City Council voted for the measure yesterday. This really gets my goat:
“Who really cares about it being unconstitutional?” said Councilwoman Tonya Payne. “This is what’s right to do, and if this means that we have to go out and have a court battle, then that’s fine … We have plenty of dead bodies coming up in our streets every single day, and that is unacceptable.”
So we get to disregard limits on government just because one City Councilwoman things it’s “what’s right to do?” There was a time when people thought that holding slaves was the right thing to do. We properly did away with that with the 13th Amendment. Then some people thought that making African-Americans second class citizens was “the right thing to do.” The Fourteenth Amendment, and the several Civil Rights Acts that were passed under its authority, put that sorry bit of history behind us.
Our state and federal constitutions are an individual’s only defense against the predations of politicians who think they know what’s right for other people. One thing you shouldn’t do in society that properly limits government power is to create crimes that reverse the burden of proof from the state to the accused, because the authorities just know that a certain person must be guilty.
Straw purchasing is already a serious crime. Either the state has the evidence it needs to meet its burden of proof, or it does not. What you don’t get to do is to pass another law that allows prosecution to proceed on a technicality, based on an assumption of guilt for the more serious crime. Someone who is not guilt of straw buying will end up with a hefty fine, and or will spend time in jail because of this ordinance. This is not how our system of justice is supposed to function.
24 hours? So what happens if you house is broken into when you’re away for a long weekend?
Hell I haven’t opened one of my safes in like two weeks!
This will solve a LOT of crime I’m sure!
Ms. Tonya Payne needs to be impeached, unless supporting and defending the Constitution isn’t in her job description.
“Who really cares about it being unconstitutional?â€
I think this beats “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” as the scariest words in the English language. It’s a sad testament that her constituents aren’t caning her in the street.
Recall vote.
Unreal.
“Who really cares about it being unconstitutional?â€
Seriously?
The purpose of “lost or stolen” laws are to make it easier to punish people for making private sales once private sales are made unlawful.
Fight this tooth and nail.
Well,
Impeach Tonya Payne: It’s the right thing to do.
I’m ATL- and I approve of this message!
Let the city council know…
http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/district6/
http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/district6/html/district_6_feedback.html
[…] Pittsburgh decides to punish the victims […]
“Pittsburghians, you’ve got 24 hours to report a stolen / lost firearm or your the criminal now. Constitutional law be damned.”
Nice safe, btw.
I doubt she even gets the irony of her statement.
She openly flaunts the law, while at the same time, expecting the people she ostensibly leads to obey the laws she helps pass.
Just who the @#$% does she think she is?
I’m sorry, but she is the “domestic enemy” that a lot of people swore an oath to protect the Constituion against.
Well, don’t go retiring your commission just yet… Start by letting them know that she’s trash…
call the state AG and demand that she be brought up on treason charges
That would be possible if Treason was a state offense, but it’s a federal offense. But even given that, this is not treason.
One side doesn’t care about the law. The other side does. Guess which side wins?
Gramsci’s side.
Who hath ears, let him use a Q-Tip.
III
There are lots of “right” things to do to people like her…ALL of them against the law.
What’s a law abiding person to do? I guess the best I can do is hope for a harsh winter and some icy stairs for this creature.
Here is Pittsburg city council oath of office:
“I will support the Constitution of the United States and of this State and the Charter of this City and I will faithfully discharge the duties of office to the best of my ability.”
Its a shame that one thing that the Founding Fathers missed was a punishment for promoting, submitting or voting for unconstitutional acts by elected officials.
“Who really cares about it being unconstitutional?â€
That’s quite likely what “birth certificate” Obama said to himself about his own ineligibility to serve as POTUS back when he first decided to announce his candidacy.
and the will of the people just elected someone of the same cut of cloth for president by electoral college- not popular
So true!
The really tragic part of this insanity is the ordinance Councilwoman Payne wants targets the law abiding, and not criminals. To make matters worse, it has been tried before with negative results. That is, violent crime increased after passage of similar bills. Just as it has after passage of each of the other 22,309 restrictive gun laws that are already on the books. So Payne not only wants to put an unconstitutional ordinance in effect, she wants an ordinance that will result in MORE violent crime instead of less.
Of course, from her viewpoint, “It does not matter how many time’s it has failed, it will work this time.” That is what Joe Tydings said about the Gun Control Act of 1968. And that fatal legislation has already cost the lives of over a half million innocent Americans.
Pete Allen