Gun-club lawsuit against Robinson dismissed
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by a North Carolina man who accused Robinson Township officials of “slow-rolling” his application to operate a gun club before amending local zoning laws to deny him a permit.
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Horan dismissed the civil complaint filed by William Drummond, who is described in court papers as a “citizen of of North Carolina,” in a Tuesday decision.
Drummond – along with his company, GPGC LLC, and the Washington state-based Second Amendment Foundation, a gun rights group he belongs to -brought the case in August against the township and zoning officer Mark Dorsey.
In one portion of the 36-page decision jettisoning the case, Horan said Drummond fell short of demonstrating the zoning rules constituted a “substantial burden” on the exercise of the plaintiff’s gun rights, and “thus (failed) to sufficiently allege that the challenged ordinances are within the scope of the Second Amendment.”
The civil complaint alleged that amendments pertaining to gun clubs the township enacted to its zoning ordinance in April had violated the Second and Fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
Drummond initially filed a lawsuit in the Washington County Court of Common Pleas, but later had it voluntarily dismissed and brought the matter in federal court.
The plaintiffs challenged those sections of the zoning ordinance that “significantly frustrated if not effectively barred Drummmond and GPGC LLC’s operation of the historic Gun Club, and effectively barred any use of the historic King Road Gun Club property as a gun club or shooting range,” per the complaint.
A gun club of some kind has operated at the property for most of the time since Drummond’s grandfather started the Greater Pittsburgh Trap & Skeet Club in 1957 on roughly 265 acres on King Road in Bulger. The land stayed in the family, and the club continued operating until 2008.
In 2016, Iron City Armory LLC opened a club there, but it ceased operating in January 2018.
That same month, Drummond sought permission from the township to open a new club, which would be owned and operated by the company GPGC at the site under a 10-year lease of the property from owner Donald Freund, Drummond’s uncle. The township enacted the new ordinances April 9. It formally denied his application days later, according to court papers.
Drummond never appealed to the township zoning hearing board before taking the matter to court. His window to appeal the decision with that board has lapsed, Robinson solicitor Gretchen Moore said.
Attorney Trish Gill of the Pittsburgh firm Litchfield Cavo represented the defendants as the township’s insurance counsel. Citing a policy against firm attorneys discussing cases, she said she had “nothing further” to say beyond Horan’s decision.
It’s unclear if the plaintiffs will appeal to the Third Circuit. Their D.C.-area attorney, Alan Gura, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.