Pennsylvania Supreme Court Upholds State’s Firearms Preemption Law

In a lawsuit brought by the City of Philadelphia and community organizations, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the state’s firearms preemption law. This law forbids cities from instituting more restrictive gun statutes than the state’s laws.

The court ruled unanimously that the plaintiffs failed to make their case that the law was unconstitutional and should be struck down.

In the case Crawford v. Commonwealth, Philadelphia argued that the preemption statutes violated the Pennsylvania Constitution by increasing the risk of gun violence. The city and a coalition of its residents also argued that two state laws prohibiting local governments from enacting local firearm regulations violated the state’s guarantee of the right to defend life and liberty.

The ruling affirmed a decision from a lower Pennsylvania court dismissing Philadelphia’s petition with prejudice. The City of Philadelphia has repeatedly violated the state firearms preemption law, most recently attempting to ban firearms in city parks and outlaw the private manufacturing of firearms.

In its ruling, the Court stated that the General Assembly’s preemption of local firearms regulations is a legitimate exercise of its legislative authority, aimed at ensuring consistency and protecting the constitutional rights of Pennsylvania’s citizens.

“The accounts of gun violence set forth in the Petition, like all other instances of gun violence, are undeniably tragic,” the ruling stated. “There is also no doubt that a serious problem exists in this Commonwealth relative to gun violence and its impacts on our citizenry. While certain municipalities and residents thereof may believe, even justifiably, that our state government is not doing enough to remedy this problem and that particular local regulations are needed to do so but are preempted by the FPLs, we emphasize that ‘the adequacy of the legislation to cope with the problem and the wisdom or the lack thereof on the part of the legislature in framing [the] legislation is not for us to determine. Such questions are solely for the legislature to determine, and upon their province we must not encroach.’”

Gun rights groups, including Gun Owners of America (GOA), were understandably happy with the ruling, even though the case seemed like a no-brainer from the start.

“Not only was Philadelphia’s challenge doomed from the start, but it was equally a gross violation of the constitutional separation of powers,” Dr. Val Finnell, GOA Pennsylvania state director, said in a prepared statement.

In addition to this victory, GOA has a separate lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia, first filed in 2021, over their attempt to ban homemade firearms. That case is now pending before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and GOA is hopeful it will prevail, given the recent ruling.

Of course, the ruling immediately prompted Democrats, including House Judiciary Chairman Tim Briggs, to call for changes in the state’s preemption law.

“We respect the court’s authority to decide this question, and now it’s up to the legislature to keep up the fight and once again advance real gun violence prevention and safety measures supported by a vast majority of Pennsylvanians and deliver results meeting constitutional muster,” Briggs said in a released statement.