PA Licensed Gun Dealers Facing Potentially Stricter Guidelines

HARRISBURG, PA — A group of Pennsylvania lawmakers plan to introduce legislation that would more stringently regulate the more than 3,000 federally registered gun dealers in the state.

Five Democratic state lawmakers have proposed a three-part plan they hope could result in a decline in gun violence across the state.

"Consider this: Pennsylvania has nearly seven times as many licensed gun dealers as (it does) Starbucks locations. It has more gun dealers than there are (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) special agents in the entire country," the memo states.

"This forthcoming bill centers on the critical need for a unified statewide approach, because individual counties cannot implement these compliance measures in silos," the quintet stated in a memo to their colleagues.

If the bill becomes law:

• It would require the Pennsylvania State Police or their designees to conduct annual inspections of federally licensed firearms dealers.

• It would codify a duty to report lost or stolen firearms or ammunition.

• It would establish two programs: The first would be to provide grants to federally licensed licensed firearms dealers to modernize their operations; the second would be a program to fund state police-led recruitment, training and oversight of designees who verify that dealers properly store and secure their firearms sales records consistent with federal law.

"Data collected through this process can help identify which of the state’s firearms dealers account for a disproportionate share of handgun," the memo states. "The legislation would also authorize random inspections of dealers fitting that sales profile."

The representatives circulating the memo are Christopher Rabb, Tarik Khan and Ben Waxman, all from Philadelphia; Lindsay Powell of Allegheny County and Benjamin Sanchez of Montgomery County.