Greater Harrisburg's Community Magazine

Gun Rally in Harrisburg Park Postponed Until Spring

A gun-rights group suing Harrisburg over its firearms ordinances has postponed a rally until April, after bad weather and a last-minute change of venue compromised plans for a pro-gun gathering in a city park last Saturday.

The group, Firearms Owners Against Crime, had originally planned for a two-hour, 25-person gathering in the Reservoir Park bandshell on Saturday afternoon, during which attendees openly carrying or concealing firearms intended to celebrate their “God-given rights under the Constitution to bear arms,” according to the group.

The city, however, asked that the event be moved to outside city hall, noting the bandshell was closed in the winter, and the group changed its plans.

Details of the rally were included in the group’s permit application, which was provided to TheBurg on Wednesday in response to a right-to-know request, along with an email exchange between the city and the group’s president, Kim Stolfer.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Stolfer said the purpose of the rally was to “send a message” to Gov. Tom Wolf, whose inauguration took place in Harrisburg on Jan. 20.

But the rally also would have coincided with a larger contest over gun control in Harrisburg, in which gun-rights groups have sued the city over laws they claim are unconstitutional and in violation of state laws preempting local gun regulations.

Those lawsuits were prompted by a recent state law, signed by then-Gov. Tom Corbett on Nov. 6, that granted gun-rights membership groups standing to sue local governments over their firearms regulations.

Firearms Owners Against Crime, which filed its suit against the city on Jan. 16, is one of two such groups that have sued Harrisburg since the law took effect. The other group, U.S. Law Shield, filed a similar suit on Jan. 13.

Both suits have demanded the city pay the groups’ attorney fees, pursuant to a provision in the new law permitting plaintiffs to recoup legal costs from municipalities whose ordinances they successfully challenge.

Stolfer, however, called the U.S. Law Shield suit “premature,” describing his own group’s suit as “more comprehensive.”

FOAC’s suit was brought by four plaintiffs: the group itself, identified as a statewide, nonpartisan political action committee and membership organization, on behalf of its members; Stolfer, its president and chairman; Joshua First, a Harrisburg resident and FOAC member; and Howard Bullock, a resident of Lower Paxton Township and FOAC member who works in the city.

The suit takes issue with five city ordinances and their accompanying penalties for violators, claiming they threaten the plaintiffs with criminal charges, prosecution and other penalties for what the plaintiffs view as a lawful use of firearms under state law and the U.S. Constitution.

Three of the ordinances regulate firearm use and possession outright, forbidding the possession of firearms by minors unaccompanied by adults, forbidding the discharging of firearms within city limits and obligating an owner to report the loss or theft of a firearm to law enforcement.

A fourth ordinance prohibits the sale, display and possession in public of firearms during a state of emergency declared by the mayor, while a fifth forbids the use and possession of firearms and other projectile weapons in city parks.

Stolfer submitted the permit application for the Reservoir Park rally on Jan. 14, two days before his civil complaint was filed in Dauphin County court.

No reference to the permit application appears in the civil complaint, and it was not clear whether the rally was partly conceived to play a role in the lawsuit.

If the city had rejected the permit application, it might have granted FOAC standing independent of the standing granted by the new state law, which is being challenged by several Pennsylvania cities.

In his emails to the city, starting on Jan. 14, Stolfer repeatedly asked for a decision to approve or deny his request in writing.

“If at all humanly possible,” he wrote on the morning of Jan. 15, “I would like to know if this has been approved or declined today.”

On Wednesday, however, Stolfer said the rally was “not overtly” about achieving standing, noting the timing was meant to coincide with the inauguration.

In his initial reply to Stolfer, the city’s recreation director, Kevin Sanders, explained the city would not sign off on a permit until it had received a rental fee.

He later wrote that it would take two weeks to process the application, though he added the city was “working on a quicker result.”

On Jan. 22, Sanders wrote Stolfer again. The Reservoir Park bandshell, he said, was “closed until April due to weather,” but the city was offering the plaza outside city hall as an alternate venue.

Less than an hour later, Stolfer wrote to say he was rescinding the request and would plan to hold the rally instead on April 11 in the original location.

Stolfer also said Wednesday that the city’s online application was not clear about the fees applicants needed to pay or the time it would take to process their requests.

Sanders did not respond to inquiries Wednesday. The city’s communications director, Joyce Davis, later said the city would not comment on questions related to the pending litigation.

Firearms Owners Against Crime was founded in 1993 and became a statewide political action committee in 1994, according to its court filing.

Its mission is to inform its members, the public and legislators “on all issues pertaining to firearms, firearm safety, constitutional provisions, statutes, case law and all other issues” related to the constitutionality of gun ownership.

The group has 1,649 members in Pennsylvania, including one member under 18 in Harrisburg, the filing says.

Stolfer, who lives in the borough of McDonald in Allegheny County, was a founder of the group and has been its president for the past 10 years.

He has been involved in legislation regarding firearms for several years, including the state’s so-called “castle doctrine” legislation from 2011 and last November’s law, both of which he said he helped author.

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler), who sponsored the November bill, described Stolfer as his “lead advisor” on the legislation, which he said was aimed at reining in municipalities that have been “thumbing their nose” at the state’s preemption law.

The law, which was partly inspired by a similar Florida law from 2011, “seems like it is working,” Metcalfe said, with several Pennsylvania municipalities already rescinding their ordinances.

But Harrisburg’s Mayor Eric Papenfuse, who has stood by the city’s gun control ordinances, responded to Metcalfe’s comments with his own rejoinder.

Pointing out that both Stolfer and FOAC have donated to Metcalfe—FOAC has donated a total of $5,725 since 2010, according to data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics—the new law “only seems to be working if the goal was to generate a potentially big payday for your lead advisor and major campaign contributor,” Papenfuse said.

This story has been updated with comments from State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe and Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse.

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