Gainey, some Western Pa. officials seek to create local gun ordinances

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and other regional leaders on Monday called for the right to pass gun reform laws on a local level if state officials in Harrisburg don’t enact such measures.

Preemption laws prohibit cities like Pittsburgh from instituting gun regulations, but some officials are urging state leaders to change that.

“We are begging our legislatures in Harrisburg — give us the right to fight for the lives our children. Give us that right,” Gainey said.

State officials, he said, seem hesitant to pass what he and other local leaders called “common sense” gun reform measures. Gainey said leaders could pass measures that make sense in their own cities — if they were permitted to do so.

“To my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, if you don’t want to do it, give us the power,” Gainey said. “We want to save lives. And we can do it.”

In 2019, in response to the attack on Tree of Life Synagogue, Pittsburgh City Council passed several pieces of legislation meant to curb gun violence.

The ordinances banned the use of large-capacity magazines and assault weapons in public places, punished negligent gun owners if their firearm storage practices led to a minor causing harm with a gun and gave permission to either law enforcement or family members to seek court intervention if they believed a person was a danger to themselves or others.

Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, however, reaffirmed a lower court’s ruling in striking down those regulations because of preemption laws that don’t allow cities to preempt state government.

“Either [state legislatures] need to do their jobs or give us the power to pass sensible gun laws to remove guns from our streets,” Pittsburgh City Councilman Ricky Burgess said. “We need sensible gun laws to reduce gun violence, and we need to do that now.”

Councilwoman Erika Strassburger joined Burgess in promising that council members would continue to do all they could to address gun violence in the city.

“It’s a sad state in the world when the leading cause of death for children these days is gun violence,” she said.

Dwan Walker, the mayor of Aliquippa, joined Pittsburgh officials in supporting the idea of allowing local leaders to craft gun laws for their own communities.

“Local problems require local solutions,” he said.

Preemption laws that bar local officials from passing such ordinances, he said, “render us powerless.”

Dr. Raquel Forsythe, director of trauma at UPMC Presbyterian, said she sees the impact of gun violence every day. She urged officials to take action to stop the violence.

“I see the impact on people’s lives. I see the impact on their families. I see the impact on their communities,” she said. “I’m the one who has to tell a parent that their child has been killed by a firearm. I’m the one who has to tell a brother that they’ve lost their brother. It’s gone on for too long.”

Gainey said he understands that firsthand. He lost a sister and a niece to gun violence, he said, and still feels the trauma that comes with it.

“This epidemic is taking thousands of innocent lives and we can no longer stand by and just continue to let it happen,” Gainey said.

If state leaders would grant cities the ability to implement their own gun laws, Gainey said, he’d call for a ban on assault weapons in Pittsburgh.

“Give us the right to preempt state law,” he said. “Give us the right to ban military-style assault weapons in our street. Give us the right to deal with our children getting these guns.”

The meeting came after a violent weekend in Pittsburgh.

Three people were shot in a separate incident in the city’s South Side neighborhood early Saturday morning. Another shooting early Sunday morning left one man in critical condition and another dead.

An 18-year-old was killed Friday after being shot in the Hill District.

Three people were wounded in a shooting near an after hours club on Brownsville Road early Saturday morning. A Pittsburgh police officer was shot pursuing a man believed to be involved in that shooting. The officer avoided serious injury because the bullet struck his protective vest.

Gainey said the officer is “OK and doing well.”

“We’re praying for him,” the mayor said. “We’re thankful that nothing serious happened. At the end of the day, we want our officers to go home.”

Gainey said his Plan for Peace — an initiative he recently announced as part of the city’s efforts to curb violence — will continue to focus on right policing and engaging community leaders to help limit gun violence. But, he said, the state needs to act as the “third prong” and support cities’ efforts to stop gun violence.