Gun rights advocate has wrangled with a city before — and won
Justin Dillon, the organizer of Monday’s protest against Pittsburgh City Council’s proposed gun control legislation, is no stranger to going toe to toe with municipal governments.
In 2013, the 31-year-old and his lawyers took a case in his native Erie to the state Supreme Court, successfully stopping the city from enforcing an ordinance that banned guns in city parks.
So when Pittsburgh’s municipal leaders announced plans last month to ban certain types of weapons and ammunition within the city, he and his group, Open Carry Pennsylvania, quickly got involved.
“What the mayor wants to do could affect everybody statewide, if it’s allowed to pass,” Mr. Dillon said Friday.
Mr. Dillon expects more than 500 people to attend the opencarry protest he has planned for Monday afternoon on the portico of the City-County Building, Downtown.
Mr. Dillon, a programmer, started Open Carry Pennsylvania
in 2012 after an encounter with law enforcement. “I was openly carrying and got stopped by police, and it was an eye-opening experience that the police didn’t know what the laws were. I got, you could say, slightly harassed about it. They made a big deal about it,” he said.
He started his group and had a number of rallies in Erie before running into any legal problems.
“It really sparked my interest that a lot of people didn’t know you could openly carry in Pennsylvania,” he said. “It was sort of the black sheep of the firearm community. Most people concealed carry.” Carrying a concealed firearm requires a special license.
In 2013, after four or five rallies, Mr. Dillon was told by the Erie solicitor that protesters in a city park could not bring their weapons. His initial appeal to the state Supreme Court, asking the justices to block the park ordinance ahead of the rally, was unsuccessful. He went ahead with the protest anyway, and he and seven others were charged with violating the city ordinance.
On appeal in 2014, the Commonwealth Court found that state law prohibits municipalities and counties from regulating firearms or ammunition “ownership, possession, transfer or transportation” in any way that differs from state regulations. The charges against Mr. Dillon were overturned, and later that year Erie repealed the city park gun ban.
According to Mr. Dillon, as well as a blog post by attorney Joshua Prince, the proposed Pittsburgh regulations violate the same state law as Erie’s. Mr. Prince’s firm represented him against Erie.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto “knows that the state pre-empts that, but he doesn’t care,” Mr. Dillon said.
At a news conference on the city legislation in December, Mr. Peduto said the city was willing to challenge the constitutionality of the state law if need be.
Mr. Dillon’s interpretation: “They want us to obey the law, but they say they’re not going to.”
“We’re going to call [the mayor] out to have an open debate which is open to the public and the media,” Mr. Dillon said. “If he is all about safety and he is all about citizens, then let’s have an open debate about that.”
The planned protest, which is scheduled to start at noon Monday, is intended to “show that we’re not silent. The Second Amendment is important to us,” Mr. Dillon said.
“[Open carrying] is our constitutional right. We’re here, and we’re responsible.”
Mr. Peduto said Thursday that while he disagrees with the protesters, he recognizes their right to protest.
“The city’s guiding principle will continue to be protecting people’s First Amendment rights while ensuring safety for all, including protesters, motorists who might be affected by road closures and all other city residents and visitors,” said Chris Togneri, spokesman for Pittsburgh Public Safety.
“It’ll be the safest place in Pittsburgh that day,” said Mr. Dillon, who has repeatedly encouraged attendees to be peaceful and to keep all weapons in holsters or over shoulders.
Mr. Dillon applied for a permit for “fewer than 200” to protest. Speakers scheduled, according to the Facebook event, include Mr. Dillon, state Rep. Aaron Bernstein, R-Big Beaver, and Kaitlin Bennett, a gun rights activist who was photographed carrying an AR-10 rifle with her Kent State graduation cap, a picture that went viral in May.
But Mr. Dillon said he expects many more to attend the demonstration.
“I have people coming from Chicago, from Philadelphia, the middle of the state of Pennsylvania, not far from Erie. We have people coming from Ohio,” Mr. Dillon said. “So it’s other cities and other states that are joining in our fight because they’re just getting sick and tired of the infringement government officials are trying to do in the name of safety.”
The open show of arms is not meant as intimidation, Mr. Dillon said. “It’s more of a show. We carry a gun to protect ourselves and others if need be. You shouldn’t be afraid of us.”
City law already prohibits people from firing a gun within the city limits, with a handful of exceptions. The proposed changes would also prohibit carrying, storing, transferring, selling, buying or manufacturing assault-style weapons in the city.
The legislation generally defines assault-style weapons as guns that can switch between automatic fire, semi-automatic fire or burst fire, as well as guns that can accept large-capacity magazines, which are defined as magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. It also includes a list of specific guns that would be banned.
Gun owners who already legally possess such weapons would be exempted from the new laws. Armor-penetrating ammunition and accessories designed to accelerate a gun’s rate of fire, like bump stocks, would also be prohibited under the proposal.
Council members Erika Strassburger and Corey O’Connor also hope to create “Extreme Risk Protection Orders,” which would allow the courts to authorize law enforcement to temporarily seize a person’s guns under limited circumstances.
Under the proposed legislation, either a law enforcement officer or a family or household member of a person “alleged to present a danger of suicide or of causing extreme bodily injury to another person” could petition the court for an order.
That petition would trigger a process similar to that followed for protection-from-abuse orders, in which a judge reviews the circumstances and defendants are given an opportunity to argue their case in court. If a judge issued an extreme risk order of protection, it would include a warrant to allow law enforcement to search and seize the defendant’s firearms, typically keeping the weapons for a year.