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August 20, 2007

NEW LOCAL: Council plans to repeal gun ban on borough property

By MaryAlice Meli

Tonight, Ellwood City Council plans to repeal the ban enacted last month on carrying guns into borough buildings and vehicles.

The only exceptions were certified law enforcement officers.

“We’re going to repeal it,” Glenn Jones, council president, said last night.

“We can’t ban guns as I understand it,” noted vice president Tony Court last night. “It’s unconstitutional. We thought we could do it because they’re banned in the courthouse. I guess we may have overstepped our bounds; our stance is to back off a bit.”

Borough solicitor Edward Leymarie Jr. noted last week he supports council’s action, saying this is not a fight he would recommend council undertake.

Pressure on council to repeal its action came in a letter from the National Rifle Association and from a group that founded a Web site — OpenCarry.org — that advocates openly carrying guns.

In a 1996 opinion, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in Ortiz v the Commonwealth that assault weapons bans enacted in ordinances in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were not valid. Both are home-rule cities.

Chief Justice John P. Flaherty wrote that the General Assembly has said, “no cities, municipalities or townships 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 Pennsylvania.”

Flaherty held that the law extends to home-rule cities as well as all other municipalities in the state.

Michael Stollenwerk of Mountville, Pa., and John Pierce of Bristol, Va., are co-founders of OpenCarry.org, a Web site that advocates the legal right of ordinary citizens to carry weapons openly.

Stollenwerk noted it is legal for anyone over age 18 to openly carry guns in holsters on the hip in 44 U.S. states, including Pennsylvania. The only places excepted are schools, courthouses, state parks and the Capitol in Harrisburg.

It is illegal to carry guns only if the guns are concealed. Carrying a concealed weapon requires a permit.

The Web site notes this stems from the frontier days when many of those who wore concealed guns were up to no good.

Stollenwerk has been quoted in a Lancaster County newspaper as saying, “We shouldn’t have gun bans anywhere where there isn’t real security.”

Dom Viccari, Ellwood’s borough manager, said banning guns from the municipal building was a way to protect borough building employees, especially on days when the electric department must shut off non-paying customers. He noted today’s society is much less predictable and dangerous than in the past.

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