Pittsburgh became a front line in the debate over firearms laws yesterday, as three city council members proposed legislation requiring that owners report lost or stolen handguns to police, and gun rights advocates cried that they were overstepping their bounds.

"Any law-abiding person has nothing to fear here," said City Council President Doug Shields, who along with colleagues William Peduto and Bruce Kraus unveiled the legislation aimed at shutting down "straw purchasers" who sell handguns to criminals.

They argued that their measure deals only with reporting handguns that have gone missing, not regulating their sale or possession, and therefore doesn't infringe on state supremacy over gun laws, or the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.

Gun-owner bulletin boards on the Internet lit up with criticism. "These people are incorrigible, and luckily for them, the Allegheny County D.A. won't arrest council for committing a crime," wrote one poster, identified as a county resident.

The ordinance would require that anyone whose handgun is lost or stolen in the city tell police within 24 hours, or potentially face a $500 fine. Failure to report the loss of a second handgun would result in a $1,000 fine with the possibility of 90 days in jail.

The penalty would kick in only if a handgun was used in a crime, recovered by police, and traced back to its original purchaser. "Once a handgun is separated from its owner, it becomes an illegal weapon," said Mr. Kraus.

The legislation mirrors an ordinance approved in Philadelphia in May 2007 that has been the subject of a court fight ever since. As a result, it hasn't produced a single prosecution or citation there, and the General Assembly rejected a statewide version in April. But the city of Allentown passed its own version early this month, and mayors of six other cities have vowed to try to get a version approved.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl hasn't expressed a clear opinion on the matter and his administration provided no response to the legislation introduced yesterday.

District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said straw purchasers are a problem, but council's legislation may not be a legal solution.

"A lot of times, somebody can't purchase a weapon, and these are bad people," he said. "And they get somebody to purchase a gun for them. ... It is a pipeline to get guns into the hands of bad people.

"I think [lost-and-stolen-gun legislation] is a tool that would help [Pittsburgh]," he said. "I just think the Legislature has to act on it."

Some legislators chided council for wading into an issue the General Assembly has declared to be a matter best dealt with in Harrisburg.

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, said that some local officials "instead of running for the Legislature, try to enact ordinances that can only be enacted in state policy." If council passes it, he said, "they will clearly just be wasting taxpayers' money. They will be overruled by the court."

The National Rifle Association is involved in the court fight against the Philadelphia ordinance.

"The proposed penalties do nothing more than victimize the victims" of gun thefts, said Washington, D.C.-based NRA spokeswoman Rachel Parsons.

The NRA last week criticized Pittsburgh zoning codes that restrict where guns can be sold. An attorney not affiliated with the NRA has challenged them in Common Pleas Court.

The measure comes before council as the city body count threatens to approach the record highs of 15 years ago.

Last year city police received 302 reports of lost or stolen guns, and they've gotten 202 such reports this year. They annually recover around half as many lost or stolen guns as are reported.

Overall, the city police investigated 890 guns involved in crimes in 2007, and 686 so far this year, according to Detective Brian Fleming of the Firearms Tracking Unit.

Eight states and seven cities have lost-and-stolen-handgun reporting laws, according to the Legal Community Against Violence.

Philadelphia's experience, though, suggests the difficulty of implementing such measures.

A lost-and-stolen-handgun reporting ordinance was among seven anti-gun measures pushed by Mayor Michael Nutter last year.

"We come upon people a lot," said Philadelphia police Lt. Frank Vanore, "and we find out through running [checks on] them that they bought five or six guns. We find two. Well, where are the other four? They say they lost them."

The Philadelphia lost-and-stolen-gun measure was one of three that survived an initial Common Pleas Court challenge, but late last month the Commonwealth Court knocked it down. The court ruled that the Legislature preempted local gun laws, but also noted that the Philadelphia measure required state approval -- something that never happened.

Lt. Vanore said the city still has the ordinance "on the books as a city ordinance that we could invoke to issue a fine." But with the courts and the local district attorney against them, they don't have the power to put anyone in jail for violating it.