Most challenges to gun-control ordinances in recent years in Pennsylvania have been dismissed outright \u2014 generally, because the plaintiffs lacked standing after the courts overturned a state law known as Act 192.\n<\/p>\n
Lower Merion Township\u2019s effort to ban the\u00a0use of guns in its parks is different, however, because one plaintiff in the suit challenging that ordinance resides in the township.\n<\/p>\n
While\u00a0Montgomery County Court ultimately upheld Lower Merion\u2019s ordinance, an appeals court issued a 2-1 decision a couple weeks ago\u00a0against the township.\n<\/p>\n
Township officials now say they\u2019ll appeal the most recent ruling. They couldn\u2019t provide details on how much it has cost to defend the ordinance.\n <\/p>\n
Plaintiffs\u2019 expenses are $50,000 thus far. They\u2019d have to win a federal lawsuit to get reimbursed, which their attorney Josh Prince said they will pursue at some point.\n<\/p>\n
Special case?\n<\/p>\n
Effective in 2015, Act 192 allowed anyone to challenge a municipal firearms law, on the taxpayer\u2019s dime, regardless of whether they\u2019d ever set foot\u00a0 in the community let alone been cited for violating the ordinance in question.\n<\/p>\n
The state Supreme Court later\u00a0overturned <\/a>Act 192\u00a0because of the way the legislature enacted it.\n<\/p>\n About 100 municipalities had already repealed their gun ordinances<\/a>; lawsuits were filed against a handful that didn\u2019t. After the state Supreme Court decision, lower courts quickly dismissed cases against Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Lancaster outright because the NRA had filed them without a resident plaintiff.\n<\/p>\n But the case against Lower Merion Township continued because plaintiff Joseph Abramson lives in the township. Abramson is named on the lawsuit along with Firearms Owners Against Crime President Kim Stolfer, who lives in South Fayette Township, 25 miles southwest of Pittsburgh.\n<\/p>\n Abramson hasn\u2019t been cited for violating the ordinance. Township officials say they\u2019ve never enforced it, even when several dozen others carried guns through Bala Cynwyd Park <\/a>in protest a few days before the lawsuit was filed.\n<\/p>\n But the lawsuit argues the potential for harm is there, and that\u2019s sufficient for at least one \u201cprong\u201d of the legal standard for the preliminary injunction being sought here.\n<\/p>\n Montgomery County Court ruled against the FOAC in August 2015, noting Abramson hadn\u2019t been harmed by the ordinance or even cited under it.\n<\/p>\n Finer points\n<\/p>\n If the township did enforce its ordinance, violators would face a $600 fine. The law otherwise merely reinforces provisions of Pennsylvania\u2019s Uniforms Firearms Act, the township contends in court filings.\n<\/p>\n