Quite honestly, if your letter had not started out by stating that my five page, August 14, 2024 letter had already been provided to you, I would simply respond by providing you a copy, as it already addresses all the controlling Pennsylvania law, including from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where it declared that 18 Pa.C.S. § 6120 is “the General Assembly’s reservation of the exclusive prerogative to regulate firearms in this Commonwealth” (Commonwealth v. Hicks, 208 A.3d 916, 926, fn. 6 (Pa. 2019)) and the Commonwealth Court's more recent decision in FOAC, et al. v. City of Pittsburgh, 276 A.3d 878, 886, 890 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2022) that "section 6120(a) of the UFA contains a prolific, sweeping, and expansive force of preemption ... that an ordinance will be preempted so long as it touches upon or relates to the field of firearm regulation 'in any manner.'" And then, there was also my citation to FOAC v. Lower Merion Township, 151 A.3d 1172 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2016), where the Commonwealth Court held that Lower Merion Township's proscription on firearm discharge in city parks was unlawful.
As reflected by all the precedent cited in my letter, any form of firearm regulation, including discharge, by anyone other than the General Assembly, is preempted. It is my sincere hope that the Township does not elect to cost its taxpayers substantial, additional burdens by enacting this unlawful proposal.
Preemption is a doctrine in constitutional law that applies when two authorities conflict with one another. It refers to the idea that a higher authority of law will displace the law of a lower authority of law when the two authorities come into conflict.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/preemption
