Councilman Darrell Clarke

A package of gun control bills submitted by City Councilman Darrell Clarke will apparently not come up for a vote tomorrow during Council's weekly session.  Clarke last week said that the city Law Department was reviewing the proposed legislation, which was approved by Council's Committee on Public Safety.  The legislation, which could have come up for a final vote by Council tomorrow, is being amended today and then held.

The legislation would limit handgun purchases to one a month, require owners to report lost or stolen guns to police, allow police to confiscate guns from people considered a risk to themselves or others, require a license from police to bring a gun into the city, ban semiautomatic weapons with clips that hold more than 10 rounds and establish a registry for ammunition sales.

Council passed the same legislation last year but it was not enforced because it called for matching state legislation.  Clarke sued the state after that legislation never happened.  The state is now seeking to have that lawsuit dismissed, arguing that only the General Assembly has the power to regulate guns in Pennsylvania. A 1996 ruling by the state Supreme Court upheld that argument.

The state House yesterday voted down 128-75 legislation that would have required handgun owners across the state to report lost or stolen guns to law enforcement agencies within 72 hours of learning that the weapon was missing. 

Ultimately, Clarke's legislation is designed to provoke a Constitutional fight with the state that could lead to a re-hearing of the Supreme Court's 1996 decision on gun regulation.