By Chad Smith
Pocono Record Writer
May 28, 2012
Chestnuthill Township supervisors will consider whether a township ordinance prohibiting guns in the township park should be repealed.
The ordinance may conflict with a state law that says that municipalities don't have the authority to limit the rights of gun owners as long as the owners act in accordance with state gun laws.
The possible conflict of local and state laws was brought to the township's attention by Brodheadsville resident William Gray.
Gray doesn't want to fear being punished if he carries a firearm into Chestnuthill Park, he said. Gray said that, among other reasons, he'd like to have a gun on him in the park in case a rabid animal tries to attack him or his dog.
Gray believes the township rule conflicts with a state law, passed in 1995, that says, "No county, municipality or township may in any manner regulate the lawful ownership possession, transfer or transportation of firearms "¦ when (those firearms are) carried or transported for purposes not prohibited by the laws of this Commonwealth."
None of the Chestnuthill supervisors who passed the gun ordinance is still on the job.
Supervisors may have created the rule before the state law was passed or may not have known such a law existed, said Chris Eckert, a current Chestnuthill Township supervisor. Eckert said township supervisors weren't gung-ho about possibly changing a rule that would allow people to carry guns into the township park and park building. But, Eckert said, if the township rule flies in the face of a state law, supervisors might feel compelled to amend it.
"It's a controversial issue, where you have Second Amendment rights and state laws, and then you have people on the other side of the coin who don't think that it's a good idea that people are carrying guns," Eckert said.
Eckert said supervisors would discuss the issue at their next meeting.
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