Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
by: James Stoker
Many long hours and 495 miles later, I am home from my roundabout day to Harrisburg and back, for our litigation trying to attain an injunction against the city’s illegal gun ordinances. As I type this, I am searching for an audio recording of the city of Reading’s council meeting tonight, where they were expected to pass an ordinance prohibiting certain types of private manufacture of firearms. I am replaying today’s court proceedings in my mind, and I am looking at my spreadsheet of things to do to stop other communities who infringe upon our rights with reckless abandon.
Today was a good day. No, we did not get a quick decision from Judge Dowling in our favor and put an end to the ridiculousness that is the Harrisburg case. But truth be told, I expect one soon. The attorney for the City of Harrisburg is a dolt. The repetitive nature with which he presents his argument after being repeatedly shut down by Attorney Prince astounds me.
He argued we do not have standing. Attorney Prince reminded the court that this very case went to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and they said we do have standing. An event the city’s attorney seems to forget at every turn. He argued there is a statute of limitations on the declaratory relief, while admitting the ordinances are currently in effect, incorrectly alleging we must file within two years of the creation of each ordinance… or was it four… or no it was two… depending on which paper of his you read. All whilst trying to stop us from entering an emergency declaration from a month ago as proof it is an ongoing issue. He argued I am not a plaintiff on the case, and should not be permitted to testify, even though I am the sitting president of the very organization on the paperwork filing suit, and having lost that, implied that there is no way that I can possibly represent ALL our members on the case, as we can’t ALL possibly be aggrieved. What?? He insisted nobody has ever been cited for the ordinances, despite the police chief telling the media they cite for it all the time, and since nobody has been cited, let alone any of us, we have no standing. I will refer you back to the SCOPA ruling mentioned in the first sentence of this paragraph.
So, I have drawn a remarkably simple conclusion. This man is either intelligent enough to play extremely stupid to prolong a case to soak as many tax dollars out of the city of Harrisburg as possible, or he is just that bad of an attorney. I really am excited to see the results of the right to know request we submitted to ascertain exactly how much the city has spent on defending this case for nine years. I am sure the taxpayers of Harrisburg will be thrilled.
As we patiently await the ruling of the court, (do I hear a 5-0 victory?) I would like to extend a special thank you again to Josh First and Howard Bullock for their patience and persistence in this case. Without their testimony prior to mine today, we would really have a far lesser chance of success. And thanks to Attorney Joshua Prince and his fellows Attorney Dillon Harris and Attorney Kevin Fenchak. Their work on these matters is crucial to the freedoms we all enjoy as free women and men of this Commonwealth.