Call 911 if you lose your gun, Nutter urges

With a slogan and a news conference, Mayor Nutter yesterday delivered a message to gun owners: Know where your guns are - every day.

As Nutter put it: "If you lose your piece, call the police."

Nutter, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, and City Council leaders yesterday announced a 30-day grace period, which began at 12:01 a.m. today, that will allow people to report their lost or stolen firearms, no matter when they disappeared, without penalty.

After that, as of 12:01 a.m. Aug. 9, gun owners will have 24 hours after discovering that their firearms are missing to file a report with Philadelphia police. Anyone who fails to do so faces a $1,900 fine. Repeat offenders face up to 90 days in jail.

"We will enforce this ordinance vigorously," the mayor said. "Today we say to all gun owners: If you cannot find your gun, call 911."

The stated intent of the law, sponsored by Council members Darrell L. Clarke and Donna Reed Miller, is to hurt "straw" purchasers who buy guns for criminals legally unable to own firearms. Police have complained that the registered owners of guns found at crime scenes can avoid prosecution with the hard-to-disprove excuse that their gun was lost or stolen.

Nutter said the law shouldn't be hard for responsible gun owners to follow.

"Good, law-abiding folks who take care of their weapons generally know where they are," he said.

The city, however, might not be able to enforce the law.

C. Scott Shields, attorney for the National Rifle Association, gun shops and gun owners who have sued the city over the ordinance, said he would seek an injunction by week's end to stop it.

The law is one of five gun-control measures signed by Nutter in April. All were challenged in Common Pleas Court by the NRA. On June 3, two of the measures, one defining and banning assault weapons and the other limiting handgun purchases to one a month, were struck down by Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan, who ruled that they are contrary to state law.

The judge tossed out the challenges against the three other measures, including the lost-and-stolen-law, on procedural grounds. Greenspan ruled that the plaintiffs did not have the standing to sue.

Nutter said the city was not ready to implement the two gun-control measures that were not struck down by Greenspan because they require additional regulations now being developed. One of the laws permits judges to remove guns from people declared to be a risk to themselves or others; the other prevents people subject to protection-from-abuse orders from owning guns.

Both the city and the NRA have appealed to Commonwealth Court, where the case could be combined with a lawsuit by City Council against the state legislature seeking the power to enact its own gun laws.

Shields yesterday questioned whether the city could prosecute the lost-and-stolen law without District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham, who has already declared all five laws invalid.

Nutter yesterday said violation of the law would be a civil matter handled by the City Solicitor's Office.

"I think the city is going to have a big problem with that," said Shields. "And I'm going to be that problem."

Abraham was unavailable for comment yesterday.

The law has another possible problem: It requires owners to report firearms as being lost or stolen only after they have been discovered missing, meaning that straw buyers could say they were unaware their guns were missing.

Everett Gillison, deputy mayor for public safety, said yesterday's event was about changing people's habits and making sure gun owners kept track of their property.

"We're trying to change the culture," Gillison said. He acknowledged that the law was a "first step" in a campaign to discourage straw purchases and might have to be refined in the future.

To report a missing firearm, call 911.