Lancaster city will consider repealing its ordinance requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen guns following a state Senate vote Thursday that opens the door to lawsuits.

The Senate voted 34-14 to approve House Bill 80, a measure that was amended Wednesday to allow gun owners or organizations to sue municipalities with gun ordinances.

Lancaster city is one of 29 Pennsylvania municipalities with ordinances requiring the reporting of lost of stolen guns.

Sen. Lloyd Smucker, a West Lampeter Township Republican who represents Lancaster city, voted for the bill. Republican Sen. Mike Brubaker, of Warwick Township, the county’s other senator, did not cast a ballot on the measure.

State House members passed a similar measure last week. The two bills will need to be reconciled before a final version goes to the governor for his signature.

Supporters of the measure contend contend only the state can regulate firearms, and municipalities are attempting to take that power by passing ordinances such as the one passed in Lancaster.

Mayor Rick Gray led the effort to pass the city law. He said it was aimed at curbing “straw man” purchases in which someone who can legally purchase a firearm buys one or more for a convicted felon who cannot own one.

When guns are used in a crime and traced back to the original purchaser, the buyer sometimes claims the gun was lost or stolen. Lancaster passed its ordinance in 2008.

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Gray said Thursday he would talk to the city solicitor and City Council members about the ordinance.

“We have limited funds. We don’t want to spend them on litigation,” he said.

Smucker said Friday morning that a lost or stolen gun reporting law may be worth considering, but he thinks that discussion should be done at the state level.

There are 2,600 municipalities in Pennsylvania, Smucker noted. "The argument that we should have consistencies in gun laws really does make sense," he said, of his support for the bill.

Gray believes no one has ever been charged under the lost or stolen gun ordinance.

People have been charged and convicted under a city ordinance prohibiting the unlawful discharge of guns in the city, such as firing into the sky on New Year’s Eve.

That ordinance, which may also fall under the proposed state law, has been challenged and upheld in court, the mayor said.

“I think it’s a good law because it doesn’t regulate the lawful possession [of firearms] in any way,” the mayor said.