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Eastern
Pennsylvania Firearms Coalition |
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Help Fight Unconstitutional Local Laws That Will Hurt Only You, The Law Abiding CitizenMany cities and towns are going against the Pennsylvania Constitution by adopting laws that will have no effect on criminals, but will end up charging you, the victim, with a crime. The cities are passing laws that say if you have a firearm stolen, you must report the stolen firearm, or you will be prosecuted, fined, etc.
Here are the facts:
In high crime areas like Allentown, Easton, Harrisburg, Pottsville, Philadelphia, Reading, Pittsburgh, and York, (just to name a few), the investigation sometimes shows the firearm was owned by another individual, sometimes a victim of a theft, sometimes the actual criminal or a friend of the criminal. If it is the criminal or a friend, he will just claim his "gun was stolen".
The laws are being enacted in the above mentioned cities, and in several other cities, with two different definitions.
You must report a stolen firearm within a given number of days (1 or 2) of the actual theft. Result: You, the law abiding citizen had better check the location of each firearm every time a visitor, baby sitter, plumber, electrician, carpenter, painter, etc, leaves your home. You better check the location of each firearm because if they are located in several different places, for self defense of you and your family, and one shows up as stolen a month later, you are in trouble. In the minds of these politicians, it does not matter that you are the victim of a crime, you are now a criminal. An Eastern Pennsylvania Firearms Coalition (EPAFC) member organization has a few members that have hundreds, and a few that own thousands of hand guns in very large valuable collections. Imagine the owner coming home and finding his collection room has been broken into and he now has exactly 1 or 2 days to find out exactly which firearms out of 2,000+ were stolen, the makes, the models, the serial numbers, the calibers and all the identifying characteristics that are recorded for each hand gun. The theft may have included 62, 121, 327 or any number that a gang group could pack and carry. It would take weeks to sort out everything and in these cities he would be considered a criminal for not conforming to the time required for reporting the theft. The politicians would be happy to see charges levied against this law abiding gun owner.
Recently in Allentown a single gang member stole 32 hand guns from a Federally Licensed Dealer. It took him just minutes to break in, steal and pack the hand guns and he was on this way. He violated a Federal Law by stealing a modern firearm from a Federally Licensed Dealer. Naturally the Feds are not prosecuting him because the state is handling the crime. The Federal Prosecutors could put him away for 25 years or more, but the state will plea bargain down the charges and most likely he will be out on parole in a year or two, committing more crimes. Imagine 32 hand guns in the possession of gang members. Usually Federal Prosecutors are lazy and will not protect citizens by going after criminals that are being handled by local authorities. The Federal punishments are a lot longer and 10 years means you do every week, day and hour. 99.9% of the time there is no parole. Federal Prosecutors are a disgrace.You must report the theft within 1 day of discovering the loss. Result:
This will give the criminals a way out of being prosecuted. Individual A purchases the hand gun because he can pass the back ground check, and gives the gun to his friend, criminal B, so he can commit a robbery. It may take a week or two, but eventually the detectives will trace the gun back to individual A. When they knock on his door, he sees two detectives showing their ID's and he invites them in. They tell him the firearm he owns was used in a crime and he explains they are wrong because his hand gun is hidden and not easily found. He walks over to a hard to reach drawer and is "surprised" saying "Oh my goodness, it is missing, somebody must have stolen it when I was not at home. I haven't checked on it in over a month or two, the last time I cleaned it". Naturally the are no finger prints on the hand gun and the crime occurred when Individual A was with somebody else, insuring his alibi. Under this law he just discovered it was missing, as witnessed by the two detectives, and there is no case against him.The end result of these city enacted laws is Law Abiding Citizens will be prosecuted, but those committing the crimes can get off lightly.
History of the Fight
| Eastern Pennsylvania Firearms Coalition letter to Mayors and District Attorneys |
.PDF File |
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| Attorney General Corbett's Letter to Adams County DA, explaining the illegality of such laws. |
.PDF File |
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| Allegheny County Sportsmen's League letter to West Mifflin and a documented history of criminals not being prosecuted and committing severe crimes during parole (early out). |
.PDF File |
The letters and other methods are not working. Thus the Eastern Pennsylvania Firearms Coalition
(EPAFC),
Firearms Owners Against Crime and the
Allegheny County Sportsmen's League are planning a lawsuit to overturn these laws, but we need your help. Please contribute what
you can to help protect your Second Amendment Rights. You may not live in one
of these cities, but if it goes unattended, it will spread all over the state. As these locals laws are
in violation of the Pennsylvania State Constitution, we should be successful
in getting them overturned. It will require donations so we can get this mess
straightened out.
Please mail your donation to the address on the head of the page, payable to
the Eastern Pennsylvania Firearms Coalition and enclose a note that the
donation is for: Lawsuit Against The Cities
Thank you for your help.
John Brinson, Co-Founder, EPAFC
Jack Iannantuono, Co-Founder, EPAFC
Bill Ricca, Webmaster, EPAFC
Kim Stolfer, Chairman and Founder
Firearms Owners Against Crime
&
Legislative Chairman Allegheny County Sportsmen's League
