The NRA in Pennsylvania - Tampering With the Legislative Process

This is not an anti-gun or anti-Second Amendment screed. It is simply an account of a recent example of the ability of the National Rifle Association (NRA) to influence state and local legislation.

In the State of Pennsylvania, many local municipalities have had ordinances on their books relating to guns and gun ownership. They were written to deal with common sense situations, the most notable being the “lost or stolen” ordinances - local laws requiring gun owners to notify police when a firearm goes missing.

Pennsylvania state law has prohibited local officials from passing their own gun laws since 1974. But many municipalities have had rules that, for example, banned firearms from public property as well as the lost or stolen ordinances.

Late last year, Act 192 was passed, effectively giving the NRA the opportunity to overturn these measures. The process surrounding the enactment of the bill is most curious. The timeline went like this:

- January 10, 2013 - Pennsylvania House Bill 80 is referred to the Judiciary Committee.

It reads: “ Amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, defining the offense of theft of secondary metal; and prescribing penalties.

- Through the first half of 2013, H.B. 80 wended its way through the usual process, spending time being reviewed by the Rules Committee and Appropriations Committee and then back to the Judiciary Committee on June 28.

- Nothing more was done to the bill for a year until June 24, 2014. It was reported as amended, but was still a measure penalizing the theft of metals like copper and aluminum.

- It was again amended on October 6, still remaining a theft of metals bill.

- October 15, 2014 - H. B. 80 is amended to add: “and, in firearms and other dangerous articles, further providing for Pennsylvania State Police and for limitation on the regulation of firearms and ammunition.”

- November 4, 2014 - Republican Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett loses to Democrat Tom Wolf in the general election, with 45% of the vote to 55% for Wolf.

- Nov. 5, 2014 - H.B. 80 signed in House.

- Nov. 6, 2014 - H.B. 80 signed in Senate.

- Nov. 6, 2014 - H.B. 80 presented to Governor Corbett.

- Nov. 6, 2014 - H.B. 80 approved by Governor Corbett, becoming Act 192.

It has been reported that in his haste to sign the bill, Governor Corbett signed the wrong version and had to be called back for a second signing.

From a story on January 29th in The Daily Beast:

“The NRA quickly used its newfound legal power, suing a number of municipalities and threatening others to get them to back down. The amendment as written says an organization does not need what’s known as “standing”—in other words, the NRA doesn’t have to prove someone has been harmed by a gun safety law. It can just outright sue, and if it wins, the city or town has to pay the group’s legal expenses. But there’s no risk to the NRA; if it loses, it doesn’t pay the winning side’s legal expenses.

“Ed Foley, the mayor of Jenkintown, a borough in the Philadelphia suburbs, told the Daily Beast that the NRA forced him ‘to choose between public safety and financial solvency.’ Foley describes Jenkintown on his Twitter account as ‘0.6 square miles of the best place to live, dine, shop, and raise a family.’ With a population of 4,500 and a budget of $6.5 million, ‘We can’t afford to defend a law suit even if we win it, and if we lose, we have to pay their legal fees. That’s a form of blackmail,’ he says, ‘or maybe extortion is a better word.’

“Under the threat of a lawsuit brought by the NRA, an ordinance in place since 2010 requiring Jenkintown residents to report lost or stolen firearms at the police station was rescinded in a public meeting. ’It was a hold-your-nose vote,’ says Foley. ‘It’s such an innocuous law, and it doesn’t do anything to restrict anybody’s right to have a gun. I don’t know why the NRA isn’t a bigger supporter of the police. The police want the law.’

“Mayor Richard Gray of Lancaster, a city of some 60,000 known for its distinctive Amish population, is also determined to protect its requirement that lost or stolen firearms are reported to the police within 72 hours. ‘The NRA is trying to bully smaller communities,’ Gray told the Beast.  ‘I learned in junior high school the one way to deal with a bully is to stand up to him, so we’re not backing down. And if they lose, over a hundred communities will pass the same law. I guarantee it.’”

It was reported in December in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that other Pennsylvania municipalities have begun the process of removing their ordinances: Homestead, West Mifflin, White Oak, Castle Shannon, Duquesne, Liberty, Munhall and Wilkinsburg, motivated by the fear of litigation prompted by Act 192.

The cities of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Lancaster are challenging the law’s constitutionality before the Commonwealth Court, based on Pennsylvania law dictating that amendments to laws must be germane to the intent of the original bill.

What happened to House Bill 80 (Act 192) between October 6, when it was a secondary metals bill, and October 15 when, with a hastily added amendment, it also became a bill empowering the NRA to sue municipalities for enacting gun laws? In the final weeks of the gubernatorial election, was the handwriting on the wall regarding the outcome?

The NRA, in concert with ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, regularly insert themselves into the legislative process at the State and local level. It happened with impunity in Pennsylvania in this most recent example, and it happens across the country. So very long ago in my Civics classes, I don’t remember learning that it was done this way.

D. Norman