City to enforce law on lost guns

Mayor Nutter and City Council are to announce today that police are poised to begin enforcing a new and fiercely disputed law that requires gun owners to report within 24 hours firearms that are lost or stolen.

Enforcement would actually begin in 30 days. Nutter is expected to set out during a news conference today a monthlong grace period in which owners of lost and stolen guns could come forward beyond the 24-hour limit that a new City Council ordinance requires, according to the mayor's office.

That ordinance was one of five signed by Nutter in April. In addition to establishing criminal penalties for those who fail to contact police within 24 hours of discovering their firearms missing, the laws also establish definitions and penalties for assault weapons, limit handgun purchases to one a month, and restrict gun ownership from unstable individuals or those subject to an order of protection.

All five laws were challenged in state court by the National Rifle Association, local gun owners, and firearms dealers.

Common Pleas Court Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan struck down the assault-weapon ban and one-gun-a-month limit as contrary to state law. But she ruled that the NRA and other plaintiffs could not challenge the other three laws because they had no standing to sue.

Both sides are appealing, and the case is headed to Commonwealth Court.

C. Scott Shields, representing the NRA and other plaintiffs, said he would seek an immediate injunction if city began to enforce the law.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is expected to have the final say on the legality of the city's ordinances. While the U.S. Supreme Court this month struck down a District of Columbia ban on handguns, Nutter and others noted that the court left some room in its opinion for local regulation of firearms.

The city is not yet ready to enforce the other two laws, which restrict gun ownership from those accused of domestic abuse, or individuals deemed a risk to themselves or others, said Nutter's spokesman, Doug Oliver. Those laws require regulations that are still being worked on, Oliver said.