Drummond v. Township of Robinson

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  • wolfwood

    Ultimate Member
    Aug 24, 2011
    1,361
    Opening Brief filed in this case Alan Gura is on. The Greater Pittsburgh Gun Club (GPGC) started offering firearms sales and training on rural land outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania over 50 years ago. For many of those decades, Robinson Township has resolved to shut the club down. In the 1990s, Robinson Township brought a nuisance action against GPGC, but the court determined that GPGC was not a nuisance. Then, Robinson Township brought a licensing action against GPGC, but failed in court again. Now, Robinson Township has enacted an ordinance forbidding GPGC from operating for-profit, or from allowing center-fire rifle shooting on the property—but only if it is operating as a gun club. The club’s owner, William Drummond, brought this action, alleging that the new ordinance violates the Second Amendment.
     

    Attachments

    • William Drummond, v. Robinson Township.pdf
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    Doctor_M

    Certified Mad Scientist
    MDS Supporter
    What do you do when the public treasury is used as a weapon to bludgeon you into submission.... you can win, and win, and win, and they still keep coming, because they are spending other people's money. Wish there was a way for the courts to bit@h slap the township for real.
     

    Tomcat

    Formerly Known As HITWTOM
    May 7, 2012
    5,568
    St.Mary's County
    Growing up in the Pittsburgh area more than 50 years ago I can see exactly what has happened. Robinson Twp. is out near the Pittsburgh International Airport. Back then there was nothing out that way. Think of Dulles airport, they built it in the middle of nowhere, people bought cheap land and developed it then complained there was an airport that made noise. Same thing here, the suburbs have expanded out that way and people are complaining.
     

    rbird7282

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 6, 2012
    18,538
    Columbia
    Growing up in the Pittsburgh area more than 50 years ago I can see exactly what has happened. Robinson Twp. is out near the Pittsburgh International Airport. Back then there was nothing out that way. Think of Dulles airport, they built it in the middle of nowhere, people bought cheap land and developed it then complained there was an airport that made noise. Same thing here, the suburbs have expanded out that way and people are complaining.


    Fvck those people.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     

    jcutonilli

    Ultimate Member
    Mar 28, 2013
    2,474
    Doesn't PA have state preemption of local firearms laws?

    It is not exactly a firearm law that is the problem. It is a zoning issue. The zoning requirements do not prohibit every gun range, just the specific type the plaintiffs are running.
     

    press1280

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 11, 2010
    7,878
    WV
    It is not exactly a firearm law that is the problem. It is a zoning issue. The zoning requirements do not prohibit every gun range, just the specific type the plaintiffs are running.

    It may be OK in the case of a new range, but it seems here they are trying to zone them out.
     

    JohnnyE

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 18, 2013
    9,466
    MoCo
    I had to listen to this kind of crap from citizens all the time when I worked on Capitol Hill. Folks would buy a home...

    near an airport and complain about the noise from low overhead aircraft.

    in farm country and complain about the smell.

    near the sewage treatment plant and complain about the smell.

    next to the fire house and complain about the fire whistle.

    next to the train tracks and complain about the rumble AND the horn.

    etc., etc., etc.

    Not a one of them stopped taking flights, stopped eating food, stopped flushing toilets, refused fire protection, or didn't use goods shipped by train.

    Everyone wants the benefits, but won't put up with the things needed to serve up the benefits. Hypocrites!

    Do your homework before you buy. IDIOTS!
     

    jcutonilli

    Ultimate Member
    Mar 28, 2013
    2,474
    It may be OK in the case of a new range, but it seems here they are trying to zone them out.

    I get the impression that they ceased operations for a while based on what is written in the opening brief

    GPGC ceased operations eleven years later, but was revived in 2016
    under a new name and management.
    additionally
    When the club closed in 2018, Plaintiff Drummond, grandson of the club’s founder and nephew of the club’s current owner and previous long-time manager, leased the land and formed GPGC LLC for the purpose of operating GPGC much as his grandfather and uncle had.

    This suggests that it may have been closed between 2008-2016 and again in 2018. It appears they changed the zoning in 2018 when the plaintiff tried to take over.
     

    Bob A

    όυ φροντισ
    MDS Supporter
    Patriot Picket
    Nov 11, 2009
    30,691
    They knew the range was already their when they moved their. Same thing with KIAD and KDCA as well. Sometimes people can be sooooo stupid and not think ah what about aircraft noise in 20 to 30 yrs???

    KGAI as well.

    I believe realtors were eventually forced to require purchasers to acknowledge the previous presence of an airport nearby, to stop the nuisance lawsuits.

