Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s momma never taught him that two wrongs don’t make a right. After the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, Peduto, the rabidly anti-gun Steel City mayor, flouted Pennsylvania’s state law prohibiting local regulation of guns. Instead of following the rule of law, he defiantly ignored it. And now he’s looking at possible impeachment for his stunt.
Peduto proudly signed a bill to ban guns and standard capacity magazines within Pittsburgh city limits, even though Pennsylvania state law expressly prohibited that sort of local lawmaking. Not only that, Peduto’s bill also includes confiscation a red flag provision – again, in violation of the Keystone State’s preemption law.
Now, state representative Daryl Metcalfe has begun the process to remove Peduto from office using the same rule of law that Peduto flagrantly ignored when it suited him. Metcalfe publicized his efforts at a rally of gun rights supporters at the Pennsylvania state Capitol yesterday (see photo above).
From the Pennsylvania Capital-Star:
On the same day that hundreds of gun-rights supporters rallied in the state Capitol, a firebrand member of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives said he would begin impeachment proceedings against Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto over the city’s new gun control ordinances.
State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, who’s circulating the impeachment resolution, told the Capital-Star Monday that Peduto “brazenly” violated the state Constitution when he signed the bills, which include restrictions on the use of assault-style weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines. Peduto also signed into law a measure that allows authorities to temporarily seize firearms from a person deemed at risk of harming himself or others.
Under Pennsylvania’s Uniform Firearms Act, municipalities are prevented from regulating “the transfer, ownership, transportation, or possession of firearms.”
Sadly, Pennsylvania’s House leadership doesn’t seem inclined to hold Peduto accountable “at this time.”
If the House passed the resolution, it would then convene a subcommittee to investigate Peduto, according to Metcalfe. Once its investigation is complete, the mayor’s impeachment case would go before the state Senate, which must consider the subcommittee’s findings and vote on removing Peduto from office.
The resolution won’t go to the House floor for a vote unless it has the support of Republican leadership. And a spokesperson for House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, indicated Monday that’s unlikely to happen.
“We’re not interested in pursuing impeachment,” Cutler spokesman Mike Straub said Monday. “Pittsburgh residents will decide who their mayor is. The legislature doesn’t need to be involved at this time.”
Metcalfe was nonetheless optimistic Monday that his colleagues will support his resolution.
Ah, yes. Pennsylvania House members expressed reluctance to pursue impeachment against crooked gun-grabbing Attorney General Kathleen Kane, too. In the end, though, she resigned and was later sentenced to prison.
Time will tell how long Peduto lasts in his role as mayor. Or if he will end up behind bars like countless other members of the Mayors Against Guns felony club.
It always seems, when it comes right down to it, most government officials are extremely hesitant to act against other government officials (the rabid impeach-Trump crowd in the House notwithstanding).
They do not back this because they all have something(s) to hide and are worried that they will be exposed. This is the encouragement to lawlessness.
That’s because they have a common enemy – us.
This is why county sheriff’s are the most important LEO in any state, they are elected LEO, not appointed by cronyism mayors. Support your local sheriff, and if he is anti-2A, vote him out post hast. Note the state representatives and senators that vote for gun control and vote them out.
County Sherrifs are the main reason most CA Folks can CCW.
Pennsylvania is set up differently than many states. In most states the sheriff’s department is like a county level police department. But not in Pennsylvania.
Sheriffs here are not law enforcement officers, but officers of the court. They do not have statutory power to arrest, merely common law. Mainly they provide security for court facilities, serve warrants and subpoenas, transport prisoners, stuff like that.
We have a police department for ever piss ant little town, borough, village, or other little thing. And we have them everywhere. I go through about a dozen different municipalities on my way to work.
Unincorporated areas are covered by state police.
@The Crimson Pirate:
Same in Rhode Island. But I no longer live there, moved to Texas, where Sheriff’s are the most powerful LEO in the county, and are elected, unlike Sheriff’s in R.I.
It must be a thing with “commonwealths”.
Congratulation on being in Texas now. I am from there and need to get back.
Nice to try but not going to work.
No matter how badly they deserve to be removed it is incredibly difficult to impeach and convict any politician at any level of government. Or to hold any politician accountable in a way that they feel the pain, either elected or appointed. Doesn’t matter what party they are in either. Even when held in Contempt of Congress, actually ordering an arrest is all but impossible. Eric Holder should have been jailed, very likely AG Barr should now be in there with him.
Either a politician has to be voted out in an election or arrested by the FBI for some crime like taking cash bribes. Other than those rare exceptions, that’s about it.
Pa is known for not jumping to decisions, at least when quality legislators are concerned. This will take a bit of time but should pan out fairly as most of Pa is very conservative and value a fair system.
Even if out of state media try to portray it differently. Stuff still slips through but the core is value based.
Hope we can maintain that as the future progresses.
Also agree that the Sheriffs department is our best stronghold against wild powers.
Why does it take lawsuits to get our rights back and the politicians gets off without paying the legal cost and a good ass kicking followed by tar and feathers and a proper stretching of the neck?
