Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
As a Dauphin County judge weighs the fate of one lawsuit challenging Harrisburg's gun ordinances, city officials are moving a second suit attacking those laws to federal court.
Harrisburg officials took that action Friday afternoon by filing documentation to shift a suit by the Firearm Owners Against Crime group to U.S. Middle District Court, where it is slated to be heard by Judge Yvette Kane.
Joshua Autry, a city attorney, said the Firearm Owners case is being relocated because it includes a challenge to the city's laws that is based on the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Firearm Owners case plaintiffs contend the city's laws are infringing on their constitutionally protected right to bear arms.
The other suit, lodged by the U.S. Shield Law of Pennsylvania gun owners group, does not include such a federal constitutional claim, Autry said.
He said city officials are urging that action on both cases be stayed until the state Commonwealth Court rules on a separate challenge to the legality of Act 192, the new state law that is the basis for lawsuits over gun ordinances that are being lodged against municipalities across Pennsylvania.
The U.S. Shield Law case is under currently scrutiny by Dauphin County Judge Andrew H. Dowling, who last week heard competing arguments from Autry and the Shield Law group's attorney, Justin McShane.
Dowling has not yet ruled on Autry's request to stay the case U.S. Shield Law case pending a Commonwealth Court decision on Act 192, or McShane's request for an injunction to temporarily prevent Harrisburg from enforcing its gun-related ordinances.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/02/fight_over_harrisburgs_gun_ord.html#incart_river