
The Court of the Community of Nations in Pennsylvania will soon decide whether the lower Merion has the right to limit where weapons are sold in the community.
The decision, which will be the next step in a two -year saga regarding the provisions regarding spatial development, may have consequences not only for the town, but also for local authorities in Pennsylvania.
While state law in Pennsylvania is severely prohibiting local governments of weapons, lower Merion officials argued that the ban does not include zoning, which regulates land utilize. If the town wins the case, it may allow others to follow in their footsteps and protect several municipalities in the entire state that already limit the sale of weapons to specific zones.
“This can open flood gates for each Anti-Gun commune to zone home FFL (federal firearm licenses); This would cause their activities, “said Val Finnell, Pennsylvania state director at Pistols of America.
If the city loses, this will be another blow to leftist communities frustrated by Harrisburg inactivity in the field of weapon policy, because supporters of the second amendment force the court to block municipalities from taking any actions related to weapons.
“At this point, we are really talking about the wild, wild west of the world, in which it is the only industry that is barely regulated in several ways and would be completely unregulated,” said Adam Garber, executive director of Beasifer Pa. “The consequences we know are really clear what would be a greater violence.”
How did we get here?
What did the lower Merion do?
In 2023, TEC, a weapon training center and a seller, placed the marking of his tiny office in the Bala Cinnwyd. The community’s reaction was rapid.
A petition calling for Township Lower Merion officials to “do what is necessary to stop this business” gathered more than 3,000 signatures on the change.
Amelia Powell, who began his petition, has long been afraid of violence with weapons and was frustrated, seeing how the business pops up in a busy corridor near schools.
“People collected weapons in the store, and then went out to the community with these firearms, and they are people who were newly trained, how to use them,” she said.
To respond without violating the right to prejudice Pennsylvania, Lower Merion officials imposed a set of zone principles limiting, in which retailers with a federal license for firearms can be in the town and introduced a number of requirements so that stores can be approved in the permitted areas.
“Nobody really thought about how FFL would act in the context of going to the city center until it appears,” said Todd Sinai, a democratic chairman of the Lower Merion Commissioners Council.
Joe Oxman, a member of the community who initially developed the regulation, said that he was motivated by other communities in Pennsylvania, which, According to ATF, He was already confined where the weapon could be sold. According to ATF, several municipalities in Pennsylvania limit the sale of weapons in residential areas.
“We knew that this state constitutional meeting would pass,” he said.
According to the original regulation of Lower Merion, sellers of firearms could no longer operate in residential areas or to walk in the city center. Instead, they will be moved to space, such as shopping centers and industrial utilize zones.
It also required from companies to take several security measures, including installation of windows resistant to demolition, maintaining the alarm system and the utilize of internal video cameras.
“A significant number of our inhabitants is in favor of limiting the ubiquity of weapons and firearms,” ​​said Commissioner Lower Merion Josh Gimes, a democrat. “We cannot do this significantly because of federal and state regulations, but our lawyer advised us that we can re -use the provisions on spatial development to regulate where they can be in the most appropriate parts of the city.”
Claim
But Grant Schmidt, the owner of Shot Tec, disagreed. He considered the regulation as an attempt to block the sale of weapons in a lower Merion.
“In my opinion, it was a ban,” said Schmidt.
While his activity could continue its location, despite the fresh zone rules, Schmidt sued that he intended to open the second location in his home, and the rules of division into the zones had prevented.
Last year, the Montgomery County judge directed some of the requirements in the zone regulation-as damaged windows-but allowed the general zone restrictions to stand along with three conditions related to the firearms license, the principles of the school zone and the disclosure of information to the local government.
Schmidt finally did not open the store in his home, but lost his lease in its original location and had to move to another location in the city.
He temporarily gave up the license for firearms for his lower Merion location, instead he simply led the training center during approval by the zones. He sold a weapon from a separate location in Narberth. The Township Lower Merion committee approved the zone zone for FFL Schmidt last month.
“The whole process is extremely stupid; It hurt many people we couldn’t serve – he said. “Your FFL should be like a voting place, you have the right to vote, you should not drive like 45 minutes to vote. The same should be available for FFL background control. “
Why does it matter?
The Court of the Community of Nations in Pennsylvania will now decide whether the principles of division into zones were appropriate. Both parties argued the case before the court last year. The court could now issue its ruling at any time in the coming weeks or months.
Lower Merion officials argued that the law does not regulate weapons, but rather the use of land in the town.
“This is not the right to control weapons. It is simply about zoning and organization of the commune, “said Lower Merion Matthew Hovey lawyer during oral arguments in December.
But Schmidt’s lawyer, Josh Prince, is fighting for a court to accept a broad interpretation of the Pennsylvania prejudice act. He claims that municipalities cannot accept any policy that concerns specially firearms.
He claims that sellers of firearms may be subject to the same provisions on spatial development and safety as other commercial companies, but they cannot be distinguished.
“They can’t touch the problem at all,” Prince argued.
Spokesmen, argue Prince weapons, would basically leave arms sellers without any rules, because the proposals of the reform of weapons have been stuck in Harrisburg many times.
If the Lower Merion regulation is maintained, its supporters and critics predict that this will cause similar measurements in the whole condition.
“I imagine that many other communities investigate ways of saying:” Look that you can have a weapon store in our city, commune, we are not saying “no”; We only say, please put them here – said Garber.