacation and return home to find your safe cut open, and your firearms missing? Since you didn't file a police report within 24hrs, congratulations...you are now a criminal. If anything, I think this would discourage gun owners from reporting legitimate thefts if more than 24hrs had passed. How do these municipalities actually hope to enforce this nonsense? |
you know this shit is made up. If they were stolen, then by definition, 100 percent of the handguns end up in the hands of criminals. |
 Well 5 out of 4 people ARE bad at math...
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