City Council creates new gun law for lost firearms

Pittsburgh City Council created a new law yesterday requiring that individuals report a missing… Pittsburgh City Council created a new law yesterday requiring that individuals report a missing or stolen gun within 24 hours of realizing it is missing. According to the City Council minutes, the law passed by a 6-1 vote, with District 9 councilman Ricky Burgess the only voter against the new chapter of city code. Burgess told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he felt the law violates a state law, which generally bans local governments from passing gun laws of their own. ‘An inconvenient law may be an inconvenient truth, but a law nevertheless,’ he said. City Council President Doug Shields told the Post-Gazette that the law will prevent people from purchasing firearms and then selling them to criminals who cannot obtain a license for themselves. ‘[Gun violence] cuts our neighbors to ribbons,’ he said. ‘It cuts our children down. It kills grandmothers on porches.’ The penalty for not reporting a lost or stolen gun within 24 hours carries a maximum fine of $500. If the situation were to happen to the same individual twice, the maximum penalty is increased to $1,000 and up to 90 days in jail.