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The Logan Township supervisors this week adopted a Second Amendment sanctuary agreement, one that all Blair County municipalities are considering, in order to comply with a countywide referendum passed by voters in November.
The agreement is in keeping with state law, in contrast to a proposed alternate agreement being pushed by the group that initially proposed the referendum, according to Logan solicitor Dan Stants.
The agreement that Logan and some municipalities have approved and that others are considering would be enforced through civil lawsuits, in compliance with state law -- while the version the initial Second Amendment group is pushing would be enforced through summary criminal complaints, in violation of state law, Stants said.
The Intergovernmental Cooperation Act, under which the agreement was drawn up, doesn't authorize municipalities to "criminalize" cooperation agreement violations, Stants said, in answer to Pastor Roy Steward, a member of the initial Second Amendment group, who came to the meeting to argue that the agreement the supervisors were considering was inadequate.
Court interpretations of the state's Uniform Firearms Act also prohibit local governments from regulating firearms, Stants said, citing decisions striking down efforts by Philadelphia to make it a crime to take longer than 24 hours to report a gun being stolen.
Approved by a majority of voters for the county as a whole and by each of the other municipalities individually, the referendum requires each of those jurisdictions enter into an intergovernmental agreement with all the others to prohibit any of them from using "taxpayer resources" to enforce potential laws that would compromise gun rights.
The agreement approved by the township, which was drafted by the solicitors of all the county municipalities, conforms with the referendum, Stants said.
The version of the agreement proposed by the initial Second Amendment group goes "way beyond the authority of local municipalities," Stants told Steward, while adding that he himself is, nevertheless, a supporter of the Second Amendment.
"But there is a right way and a wrong way," Stants said. "Otherwise, you're wasting your effort."
The supervisors passed the agreement unanimously.
"I don't think you will find an American who doesn't want to protect these rights," said Supervisor Joe Metzgar. "Society's getting kind of wacky."
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.