One tragedy this whole Philadelphia Gun Ordinance fiasco is it could be opening up the city’s police officers to lawsuits. The real culprits are the city politicians, and the political appointees like Charles Ramsey, who carry out their edicts. These are the people who deserve to be punished. But our system isn’t set up to work that way, and the people most likely to end up punished are the police officers who are ordered to enforce this nonsense.
It’s easy to suggest “Well, they know it’s illegal, they should refuse to enforce it,” from the comfort of an office chair. It’s much harder when you have mortgage payments to make and have to put the kids through school. Qualified immunity is what it is, and preemption is clearly established law. Ordering the enforcement of this law will likely make police officers pay for the actions of the real culprits, who will escape any punishment, which is a real tragedy in all of this.