Pa handgun transfer law

**Statkowski** · July 21st, 2019, 10:27 PM

It's bad enough when you are named executor (and you're in Pennsylvania and the deceased isn't). Luckily, no guns were involved in my case.

I don't even want to think about no will and multiple offspring.

Get a lawyer, now.

**GunLawyer001** · July 22nd, 2019, 12:02 AM

Originally Posted by Statkowski

It's bad enough when you are named executor (and you're in Pennsylvania and the deceased isn't). Luckily, no guns were involved in my case.

I don't even want to think about no will and multiple offspring.

Get a lawyer, now.

The Executor or the Administrator can transfer guns to any legal, non-prohibited heir, if all the other heirs and/or the court signs off on the proposed transfer, after all debts and taxes and estate costs are paid first.

A significant number of estates have no money or assets for the heirs to get, after the just debts and costs are paid.

The key thing is, someone has to get named as the personal representative, will or no will. Then things can happen legally.

If you get to that point, there are special PA and Federal rules for transfers from estates to heirs, within states or across state lines.

**knight0334** · July 22nd, 2019, 11:37 AM

What GL001 said...

About the fiance handing over the firearms to a potential heir. That could/would be construed to be an act of good faith. It wouldn't have been a "transfer" because the fiance wasn't in the line of succession, so he didn't own it. He merely moved possession to a proper person in line for succession. Again, it was not a "transfer of ownership". If the house that the deceased and the fiance cohabited was in his name, or even half in his name, he had a right to have the firearms removed from such if he doesn't want them in his home - especially now that the deceased has no say in the matter if the house was co-owned/leased.

His relocating the firearms would not violate the UFA because the person it was relocated to was a potential heir in the lines of intestate succession.

Now, the new person possessing it would have duty to declare it as an asset of the estate for the purposes of liquidating debts, and assets thereafter to proper heirs/beneficiaries. You don't hide things from other potential heirs/beneficiaries. Even if another heir is a prohibited person, he/she has a right to his/her share of monetary value of the firearm(s). The non-prohibited persons could negotiate a buy-out of that value if they want to keep said firearm(s), or sell the firearm(s) and split the money.