Here we go again...

I don't know how this one managed to slip past me: On April 10th the Philadelphia City Council passed, and the appropriately-named Mayor Nutter signed into law, five new gun control measures.

The five bills limit handgun purchases to one a month; require lost or stolen firearms to be reported to police within 24 hours; forbid individuals under protection from abuse orders from possessing guns if ordered by the court; allow removal of firearms from “persons posing a risk of imminent personal injury” to themselves or others, as determined by a judge; and outlaw the possession and sale certain assault weapons.

OK, now, Pennsylvania has a state preemption law, which limits the ability of municipalities to pass gun laws; a similar law in Washington pretty much limits the authiority of cities and towns to passing ordinances regarding the discharge of firearms inside their limits. So as Sebastian points today over at Snowflakes in Hell, such laws are illegal, unlikely to stand challenge in court, and open any city officials who attempt to enforce them to legal action themselves.

Most of these are the usual nuisance acts--banning guns for cosmetic features, "rationing" guns, adding extra paperwork hoops to jump through. Some of them go over stuff that's already illegal. Some of them are silly.

And none of them will do much of anything at all to reduce Philly's crime rate.