Easton's mayor said he plans to introduce a bill prohibiting openly-carried guns in public buildings and parks.

Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said the move comes after Pennsylvania's Supreme Court threw out a law that would make municipalities vulnerable to lawsuits for regulating guns.

"You can't take a gun into a Northampton County Council meeting because it's in the courthouse and you can't take it into the capitol building (in Harrisburg) but you can bring a gun into city hall," the mayor said at last week's city council meeting.

The measure would not apply to police or to those who have a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

"If someone has been vetted for a concealed weapon they have the right and frankly I have no problem, because they have been cleared (to carry the weapon)," Panto said.

He said on June 22 he would introduce the new legislation in two to four weeks.

He said he'd also reintroduce a bill that would require Easton residents to report lost or stolen guns to the police. The mayor worries too many felons get guns in their hands because they use guns that were "lost" when they can't legally obtain them.

An earlier version of his lost gun bill was defeated in 2008. Easton and other cities backed off gun bills when Act 192 of 2014 made them vulnerable to lawsuits and could have forced them to pay the litigants' legal bills.

But the state Supreme Court found Act 192 unconstitutional on June 20.

Panto said the law on guns in parks makes sense and should help put residents at ease.

"We had to change our parks rules to say 'no discharging of weapons in city parks' but you can certainly openly carry, and that scares the heck out of little kids," Panto said at the council meeting.

A group of Democratic lawmakers plus the cities of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Lancaster challenged the new law, contending that lawmakers didn't follow constitutional procedure for passing legislation, according to pennlive.com.

The defeated law had the backing of the National Rifle Association.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.