The NRA has prevailed in the appeal of Philadelphia’s firearms regulations in Commonwealth Court. The decision can be found here. NRA tried to restore standing to challenge the other ordinances, including “Lost and Stolen,” but Commonwealth Court did not reverse the lower court’s decision on that matter, but did uphold the decision on the assault weapons ban, and one-gun-a-month ordinances.
This ruling sets us up very nicely for a future court battle on all these Lost and Stolen ordinances, provided the Supreme Court is unwilling to revisit Ortiz, which I suspect it won’t. The City of Philadelphia is losing on virtually all their arguments. These ordinances were never about lost and stolen guns, straw purchasers or assault weapons, but were merely a means for the City to regain the ability to violate the Pennsylvania Constitution at will, so it could ban guns. It’s looking increasingly unlikely that ploy will work.
