PITTSBURGH, PA (April 6, 2021) Lawyers for the City of Pittsburgh and Everytown Law have filed a brief in support of the lawsuit Philadelphia filed last year challenging the Pennsylvania General Assembly for blocking cities from enforcing common sense gun safety policies.
Pittsburgh and Everytown filed their amicus brief with Commonwealth Court yesterday.
Pittsburgh, the brief says, “is no stranger to the gun violence epidemic that plagues this Commonwealth’s cities. Pittsburgh is also— unfortunately—no stranger to ways in which the Pennsylvania General Assembly perpetuates the epidemic. Were it not for the General Assembly’s actions (and inaction), Pittsburgh’s residents, including individual Petitioners in this lawsuit, would be safer today.”
The brief argues that due to the General Assembly preventing cities from enforcing their own gun safety laws city residents — particularly those of color — are regularly harmed by gun violence. Pittsburgh government itself is harmed when reasonable laws and regulations it approves to protect its residents are blocked by state laws.
Everytown Law, the litigation arm of the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, is leading the defense of gun safety laws the City of Pittsburgh approved in 2019 after the Tree of Life massacre. The case remains before Commonwealth Court.
A copy of the brief filed yesterday is available here.
