Lifted from M14 Forum PA State Police (aka Rendell) to DEMAND AR-15 Rifle Registration The situation with AR-15 rifles is as follows: over the past several months I've been informed by gun dealers across the state of Pennsylvania that the Pennsylvania State police have been informing them that they must now register AR-15 rifles and other identifying information on the record of sale form just like they do with handguns. The interesting part of this is that they are failed to provide anything in writing. As time has progressed the Pennsylvania State police have been informing dealers that the release of this radical, illegal shift in policy would be forthcoming in the FFL dealer’s newsletter in mid July. Fast forward to this week; two days ago I was informed by George Romanoff of Ace Sporting Goods and a representative of the National Shooting Sports Foundation that gun dealers would be notified of this new policy within two weeks. The essence of this argument is that Pennsylvania law does not allow them (meaning to do it is ‘against’ the law) to demand this information and specifically excludes long gun, rifle and shotgun, from the requirement to complete the record of sale form for these purchases. Pennsylvania firearms dealers who comply with this policy dictate could, technically, themselves, be guilty of violating Pennsylvania law (which is a misdemeanor 1 crime-see section 6119) along with the Pennsylvania State police. PA Law (Title 18) States in pertinent part (see below): §6111. Sale or transfer of firearms. (1.4) Following implementation of the instantaneous records check by the Pennsylvania State Police on or before December 1, 1998, no application/record of sale shall be completed for the purchase or transfer of a firearm which exceeds the barrel lengths set forth in section 6102. §6102. Definitions. "Firearm." . . . .any shotgun with a barrel length less than 18 inches or any rifle with a barrel length less than 16 inches, or any pistol, revolver, rifle or shotgun with an overall length of less than 26 inches. As you can see from the above sections of law, the Pennsylvania State Police have NO authority or justification for this new policy. Frankly this is a war that is being conducted and waged against gun owners in this state that originates directly from the executive office mansion and Ed Rendell. It is, and has been, our position that the Pennsylvania Instant Check System (PICS) is an anachronism and an unnecessarily expensive distraction in this modern age and needs to be disbanded. We can turn over the functions of firearms instant checks to the National Instant Check System (NICS) which will not only do it for free but with far less complications to the gun buyer as well as the FFL dealer. The national instant check system is utilized by 38 states without any demonstrable problems. There will be much, much more coming out in the next several weeks and I ask for your help in notifying gun owners about this problem. I know gun owners will wonder why this is a problem but let me give you an example of a situation that could be encountered by any owner of these firearms. If you are traveling home or to arrange and get stopped by a police officer for any reason and during the course of this stop he sees that you have firearms in your vehicle. It is more than likely that he/she will decide to run each firearm against the Pennsylvania State police record of sale database (you know that illegal one that they continue to maintain at a cost to PA Taxpayers of over $500,000 a year). When the report comes back to the officer in the field that your favorite AR-15 is not registered in this Pennsylvania State Police Gun Registration System then in all likelihood what you will face is arrest and seizure of your property until "legal ownership" can be established, even though no crime has been committed other than the prejudice demonstrated by the particular law enforcement officer question. I know, when talking to gun owners, what you will encounter is that they will say this can't happen. Let me tell you I have in my files dozens of incidents (from ALL over the state) where gun owners encountered this very kind of attitude and even worse treatment than mentioned in my simple explanation. As Dirty Harry would say, “do you (we) feel lucky”?
