[Pa. Patriot]

Email from Mike Stollenwerk at OCDO (posted at his request)

FYI below: I cannot listen in tonight and call in, but I expect the issue of open carry and serial number checks to come up - the cold hard legal facts are that a mere report of a man with a gun does not give rise to power of the police to detain and search people; that the police have no more power to randomly demand concealed gun licenses or check gun serial numbers that they do to demand folks driver's licenses at random or demand to check the serial number of the SIM cards in their cell phones.

And finally, there is no such thing as an illegal gun in Pennsylvania as there is no gun registration - guns are just personal property that happen to also have specific protections in the PA and US constitutions.

Unlike most states, PA generally makes it unlawful to transfer/lend handguns to other persons without dealer background checks, there are exceptions for family members/concealed gun license holders, respectively, and this does not affect those moving into PA. Further, while it is a crime for a person to transfer or lend handguns outside the exceptions, it is not a crime to receive such handguns, nor does the unlawful transfer void title to the handgun. Of course, if the possessor is a prohibited person, that is a crime under both PA and federal law.

Mike Stollenwerk
OpenCarry.org