If there were consequences(hanging 4 treason) there would be far fewer if any of these illegal acts.
The fact is we have become to soft. The founding fathers would of took care of business swiftly for this commie butt head.
Because Representative Democracy is loud, boisterous and messy as hell. It is the worst possible form of government except for all those other forms of government.
Unfortunately, we used to be a Constitutional Republic but we’ve drifted closer to a representative democracy and the elimination of the Electoral College will finish the job.
That will also finish off the Bill of Rights as we know it.
Which would be a better mock-name; Mayor Pedo or Mayor Puto?
“We’re not interested in pursuing impeachment”
Ah, so the article is fake news; A for effort though, representative (singular) Metcalfe
“Which would be a better mock-name; Mayor Pedo or Mayor Puto?”
‘Mayor Poofer’ seems an apt description…
¡ Jajajajajajaja !
¿Cómo se dice “portmanteau” en Español?
Peduto, that’s a funny last name. I’d have to have named him Peter. . Peter Peduto the pedophilic prophet
Of course. They don’t want to face investigation and impeachment themselves when they break the law.
Yes the garbage is deep in our state governments sure is here in Oregon
Pennsylvania sucks. The politicians, state and especially their federal representatives, never stand on one side of the fence. The constituents (voters) are a bunch of cowards that the politicians lead around with their nose rings. Pennsylvania is almost as screwed up as Ohio.
The voters are not cowards.
Fudds, lazy, not paying attention, yes.
The people of Pittsburgh get to decide who their mayor is AFTER the taxpayers of the State pay for the impending lawsuit to wend its way to the Supreme Court.
And the Leftist voters in Pittsburgh will vote Peduto back into office.
Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in the middle.
At this time, the Democrats have more registered voters than Republicans; therefore, they have the advantage in the cities and in statewide elections.
I live 100 miles from Pittsburgh. This will be fun! Mayors need to be taught a lesson as do some governors.
To bad it’s not rules by decree like our safe state of cuomo. The screamer!!!
Here’s an Eye opener…Blue states with money issues LOVE strict-for-nothing-gun-laws….!
Trust a wounded or ill animal??
The diagnosis is historically perfect, the first property confiscated is firearms.
Signed
VENEZUELA
This will go no where because he is not solely responsible for this law. Since they cannot impeach everyone involved, it will be thrown out by a judge as discriminatory / selective enforcement and it will set a legal precedent that mayors can flout pre-emotion laws.
It would be better not to pursue impeachment.
Why not impeach every city official that voted for the bill and the mayor for signing it.
They brazenly passed an unconstitutional law that also violates Pennsylvania’s criminal code (Title 18).
” This will go no where because he is not solely responsible for this law. ”
Probably right, but it did not become a law until he put his signature on it. He had the opportunity to follow Pennsylvania state law, and he brazenly ignored it. He does carry personal responsibility for this.
Totally agree. The buck stops at his desk. He signed the illegal ordinance – he is responsible. Impeachment is the least he should face. Now for some criminal punishment…
Peduto knows enough democrats at the state level and courts have his back on this. We’ll see how long PAs preemption lasts.
Watch that be the next move followed by several blue cities going for bans and confiscation.
I’d rather see the Pittsburg ordances overturned first, then go after Peduto when it’s obvious to all he and his peeps were out of order- especially after taunting his opposition to “come jail him”.
Somebody needs to show injury by the illegal ordnance and then sue the pants off the Mayor and City Council.
Find a pro-gun attorney to file the lawsuit. Might be faster than waiting on the pu$$ies in the State Legislature.
Several state level pro gun groups have already filed suit.
MOST Politicians are Sociopathic Frontmen for the money that supports them.
Usually Sociopathic Globalist Elites
BOTH Parties.
after all the blather weve been subjected to lately wouldnt it be funny if the only democrat that got impeached this year was a profile democrat
Here in Florida we have Statute 790.33 that local officials who flout state pre emption laws are personally liable for $5,000 civil fines.
They can also be removed from office by the Governor, no legislative vote needed.
We also have 790.15 that local officials cannot stop backyard shooting ranges on homes in areas that are 1 acre or more.
These are laws I support
The only thing we have in PA is an official oppression statute.
But, like the private criminal complaints that some gun owners already attempted to file, it requires the DA (or maybe AG) to actually pursue it. And he is also a leftist political hack, so he won’t.
I have said before and will say again that Pennsylvania gun owners need to think about what “We will not comply!” really means. Philly, Lancaster, Reading, Allentown, Harrisburg, and many smaller municipalities are watching and this WILL be coming soon to a municipality near all of us in PA.
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
They can talk tough , but the system will collapse before they can criminalize 200 MILLION gun owners and jail them … jails are overcrowded now , so good luck.
The gang thug animals are not abiding by Mayor Finocchio’s law regarding guns in his sanctuary city. What a loser. Voters got what they deserved.
I conceal carry whenever in Pgh. Come and get me.