Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, whose fresh approach seemed like a welcome change from the corruption-riddled administration of John Street, is not off to a great start if his plan to enforce illegal and unconstitutional laws is any indication:

Nutter: Enforce Phila.'s gun laws

The mayor is setting up a legal showdown with the state Supreme Court, which banned such city ordinances.

Mayor Nutter yesterday said he would enforce new city gun-control laws even without state authorization to do so - setting up a possible legal and political showdown between the state and the new mayor.

At the first regular meeting of the new City Council yesterday, Council members Darrell L. Clarke and Donna Reed Miller introduced the same package of gun-control measures that languished last year while the state legislature refused to authorize them.

But these bills have a new wrinkle - they don't call for state-enabling legislation. The previous bills were conditional on companion state laws in recognition of a 1996 Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that said cities could not enforce their own gun laws.

I love this response by Sebastian at Snowflakes in Hell:

Go ahead Mayor Nutter. Enforce them against me. Please. I could use the money I'll make from the giant lawsuit I promise I'll slap the city with. Pennsylvania needs to reconsider its preemption statue if Mayor Nutter is serious about crossing this Rubicon. Not to weaken it, but to impose penalties on cities and local municipalities who violate it. We have the power to do this in the legislature, and I really hope that City Council does not really want to bring this issue to a head.

Once again, it's "punish the law abiding gun owners" rather than the criminals and if that means violating the Pennsylvania Constitution or state law, so be it.

This seems to be a common thread of late where activist mayors around the country violate their states' laws, such as "marrying" same sex couples or passing (in SF) gun bans. Apparently the only laws they want to obey are the ones they pass themselves!

State preemption of local gun laws was not just a "1996 Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling" as the Inquirer claims, because the Supreme court simply followed existing state law -- Pennsylvania 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. § 6120(a) -- a 1994 statute which provides as follows:

§ 6120. Limitation on municipal regulation of firearms and ammunition.

(a) General rule.--No county, municipality or township may in any manner regulate the lawful ownership, possession, transfer or transportation of firearms, ammunition or ammunition components when carried or transported for purposes not prohibited by the laws of this Commonwealth.

"If these bills pass and if I sign them, then I expect to enforce them," Nutter said. "If you believe we can have a safer city by putting these measures in place, I think as good public servants we are compelled to take some type of action in the face of no relief coming from anywhere else."

Clarke said only that the new bills are "part of a legal strategy."

The bills would force owners to immediately report stolen guns; set monthly limits for firearms purchases; require vendors to report ammunition sales; and prohibit gun sales to anyone who is the subject of an order of protection.

Temple University law professor David Kairys, a gun-control advocate, said "that's what our City Council and mayor should be doing - they're dealing with an urgent problem."

Kairys said the city's action could set up a test of a new Supreme Court, now under Chief Justice Ronald Castille, the former Philadelphia district attorney who promised to depoliticize the court.

"If there's really going to be a new day in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, this would be a fine place to start," Kairys said.

On an anti-gun law professor's say-so?

Castille may be a "former Philadelphia district attorney who promised to depoliticize the court" but I think if he goes along with Philadelphia's Alice in Wonderland legal strategy, he'll be doing precisely the opposite.

I'm already disappointed in Mayor Nutter, and he hasn't been mayor for three weeks!