    People are greedy idiots. Very few exceptions.

    [Gratuitous statement follows:] Dogs, on the other hand, are generally intelligent, socially-oriented creatures. Their company is usually to be preferred over humans.
     

    JohnnyE

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 18, 2013
    9,466
    MoCo
    KGAI as well.

    I believe realtors were eventually forced to require purchasers to acknowledge the previous presence of an airport nearby, to stop the nuisance lawsuits.

    People are greedy idiots. Very few exceptions.

    [Gratuitous statement follows:] Dogs, on the other hand, are generally intelligent, socially-oriented creatures. Their company is usually to be preferred over humans.

    I would not put it past some people to buy at a low price (because it's near a preexisting "nuisance" like a gun range), and try to eliminate the nuisance to realize a tidy profit. That's not just greedy, that's borders on evil.
     

    adit

    ReMember
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 20, 2013
    19,512
    DE
    SAF Win.

    FEDERAL APPEALS COURT VICTORY FOR SAF IN PENNSYLVANIA GUN RANGE CASE

    BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation is celebrating a victory in Pennsylvania involving a long-existing gun club in the Pittsburgh area, as a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has unanimously remanded the case back to the lower court for a second time. The case is known as Drummond v. Robinson Township.

    At issue is an effort by officials in Robinson Township to write and enforce restrictive zoning laws against the 265-acre Greater Pittsburgh Gun Club, now operated by plaintiff William Drummond. SAF filed the legal action on his behalf. They are represented by veteran civil rights attorney Alan Gura, who argued both the Heller and the Second Amendment Foundation’s McDonald landmark U.S. Supreme Court case victories.

    The Township has been at odds with the range since the early 1990s, and the range was even closed for about ten years until Drummond leased the property in 2017 with the intent to sell firearms and operate the shooting range. The Township amended its zoning rules and in 2018, Drummond and SAF filed suit. While the District court sided with the Township, the Appeals Court reversed and remanded. Drummond’s motion for a preliminary injunction did not receive a substantive ruling before the District Court dismissed his action, the so he appealed a second time.

    “Assuming (Drummond’s) motion is renewed on remand,” wrote Circuit Judge Cheryl Ann Krause, “we trust the District Court will address it promptly.”

    She was joined by Judges Kent A. Jordan and Luis Felipe Restrepo.

    SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb is delighted that the Appeals Court “has ruled in our favor both times.” He is confident of a favorable ruling in the case on remand.

    “By the time our victory in this case is finalized,” Gottlieb said, “it will add Second Amendment protection to gun clubs, gun stores and gun ranges because it provides for heightened levels of scrutiny for cases involving gun ranges.

    “Anti-gunners have tried to push restrictive zoning on gun clubs, ranges and gun stores in an effort to use zoning laws to make sure gun ranges and stores cannot operate,” he observed. “It amounts to Second Amendment violations and business discrimination under color of law. That cannot be allowed.

    “SAF will continue pursuing this and similar cases,” Gottlieb said, “because our mission is to win firearms freedom, one lawsuit at a time.”
     

    JMangle

    Handsome Engineer
    May 11, 2008
    816
    Mississippi
    ^ Good to hear about the win, shame we have to fight this fight.


    I had to listen to this kind of crap from citizens all the time when I worked on Capitol Hill. Folks would buy a home...

    near an airport and complain about the noise from low overhead aircraft.

    in farm country and complain about the smell.

    near the sewage treatment plant and complain about the smell.

    next to the fire house and complain about the fire whistle.

    next to the train tracks and complain about the rumble AND the horn.

    etc., etc., etc.

    Not a one of them stopped taking flights, stopped eating food, stopped flushing toilets, refused fire protection, or didn't use goods shipped by train.

    Everyone wants the benefits, but won't put up with the things needed to serve up the benefits. Hypocrites!

    Do your homework before you buy. IDIOTS!

    I've lived within ear-shot of two very active rail lines. Both were built before the Civil War, one carried Lincoln's remains back to rest. Needless to say, I knew what was there before I moved in and didn't complain. I've also lived across the street from a Superfund site, also knew it was there and didn't complain.

    I know of a certain Carroll County fire department that had this issue - people moved into a house a baseball throw away from the station and complained about the siren. It's semi-rural America, more than a few times I heard the siren but never got the page or cell phone alert.

    People suck - they don't do the due diligence when they move into a place. I'll bet when the range was inactive, people forgot about it. The government, always looking to go after the people who were there before, and always looking to go after gun owners, gladly stepped up to do harm.
     

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