Packing Heat in Schweiker Park

Have gun, will travel in .

Just as long as that gun is visible and you don’t shoot it.

Borough council unanimously approved recently to have solicitor Mark Hosterman prepare and advertise an ordinance amending Chapter 89: Peace and Good Order of the Borough Code to prohibit individuals from discharging firearms in Schweiker Park.

The current code, under Chapter 89 Section 3, “Illustrated Acts of Disorderly Conduct,” has 31 rules and regulations related to Schweiker Park. The park is co-managed by Lansdale Borough and Hatfield Township.

One such regulation states that “No person shall carry firearms, bows and arrows in the park or throw stones within the park.”

This regulation violates the Open Carry Law, which states, in municipalities except those of first-class status, individuals who are not prohibited by law to do so, may carry firearms without a permit or license, as long as those firearms are not concealed.

In other words, one can walk through Schweiker Park – or through any municipality in Pennsylvania for that matter, with the exception of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh – with a firearm visible to the public, and you cannot get in trouble for it.

You may get a lot of questions, but there’s no law broken.

The borough does have a prohibition on firing guns in Lansdale, classifying it as disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace.

Under Chapter 89, Section 3, the law states the prohibition of “the discharging within the Borough of air rifles, spring guns, rifles, pistols, shotguns or any other firearms of any kind or character whatever, or any other device which discharges a projectile of any kind, except on a pistol, rifle or other target range approved by the Police Department.”

“I’m surprised we actually have this, number one,” said councilman Dan Dunigan at a recent council meeting where the ordinance amendment was approved. “Any reason we shouldn’t be amending whatever chapter we need so to that we shouldn’t be discharging firearms in the borough? Call me crazy.”

Lansdale Police Chief Robert McDyre said this issue came up because there was a misnomer in the section.

“We prohibited from carrying firearms in the park. It should say ‘discharging.’ We cannot restrict peoples’ ability to carry a firearm,” McDyre said.

“Second Amendment, and all that stuff,” responded councilman and public safety committee chairman Mike Sobel.

In regard to the Open Carry Law in Pennsylvania, a permit or license is required to open carry a firearm in a vehicle. There are exceptions to this however,

Individuals not legally barred to do so can openly carry a weapon into Pennsylvania establishments that sell alcohol.

More information on Open Carry Law is available at paopencarry.org.

To view the Lansdale Borough Code Book, visit www.lansdale.org and click “Borough Code Book.”