Would like to purchase a pistol.

[yeaboy78]

I'm 19 & interested in purchasing a pistol, preferably a sig sauer p229. I don't want to carry it around with me or anything like that. I just want to own a gun to go to shooting with at a gun range. I've gone shooting before & everything I just don't know the PA laws. I'm a Philadelphia resident, clean record, all that good stuff. I'm interested in a career in law enforcement so I really don't wanna break any laws & get convicted, obviously. I don't even know if I can purchase a pistol at my age to begin with. Any help on how to go about this would be great.

[Motown]

This site will tell you what you need to know.


http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?ID=43

[FCastle88]

I'm 19 & interested in purchasing a pistol, preferably a sig sauer p229. I don't want to carry it around with me or anything like that. I just want to own a gun to go to shooting with at a gun range. I've gone shooting before & everything I just don't know the PA laws. I'm a Philadelphia resident, clean record, all that good stuff. I'm interested in a career in law enforcement so I really don't wanna break any laws & get convicted, obviously. I don't even know if I can purchase a pistol at my age to begin with. Any help on how to go about this would be great.

You can't purchase a handgun from a FFL until you're 21, however you can buy one from a parent or grandparent without a transfer, or find a private party willing to sell you one, then find a sheriff willing to transfer it to you, which very few will. If a parent or grandparent bought a handgun for you as a gift it would be legal, as would selling you a gun that they already have. However, if they buy it with the intention of selling it to you that would be considered an illegal straw purchase.
Hypothetically speaking, of course, it's entirely plausible a parent or grandparent could happen to buy a handgun that you wanted then a month or so later decide they don't want it and sell it to you...