District Attorney says new Philadelphia gun laws are "illegal"; will not prosecute

By Brian S. Stewart

In a move reminiscent of the Cleveland Police Patrolman’s Association's refusal in 2007 to follow Mayor Frank Jackson's order to ignore a new state law creating uniformity of gun laws, Philadelphia District Attorney Lynn Abraham has put the City Council on notice: its new gun laws are illegal, and she won’t prosecute individuals arrested for violating them.

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"Because these laws appear to me, as an attorney looking at the laws of Pennsylvania, to be preemptive, they are, on their face, illegal acts," Abraham said.

Mayor Michael Nutter signed five new gun laws recently in an effort to pick a judicial fight and tie the city up in pointless litigation. Among the provisions were a ban on “assault rifles” (a term created by liberals to describe guns that look scary to liberals), a limit on handgun purchases, and the ability of police to confiscate firearms from those they deem to be “at risk”. "I'm hopeful, through our law department and the research we've done, that we might be able to demonstrate to the district attorney that these bills are defensible," Mayor Nutter said.

Nutter’s law department must have been ignorant of law and research, because as Abraham explained, a 1996 ruling upheld a 1974 law stating that Philadelphia does not have the authority to pass its own gun control legislation. And in a stunning example of the thick-headedness of the radical anti-gun crowd, Philadelphia Police Chief Charles Ramsey offered this stunner:

"As far as I am concerned, the laws are valid and we will act as if this whole conversation with the D.A. just didn't take place.”

The citizens of Philadelphia should be asking some serious questions about their leadership. Their mayor is passing frivolous, blatantly illegal legislation aimed at nothing more than a protracted, costly court fight. And the Chief of Police is vowing to enforce the illegal legislation even though no convictions will come of it, wasting manpower and taxpayers’ money.

The shell game continues – when will big city politicians and their hand-picked police chiefs start dealing with the real causes for crime on their streets?

Brian S. Stewart is a former infantryman and an Iraq War veteran. He recently graduated from the Ohio State University with a degree in Political Science.

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