The administration of Philadelphia's then Mayor Jim Kenney filed a lawsuit four years ago which challenged a state law that preempts the ability of local authorities to regulate.

Yet in a move sure to leave gun rights advocates smiling, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court smacked that lawsuit down on Wednesday. 

City sought to require gun permits, limit number of weapons people could buy

According to Breitbart, the city argued that Pennsylvania's preemption statute "actively [prevents] an effective gun safety approach that would save the lives, property, and bodily integrity of Pennsylvania residents, particularly in low-income neighborhoods in the largest cities."

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Kenny's administration had sought to implement a range of new gun restrictions on residents.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Smacks Down Philly's Gun Control Plans ⁦@BreitbartNews⁩ https://t.co/AnNbAGybL7

— AWR Hawkins (@AWRHawkins) November 21, 2024

These included requiring prospective gun buyers to obtain a license before they could purchase a firearm as well as limiting the number of weapons one could acquire within a given timeframe.

However, arguments put forward by lawyers for the city were met with rejections from Pennsylvania's highest judicial body in a unanimous decision.

State Supreme Court: "Such questions are solely for the legislature to determine"

"The accounts of gun violence set forth in the Petition, like all other instances of gun violence, are undeniably tragic," the ruling acknowledged.

The justices then on to concede that "a serious problem exists in this Commonwealth relative to gun violence and its impacts on our citizenry."

However, they stressed that "the adequacy of the legislation to cope with the problem and the wisdom or the lack thereof on the part of the legislature in framing [the] legislation is not for us to determine."

"Such questions are solely for the legislature to determine and upon their province we must not encroach," the six justices went on to conclude.

Trump promises that he will go after armed criminals

Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump pledged during this year's campaign that he will resurrect efforts at reducing violence by going after armed criminals.

One example was Operation Legend, an initiative that was named after LeGend Taliferro, a four-year-old Kansas City boy who was fatally shot as he slept in his bed.

A Department of Justice (DOJ) press release from 2020 described Operation Legend as "a sustained, systematic and coordinated law enforcement initiative in which federal law enforcement agencies work in conjunction with state and local law enforcement officials."