City lawmakers take aim at NRA lawsuit

THE NATIONAL Rifle Association is gunning for a court fight with Philadelphia over the city's gun-control measures.

Yesterday, a City Council committee fired back and advanced a bill designed to help city lawyers mount a successful challenge to an NRA-filed lawsuit.

The bill, approved by the Committee on Law and Government, seeks to suspend 12 firearms ordinances currently on the city's books. The idea behind the bill is to strengthen the city's legal position by taking gun-control measures, which are either old and not enforced or already covered under state law, off the table.

The NRA, earlier this month, filed suit against Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Lancaster to overturn local gun laws that go beyond state laws. The NRA has argued that the three cities have "openly defied" a 40-year-old state law that bars municipalities from enacting ordinances that regulate the ownership, possession, transfer or transportation of guns or ammunition.

The NRA's lawsuit came in the wake of a new state law, known as Act 192, that allows groups like the NRA to file suit without having to demonstrate that a gun owner has been harmed by a local ordinance.

A lawyer representing the NRA did not immediately return a phone call from the Daily News late yesterday.

Chief Deputy City Solicitor Richie Feder, who testified before the committee, explained that the bill is part of a "legal strategy" to focus the legal debate on ordinances that the city wants to protect, such as a provision that requires gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms to the Philadelphia Police Department within 24 hours.

"If we are compelled to defend these older provisions in court, we will create a distraction from the real and important gun-violence issues that we want to raise in defense of some of Council's more recent ordinances regarding firearms," Feder testified. "Defending gun-related ordinances in court is never easy in this commonwealth. We should be doing everything within our power to enhance our ability to preserve those ordinances that are worth defending."

Shira Goodman, executive director of CeaseFire PA, testified in favor of the bill, although she asked committee members to retain one of the 12 ordinances that the bill would suspend. That measure prohibits people subject to protection-from-abuse orders from gun possession. Currently, Family Court judges can use their discretion in determining the surrender of guns, Goodman said.

"We urged Council to keep that one on the books," Goodman said. "We think that the NRA choosing to attack that ordinance really shows its motive . . . The NRA's lawsuit does not have anything to do with protecting law-abiding gun owners. They are about fighting any regulation on any level."

Feder said state law "already covers, in some detail, the relationship between gun ownership and protection-from-abuse orders."

The full Council is expected to vote on the bill early next month.