dme court

A Karns City man has sued Pennsylvania Attorney General David Sunday, claiming he is being disarmed, or prohibited from possessing firearms, in violation of his U.S. and state constitutional rights.

Joseph R. Parker, 35, filed the handwritten suit on his own behalf on April 29 in Butler County Common Pleas Court.

He is being held in Butler County Prison in lieu of $150,000 bail while awaiting trial on 29 felony and misdemeanor charges, including prohibited possession of a firearm, strangulation, assault, possession of body armor and cruelty to animals state police filed following a March 10, 2023, incident in Fairview Township.

People convicted of felonies and certain other crimes in Pennsylvania are not permitted to possess firearms.

Parker doesn’t mention the Fairview Township case in the suit, but claims he is being disarmed under section 6105 of Title 18 of the Pennsylvania Code. The section prohibits certain people from possessing, using, manufacturing, controlling, selling or transferring firearms, and section 908 that prohibits possession of certain knives, club-like weapons or any instrument that can cause serious bodily injury and serve no common lawful purpose, according to the suit.

State police charged Parker with violations of both sections of Act 18 in relation to the March 2023 incident.

According to an affidavit, state police were dispatched March 10, 2023, to meet with a woman who reported she was walking with Parker earlier in the day at a Fairview Township property. She said he led the way toward a camper and told her where to walk. She said she set off a bear trap and jumped out of the way.

Later, she said she left the camper to smoke a cigarette outside, but Parker got upset, dragged her back inside the camper and began hitting her. She said he hit her with the butt stock of a rifle causing injury to the side of her head and below her right eye, according to the affidavit.

She told police Parker also grabbed her tongue and tried to pull it out of her mouth because she was screaming for help and choked her to the point she could not breathe, according to the affidavit.

Parker then allegedly grabbed a pistol, pointed at her, threatened to kill her if she said anything. He said no one would be able to find her and he was able to shoot her from miles away, according to the affidavit.

She also told police that Parker pointed the pistol at her dog, threatened to shoot it and grabbed and twisted the dog’s ear, according to the affidavit.

On May 1 of this year, a judge denied a motion to modify the $150,000 bail that has kept Parker in jail since his March 14, 2023, arrest. A trial is pending.

His suit cites articles of the U.S. and Pennsylvania constitutions, and claims his firearms prohibition violates Section 2, Article 4 of the U.S. Constitution.

Parker argues that he is eccentric, has a lifelong passion for firearms and military collectibles and is a woodsman. He said, if convicted, he would be prohibited from possessing firearms because he had in his possession a military survival knife while he defended himself from an attack. He said the knife falls under section 908 because it fits the criteria of not having a common law purpose, according to the suit.

“A militaria collecting woodsman is not common and because of that I have been denied my indefeasible right of enjoying my lifelong passion or the ability to defend my life or to possess property that brings me happiness,” Parker said in the suit.

The suit goes on to claim his firearms prohibition violates his U.S. and state constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment

Parker argues section 6105 of Title 18 is unconstitutional because it denies convicted people of U.S. and state constitutional rights to bear arms and discriminates against convicted people.

He cites a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in which a Pennsylvania man’s conviction of lying to acquire food stamps does not deprive him of his constitutional right to bear arms.

Parker claims he was prohibited from possessing firearms due to a nonviolent misdemeanor offense. He said he should not be disarmed or prohibited from possessing firearms.

The Attorney General’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the suit.