The mayor of Pittsburgh has proposed three anti-gun statutes that would ban semi-automatic rifles, a variety of accessories, and allow the confiscation of firearms (Photo: Bill Peduto Facebook)
Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto has been a busy boy. Last week he was in Paris grandstanding about climate change, and now he’s sticking his proverbial finger in the eye of the Pennsylvania state legislature by proposing a trio of anti-gun measures in direct contradiction to the state’s firearms preemption law.
Joined by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Pittsburgh City Council members Corey O’Connor and Erika Strassburger, Peduto held a press conference announcing the usual buffet of gun ban propositions: an “assault weapons” ban, an accessories/magazine/ammunition ban, and a gun confiscation scheme.
“No one in America wants a country where guns make our schools unsafe for children, families afraid in places of worship, and where our streets are stained every day with innocent blood,” Peduto said in a press release. “The morality we all share, across every race, gender, ethnicity, region and religion, compels us to take action.”
But like Mayor Peduto’s international climate change efforts, his anti-gun measures appear to be more for show than anything else.
Like many states in the Union, Pennsylvania prohibits local municipalities from passing ordinances that contradict state law. As 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 6120 clearly states:
No county, municipality or township may in any manner regulate the lawful ownership, possession, transfer or transportation of firearms, ammunition or ammunition components when carried or transported for purposes not prohibited by the laws of this Commonwealth.
In a 1996 challenge to Pennsylvania’s preemption law, Ortiz v. Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania explained the reasoning behind the statute:
Because the ownership of firearms is constitutionally protected, its regulation is a matter of statewide concern. The constitution does not provide that the right to bear arms shall not be questioned in any part of the commonwealth except Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, where it may be abridged at will, but that it shall not be questioned in any part of the commonwealth. Thus, regulation of firearms is a matter of concern in all of Pennsylvania, not merely in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the General Assembly, not city councils, is the proper forum for the imposition of such regulation.
In other words, if the Pennsylvania General Assembly hasn’t seen fit to ban semi-automatic rifles, Pittsburgh has no right to act on its own.
But as a member of the #resist movement, Peduto plans to #resist until he can’t #resist any more.
His “assault weapons” ban would prohibit city residents from manufacturing, selling, purchasing, transporting, carrying, storing, or otherwise holding any semi-automatic rifle, pistol, or shotgun deemed to have too many scary features and accessories.
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The accessories/magazine/ammunition ban would prohibit the possession of magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds, “armor-piercing” ammunition (which includes all-copper bullets), bump stocks, binary triggers, suppressors, and “semi-auto modifications.” The ordinance defines this last prohibited item as any part or accessory that “accelerates the rate of fire of a semi-automatic firearm,” which may include lightened triggers.
Finally, Peduto has also proposed an extreme risk protection order law. As with similar laws recently passed around the country, the statue would allow law enforcement, family, and household members to petition a court to seize a person’s firearms if they believe the person presents a danger to themselves or others.
The mayor’s “trio of common-sense measures” must still be passed by the city council, which plans to hold debates and hearings in the coming weeks. Click here to access the city council’s calendar.
It’s a crime that Deputo got elected Mayor. I will monitor this and see if the ban becomes law for the city.
In the next election, people of Pitt should consider removal of Mayor’s armed security detail so that him and
his family are without armed protection, just like the rest of citizens he is supposed to protect and serve.
This is an abuse of the people’s trust by one who is to serve them, not to order them into his willful antics.
The 2nd amendment was chiseled in because of people like this man. He is a despot.
Maybe Deputo thinks he can save the world by removing guns from the ordinary people of America?
Are you serious? We thought we got rid of all the despots after we kicked the British out!
New York City had over 2,000 homicides recorded in 1990. However, with a population of 8.6 million the number of homicides reported for 2018 was 287, yes 287. The gun laws are strict in NYC, but no more strict today than in 1990. The approach in 1990 was not to punish law abiding citizens who own guns. That approach is for mindless bureaucrats who seek to appeal to a knee jerk constituency, knowing full this has never worked in the past and hoping it will work now, (Einstein’s definition of insanity). NYC tried the Police Commissioner William Bratton comprehensive approach to policing a city. Needless to say it worked. Bratton, years later, became Chief of Police in Los Angeles. Guess what? It worked again. Why not look into successful ideas rather than not making a difference in an effort to ban firearms in the long. NYC is now the safest big city in the world. A great city like can do the same; if that’s what it really wants.
Want crime control ? Elect a conservative. Just look how every liberal communist democratic run city crime rates is : out of control…. . Shit holes of crime . Just like Chicago . Check out the Chicago crime statistics at : http://www.heyjackass.com
Pittsburgh (22) and Philadelphia (24) are in the top 25 cities in the country with Pittsburgh averaging 18.57 and Philadelphia 17.86 murders per 100,000 people. So the answer is to confiscate guns from law abiding citizens rendering them unable to defend themselves from the scumbag criminals terrorizing their cities? Typical lib/dem agenda. Can’t think logically to address a problem. Well if I lived there I would request that mayor perduto personally come to my house to confiscate my weapons.
Sure glad I sold my house and moved from Pittsburgh. They tax you into near poverty then take away your Constitutional right to defend yourself. You can keep your People’s Republic of Pittsburgh, comrade.
The frosty peter smoking mayor of Pittsburgh will find himself being sued and removed from office and possibly jailed. If he wants to play games so can we. We will also thumb our noses at his ridiculous feel good commie ordinances.
Looks like he wants his own version of Chicago.
Congratulations, Tommy, you’ve managed to implicate yourself as someone making a threat against a public official. Offer Christmas cookies to your visitors, and don’t make any sudden movements.
Excellent!! The militia now has another self identified TRAITOR to be listed as a LEGITIMATE PRIMARY TARGET in the event of a civil war to defend popular sovereignty, the Constitution, and Our Republic. Thank you Mr. Mayor for your help in identification of TRAITORS.