PHILADELPHIA, PA –-(Ammoland.com)- Gun Owners of America (GOA) and Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) have teamed up with four Philadelphians to sue Philadelphia over banning their residents from making their own firearms.
PA Code Title 18, Section 6120 creates preemption in Pennsylvania. The law explicitly prohibits localities from making their own gun laws. Philadelphia has ignored the law and has lost in court three times trying to defend laws that run afoul of the State statute. Lawmakers in the City of Brotherly Love have continued to pass laws that have little to no chance of standing up to a legal challenge. Gun rights advocates believe the laws are put in place to burden gun owners.
“It’s not that the Mayor and City Council don’t know they can’t pass these laws, it’s that they don’t care” said Andrew Austin, one of the attorneys representing the Plaintiffs. “It’s more important for them to get a news headline by passing an illegal law than it is for them to actually help their citizens. It’s a real shame.”
Dr. Val Finnell, the Pennsylvania Director for GOA, agrees with Austin’s assertion that certain anti-gun localities don’t care about the State’s preemption laws and just pass these laws at the expense of the taxpayer’s dollars to capture headlines for political theater.
“Cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh continue to violate the preemption law and attack the Constitutional rights of their citizens with impunity,” Dr. Finnell said. “This latest effort is part of a coordinated strategy with PA’s anti-gun Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, to ban homemade firearms statewide and nationally,”
Homemade firearms have been at the center of controversy in Pennsylvania.
State Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, has made it his crusade to ban unfinished frames and receivers and doesn’t seem concerned with Philadelphia overstepping its legal authority to make local laws that are at odds with State law. Shapiro has attacked lawful vendors of unfinished frames and receivers in the media and the court of public opinion.
Sharipo and State Rep Amen Brown teamed with the help of Firearms Owners Against Crime (FOAC) president Kim Stolfer to pressure Eagle Arms to ban unfinished frames and receivers from its gun shows. The move hurt JSD Supply which is a Pennsylvania business. Stolfer and Brown have stated that they wanted a paper trail of people buying firearms. The two men claimed that people were buying kits by the hundreds at the gun shows.
AmmoLand spoke to an investigator in the AG’s office that investigates the sale of these unfinished kits on the condition of anonymity. Even though that investigator believes the kits should be serialized, they said that the statement made by the three men is misleading at best and a lie at worst. AmmoLand was told there wasn’t a single documented case of someone buying hundreds of Polymer80 kits. The source said throughout a show, someone will have multiple people purchase kits for them. Over two days, it can add up to the dozens, but no one has seen hundreds.
AmmoLand’s anonymous source says the rumor of hundreds of kits sold was started by another vendor who reported a customer had purchased $38,000 worth of kits. The vendor also provided pictures of the buyers as well as license plates. Our source says the amount spent at the booth by that customer was closer to $3,800. Unfinished frames and receivers Vendors at the gun shows have been under surveillance by the AGs office for months, and a sale that size would have been noticed.
GOA reached out to help JSD Supply when politicians and even so-called “gun rights” activists started attacking the company for selling in “certain areas.” JSD Supply refused to back down and have activity fought against what they see as a racist attack against its customers. The company has teamed up with GOA to push back against “ghost guns” laws in Pennsylvania and nationally.
Gun Owners of America says they are “drawing a line in the sand starting with Philadelphia to protect the rights of citizens to build their own guns nationwide.”
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
Become a GOA life member, they have an easy payment plan and don’t try to sell you insurance.
Can’t have only judgements that overturn illegal conduct. Need punitive damages against the city and the individuals who are deliberately and not giving a damn about violating the state law and violating rights.
needs jail time for the people knowingly doing this and 18 months for second offense so they are band from owning guns
Felony perjury charges for the city gummit dweebs violating their oaths of office. Then no guns, and never hold public office again. DOuble win.
Some time in the ol CrowBar Hotel would also be of great benefit. Whilst cooling their heels in da joint, maybe they could spend a few seconds pondering their deceitful ways, and using the public trust (the vots they got or bought)b against the very public they are sworn to SERVE.
I’ve been a FOAC member for a few years now, thinking I might move to Pennsylvania; geographically ideal, politically not so much. It looks like it is time to reconsider this membership.
FOAC used to be good, but have been sliding downhill for at least the last decade. But, even if they have issues legislatively, normally they are the ones filing all of the law suits in PA. After Kim sided with Brown and Shapiro on hairy scary ghost guns, several of our prominent gun rights attorneys cautioned us against flushing FOAC down the toilet too quickly on the basis that no one else is suing in PA. With this suit GOA is not only firing a shot across the bow of Shapiro, and Philadelphia, but FOAC as well. GOA is making… Read more »
You are misinformed… Crump is flat out lying in his journalism these days libeling FOAC trying to push GOA (of which he is a state director) into more prominence. It’s unfortunate but they seem to be determined to fight other 2nd Amendment organizations that actually do good in PA. They’re going to force FOAC to file a suit to stop the lies.
I am morally opposed to lying and attacking other 2nd Amendment groups trying to further ones own status when its your own actions that have damaged your credibility so yes I do have a problem with GOA, but Crump is a liar and I can not stomach that in journalism. I am a GOA member but only because I believe in the cause… the leadership in PA and VA are highly suspect.
Crump… your lying in the media is getting worse. FOAC never teamed up with Shapiro, and nobody from FOAC pressured Eagle Arms. Eagle Arms approached FOAC for help standing up for their rights and to protect the show so the vendors wouldn’t get shut out of the location. Crump you are a liar. Nobody claimed hundreds in a single purchase either, but I believe the count was 78 in one purchase. You are unethical and you should be sued for this intentional false journalism. As Virginia State Director of GOA (something you leave out in your libel) that organization may… Read more »