PA Uniform Firearm Act?

[Archiver]

Maybe I 'm just being myopic...but I didnt see a link anywhere on the board...especially under the "LAW" Tab. ;-) Propably because I'm also having trouble finding the "official PA Govt" one online
I know this one is the Allegeny Sportsmans league
http://www.acslpa.org/pa_uniform_firearms_act.htm

Anybody find the official link?
Thanks!

[danp]

Originally Posted by Archiver

Maybe I 'm just being myopic...but I didnt see a link anywhere on the board...especially under the "LAW" Tab. ;-) Propably because I'm also having trouble finding the "official PA Govt" one online
I know this one is the Allegeny Sportsmans league
http://www.acslpa.org/pa_uniform_firearms_act.htm

Anybody find the official link?
Thanks!

There's a TON of work that needs to be done on the law section of the main site, the problem is we really need to find and pay a lawyer to check and verify all our writing for that section in the near future before we get too carried away with it.

It's in the works, but that section will unfortunately probably be developed at a slower rate due to the nature of it.

[Archiver]

I here you! Ugg...lawyers!

BTW, nice work with all the upgrades...looks like once UncleSam coughs up my $ I will have to pass some along ;-)

[KeithPA]

What about posting a link in the PA legal section and putting a sticky on it. Link to the outside site. But post it somewhere so people can at least find it without searching through threads. The AOL site has its own disclaimer, and the ATFs summary obviously is accurate, well i hope.


Happy 1000 Dan!!!!!

[GunLawyer001]

Originally Posted by Archiver

Anybody find the official link?
Thanks!

Pennsylvania does not currently maintain an official website with all of the current laws. You can, from time to time, find official reports of newly-enacted individual statutes and amendments to old statutes, but our Commonwealth is in the Stone Age compared to a lot of other states that have easily-accessed current statutes.

There's a District Justice who maintains an online partial set of the laws, but it's not guaranteed to be current. You can also purchase an annual PA Crimes Code for about $100, or subscribe to Lexis or WestLaw for a monthly fee. County law libraries have the current statutes, as well as a host of other useful things, like annotations and Shepard's listing of every case that cited each statute.

Some part of the law changes every day, so be careful that you have the latest updates.

[danp]

Originally Posted by GunLawyer001

Some part of the law changes every day, so be careful that you have the latest updates.

While I have your attention here, do you have any suggestions on how best to approach the law section of our website?

My goal with it was to organize a lot of the basic topics (transferring firearms, carrying firearms, dealing in firearms) in a way that makes it easy to understand for the average Joe with the caveat that things are always changing and you should always talk to a lawyer for true advice.

Short of hiring a lawyer to stay on top of this all 24/7, what advice could you give us to help make this information available to people while reducing the risk of posting bad or out of date information?

Really I think the underlying issue is is: Will more people get in trouble because there was no group trying to explain the law or because they read something on our site that was a month out of date and took it as gospel?

EDIT: Additionally I'd like to ask (if this isn't too complicated of a question) is there any legal liability for posting incorrect legal information? Aside from the fact that it would be terrible if someone got into trouble by taking actions we said were OK, can we get in any trouble? Do statements like "Hey this is our best understanding of the law as it is but it is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate at any given moment" provide any protection if there is?

[rwilson452]

I alway thought you could put a statement in it that says something like

this was last updated on MMDDYY

it was as complee as we can make it, but the legislature is in session and the Governor is in town. So nothing is safe.

[danp]

Originally Posted by rwilson452

I alway thought you could put a statement in it that says something like

this was last updated on MMDDYY

it was as complee as we can make it, but the legislature is in session and the Governor is in town. So nothing is safe.

The system I've written keeps time stamps of when each page is created and last updated so that would be easy and automatic.

[GunLawyer001]

Originally Posted by danp

While I have your attention here, do you have any suggestions on how best to approach the law section of our website?

My goal with it was to organize a lot of the basic topics (transferring firearms, carrying firearms, dealing in firearms) in a way that makes it easy to understand for the average Joe with the caveat that things are always changing and you should always talk to a lawyer for true advice.

Short of hiring a lawyer to stay on top of this all 24/7, what advice could you give us to help make this information available to people while reducing the risk of posting bad or out of date information?

Really I think the underlying issue is is: Will more people get in trouble because there was no group trying to explain the law or because they read something on our site that was a month out of date and took it as gospel?

EDIT: Additionally I'd like to ask (if this isn't too complicated of a question) is there any legal liability for posting incorrect legal information? Aside from the fact that it would be terrible if someone got into trouble by taking actions we said were OK, can we get in any trouble? Do statements like "Hey this is our best understanding of the law as it is but it is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate at any given moment" provide any protection if there is?

Dan, as long as you either quote the statutes exactly, or speak generally of the legal requirements, you shouldn't be found to be liable for any foolhardy acts of others.

What gets people into trouble is when they APPLY the law to a specific set of facts; so every time someone asks "I was convicted of such-and-such but I never went to jail, am I a prohibited person?" you create a risk if you answer "yes" or "no". Any conclusion is the practice of law; in practical terms, law enforcement mostly doesn't care about Internet legal advice, so you're unlikely to be charged criminally for dispensing legal advice without being a member of the bar, if it happens sporadically.

If you answer "Yes, you are prohibited", then he will stay home and avoid trouble. On the other hand, if you answer "No, go try to buy a gun", then you encourage the questioner to fill out the 4473 as though he were legally entitled to purchase a firearm, and if you're wrong, he might hold you liable for the legal consequences.

That's why lawyers tend not to dispense legal advice freely, because any time someone asks me a question BECAUSE I'm a lawyer (presumably they wouldn't ask for the same legal advice of a plumber or software developer), it creates an attorney-client relationship if I answer, even when I don't get paid a dime. Because he reasonably relied on my professional advice, I can be sued for malpractice just as though I received a retainer.

The PA UFA is pretty heavy reading, so a summary has value. I'd recommend a verbatim copy on the site, with an option to additionally summarize key parts as an executive summary before important provisions. For example: "PA law regulates the transfer of handguns, with exceptions for certain relatives (see 18 Pa CSA Sec. 6111)".

There are also other statutes that affect firearms ownership, especially in the domestic relations laws. The Prohibited Offensive Weapon statute (Section 908) affects certain weapons, too, and it's not part of the UFA. Federal law covers firearms in many ways, mostly in Section 921 and 922, but elsewhere as well. I'm not sure that you can hope to list every such law.