NRA's new strategy is to bankrupt municipalities that pass stricter gun laws

In other words, the NRA, with its headquarters in northern Virginia and annual revenues well above $200 million, can sue towns and cities, and expect them to pay its costs if it wins.

And, almost immediately, the lawsuits have arrived. The NRA has sued Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Lancaster, a town with a population of 59,325. (Lancaster probably ranked as a prime target since its mayor has served as the chairman of the state chapter of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the group co-founded by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.) A Pennsylvania-based gun-rights group, Firearms Owners Against Crime, has sued Harrisburg, as has a Texas-based pro-gun rights legal outfit called U.S. Law Shield.

Meanwhile, many towns and cities across the state—from Norristown and Franconia outside Philadelphia to Munhall and Clairton in the Monongahela Valley to Erie on the shores of the Great Lakes—have rushed to repeal their gun-related ordinances, worried they won’t be able to afford to fend off these legal actions or, worst case, pay the NRA’s legal bills, alongside their school and snow-removal budgets. “These are risk-free lawsuits. You might get your fees covered or at the least, you get towns to drop their laws. It’s a jobs program for gun-lobby lawyers and an NRA bullying tactic for local towns,” says Shira Goodman, director of CeaseFire PA, the state’s main gun-control group. “They’re giving special rights to the NRA.”