Can cities legally order gun shops to close?

Frank Ettin · Mar 24, 2020

BSA1 said:
...Researchers may have found a better way to control the spread of the virus. They have discovered that the Corona 19 is a “cluster” disease. ..

Have researchers in fact determined that? If you claim that they have, provide verifiable, credible evidence. Or are you making stuff up?

BSA1 said:
....Cluster means the disease is first spread among family members that live together before being spread outside of the home. What it means is it is more effective to quarantine all members of family when one gets sick rather than quarantining the entire general population....

That's fine, but how do we determine that a member of the family has the virus. If the incubation period is around 2 to 14 days (current CDC estimate) if the subject had not been taking appropriate steps to mitigate transmission he could infect a lot of other people before he's clinically (from symptoms) identified as sick.

marvin02 · Mar 25, 2020

BSA1 said:
The only way to stop the spread of the virus is by a complete shutdown of all businesses, manufacturers, schools, etc. and a 24 hour stay-in-place order on all people. The deaths that result from starvation and other medical diseases will be a acceptable trade-off.

. . . .

Bold added by myself.

Acceptable to who? Isn't it nice to advocate the death of others (you hope?) for the "greater good" when you have added no evidence to your claims.

What does this and many of the other replies have to do with the topic of the thread?

Isn't this the legal forum?

Frank Ettin · Mar 25, 2020

It has been suggested that a discussion of ways of managing the pandemic are not relevant to the initial question of whether a State or the federal government could close gun shops. However, they are related issues.

Note the federal statute I cited and quoted in post 8. To the extent a state of local governmental agency is relying on a law similar to that federal law, whether or not an agency's actions will be sustained by a court will to some extent be a function of how well the agency can make the case that its actions were reasonably necessary to prevent the spread of a communicable disease.

D.B. Cooper · Mar 25, 2020

Browning said:
So no legal discussion on cities and their role in closing gun stores, we'll talk about Clovid 19 and the response instead.

This article from Reuters discusses your question from the opposite side. The main idea of the article is that the President has very little authority to override local edicts in dealing with emergencies, which would suggest that local governments do, indeed, have broad powers. It doesn't specifically address gun shops, but it does address the general concepts of local governments' emergency power.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...le-power-to-restart-u-s-economy-idUSKBN21B3F5

D.B. Cooper · Mar 25, 2020

marvin02 said:
Bold added by myself.

Acceptable to who? Isn't it nice to advocate the death of others (you hope?) for the "greater good" when you have added no evidence to your claims.

What does this and many of the other replies have to do with the topic of the thread?

Isn't this the legal forum?

I took his remark as sarcasm; was I wrong?

dogtown tom · Mar 25, 2020

BSA1 said:
The only way to stop the spread of the virus is by a complete shutdown of all businesses, manufacturers, schools, etc. and a 24 hour stay-in-place order on all people.

Really? A whopping 24 hours will stop Corona.
Whoever told you that is insanely stupid.

Researchers may have found a better way to control the spread of the virus. They have discovered that the Corona 19 is a “cluster” disease. Cluster means the disease is first spread among family members that live together before being spread outside of the home. What it means is it is more effective to quarantine all members of family when one gets sick rather than quarantining the entire general population.

Well, when a virus has up to a two week incubation period (as does Corona) before anyone in that "cluster" may exhibit symptoms, they continue to spread the virus.
Again, the source of your information is insanely stupid.

So if John Smith gets sick then everyone that is living in the Smith household regardless if they are sick or well is quarantined. No one in the Jones family is sick so they are allowed to go about their lives as usual.

And continuing to spread the virus John shed at work before any symptoms appeared.

The current plan is ineffective and is placing huge financial burdens on many people. It is difficult to understand why educated folks are reacting in fear of this virus. Maybe it is from watching too many zombie TV shows and movies.

I've paid attention to real epidemiologists and medical professionals....none of whom share your insight.

Jim Watson · Mar 25, 2020

Frank Ettin said:
To the extent a state of local governmental agency is relying on a law similar to that federal law, whether or not an agency's actions will be sustained by a court will to some extent be a function of how well the agency can make the case that its actions were reasonably necessary to prevent the spread of a communicable disease.

Yes, and that will be determined in the dim distant future if the plaintiff, lawyer, and judge survive to litigate it.

In the meanwhile it is not necessarily whether government agencies have the authority, it is that they have the power.

illinoisburt · Mar 25, 2020

The assumption is actions taken by government are lawful until court review determines otherwise. Municipal health codes have been around a long time, and putting in place temporary closures of commercial business structures ordinarily open to the public is very likely going to withstand review. Although not specifically about gun stores, the ACLU has notices they are monitoring these restrictions closely to protect people's rights (special emphasis on church closures).

Frank Ettin · Mar 25, 2020

In Pennsylvania a number of parties, including a gun shop, applied to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (No. 63 MM 2020) for a preliminary injunction preventing Governor Wolf from implementing a broad business closure order that included gun shops. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court simply denied the application (except with respect to one issue involving availability of legal services, which issue was determined to be moot because of changes the Governor had made to the order).

The ruling of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court may be read here.

jonnyc · Mar 25, 2020

However.......the governor then re-issued his guidelines that included provisions for gun shops to reopen today (Wed.) by appointment, and certain other provisos. We were open 10-5 today, and I expect that will continue for the time being.

Can cities legally order gun shops to close?

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