The Berks County District Attorney’s office is concerned about a proposed Reading ordinance to control unregulated guns in the city.
The proposed ordinance would target the unregistered and untraceable homemade weapons, known as ghost guns, which can be built from kits bought online or made with a 3D printer.
Reading City Council considers ordinance regulating so-called ghost guns
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“The district attorney’s office has some serious concerns with these ordinances,” First Assistant District Attorney Dennis J. Skayhan said.
Skayhan presented some of what the DA’s office sees as problems with the proposal on Monday during City Council’s committee of the whole meeting.
“We would prefer if these ordinances were deferred until what I believe is very similar ordinances in other cities, which is being litigated, moves through the appeals process and we have final resolution on those ordinances,” said Skayhan, who attended the meeting virtually.
The state Supreme Court is expected to rule in its next session on a challenge to the Commonwealth Court’s decision this year that upheld a similar Philadelphia ordinance.
“I think you’re going to run into what we would call a brewing problem with these ordinances,” Skayhan said. “Anytime you restrict someone’s Second Amendment rights, the burden will shift to the government to prove that there is a commensurate restriction going back to the time that the Second Amendment was enacted. That’s problem number one.”
The second problem, he said, is that the ordinance does not make a distinction between people who are otherwise legally eligible to possess firearms and people who may be in possession of homemade guns or ghost guns.
For example, Skayhan said, the police might stop an individual legally allowed to possess firearms, and who is in possession of a store-bought gun and a homemade gun. Under the proposed ordinance, that person could not be charged with anything with regard to the store-bought gun but would be found in violation of possessing a gun made from a kit or 3D printer.
“That seems to be rather logically inconsistent,” Skayhan said.
Brandon Flood, deputy director of government affairs for CeaseFirePA, thanked Skayhan for the critique.
Flood, who also spoke at a council meeting last week and reviewed the city’s proposed ordinance, also attended Monday’s meeting virtually.
The crux of the ordinance, he said, is the sale or transfer of any unfinished or incomplete firearm kit.
“If that person is not otherwise prohibited, that person would not be charged,” Flood said in response to Skayhan’s observation. “To your point here, maybe language could be included to highlight that distinction.”
Council Solicitor Michael Gombar, who drafted the proposed ordinance, said he sees no problem with adding that language.
City Police Chief Eli Vazquez, who attended the meeting in person, told council that in 2021 the city seized four ghost guns, 13 in 2022 and 20 in 2023.
“This ordinance would be complaint-driven and intel-driven,” Vazquez said.
Skayhan also said there is a question of the state preemption of the ordinance, which would make it invalid if it is no longer consistent with state law.
“We fully anticipate the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to, at some point, rule on this,” Flood said.
“We anticipate them (the PA Supreme Court) to affirm the Commonwealth Court’s ruling that these kits don’t constitute a complete firearm,” he said, noting they therefore would not be subject to the state’s firearm preemption statute.
Councilman Jaime Baez Jr. stressed council’s concern about gun violence in the city, especially among youth.
Within his first three weeks as a councilman, Baez said, he consulted with Gombar about a gun-control ordinance and learned there is little the city can do. Local municipalities cannot enact gun laws that are stricter than what is allowed in state law.
If there are things council needs to work on, he would like to hear about them from residents, he noted.
“But don’t doubt for a second, for anybody, that we do not hear,” Baez said. “We care about our city and especially our children, which are the future of our city.”
Council is expected to introduce the ordinance at its Aug. 12 meeting.
Source: Berkshire mont