Town May Shoot Down Gun Ownership Law : Pennsylvania: Some Franklintown residents believe it is time to get rid of mandatory weapons ordinance.

Concerned about guns? Take heart: This town’s law says you must own one.

Some townsfolk believe it’s time to get rid of the 12-year-old mandatory-gun ordinance.

“We’re not a bunch of gun-toting rednecks,” said Councilman Leon Rudy, who is seeking to repeal the law. “I’m tired of being known as the town with the unusual gun ordinance.”

Although the law was never meant to be strictly enforced, opponents say it gives this south-central Pennsylvania town of 400 a bad image.

Supporters say the ordinance was designed to prevent gun control. They know their ordinance could be overridden but want to keep it on the books to make a point.

“Sometimes you have to over-dramatize things to get the point across,” said Councilman Richard Blouch, who was council president when the measure was adopted in 1982.

Many gun owners are up in arms over the federal Brady law, which took effect Feb. 28. It requires a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases to allow time for background checks.

The Franklintown ordinance requires each household head to maintain a firearm and ammunition. Exempted are convicts and residents who have a physical disability or oppose firearms on religious grounds. The law does not specify penalties.

Resident Donna Finch, who served seven years in the military, refuses to own what she considers a dangerous weapon.

“I guess I’m breaking the law because I don’t have a gun,” she said. “I would like to see the gun law go. It’s making us look like idiots.”

The ordinance was modeled after one passed in 1982 in Kennesaw, Ga., which also is not enforced. Both ordinances were prompted by a handgun ban in Morton Grove, Ill., and legal scholars say they may pass muster.

“You might think this is a very bad idea, but a lot of very, very bad ideas are constitutional,” said Stanford Levinson, a constitutional law professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

He compared the law to ordinances that require fire alarms and smoke detectors in the name of public safety.

Carroll Township Police Chief James Fishel, whose police force serves Franklintown, said the gun law had no apparent effect on crime. He could provide no figures.

Franklintown has had no murders in recent years. Occasional burglaries, domestic disputes and rapes generally do not involve firearms, Fishel said.

Marvin Wilson, current council president, doubts any resident feels pressured to buy a gun. He says citizens can always claim religious objection.

Of 14 people interviewed, nine said they owned guns, three said they didn’t and two refused to say. Gun owners said they had firearms long before the law was passed or before they moved to town--mostly for hunting, target shooting or protection.

Rudy said he wants the law abolished so officials can focus on more important matters--such as buying a new snowplow and creating a park.

The ordinance, he said, is “a distraction. It will just keep coming up year after year.”

But supporters say they will fight to keep the law, which staves off what they believe is the aim of gun-control advocates--an outright ban.

“We can’t give in to these people,” Mayor Robert Wolfe said. “Eventually, we’ll lose our right to bear arms.”