PA LTCF Application Question

[BandanaBandit1]

For the 2 required forms of ID, it says that the second may be a hunting license. Am I able to use a copy of my license from LAST hunting season as a form of ID? I don't see anywhere that it states that it has to be a CURRENT hunting license.

Thank you

[God's Country]

That's a new one on me.

[Statkowski]

From what I can read, nowhere in the statute (http://reference.pafoa.org/statutes/...6109/licenses/) is proof of identification or proof of residency required.

[Holster]

When I got mine in Allegheny County it listed the need for two forms of ID, primary and secondary. When I picked it up I only had to provide one.

http://www.sheriffalleghenycounty.com/firearms.html

[BandanaBandit1]

When I got mine in Allegheny County it listed the need for two forms of ID, primary and secondary. When I picked it up I only had to provide one.

http://www.sheriffalleghenycounty.com/firearms.html

That's true. I forgot to mention this will be in Allegheny co.

[Holster]

Uh oh, sounds like Allegheny County is going the way of Philly. Sad.

It really isn't nearly as bad. The process is easy and other than two forms of ID, no issues. When I picked mine up they only asked for one anyway.

[buckohfive]

From what I can read, nowhere in the statute (http://reference.pafoa.org/statutes/...6109/licenses/) is proof of identification or proof of residency required.

18 Pa.C.S.A. § 6109 requires only one other object passed from Pa. resident applicant to his sheriff or Philadelphian chief of police, and that is the 'fee'. It is hard to say that the Pennsylvania State Police would have the power to add such a requirement as providing identification at the time of application, but even given grants of power under 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 6109(c) and 6124 (which are quite limited grants), they have not attempted to do so. See Title 37 Pa.Code., Pt. I, Ch. 33.

18 Pa.C.S.A. § 6109(g) provides that "Upon the receipt of an application for a license to carry a firearm, the sheriff shall, within 45 days, issue or refuse to issue a license on the basis of the investigation under subsection (d) and the accuracy of the information contained in the application." The grant is forced of the sheriff by law, "A license to carry a firearm shall be for the purpose of carrying a firearm concealed on or about one's person or in a vehicle and shall be issued if, after an investigation not to exceed 45 days, it appears that the applicant is an individual concerning whom no good cause exists to deny the license.", 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 6109(e)(1). The closest allowance to investigating the accuracy of the application, in absence of a PSP regulation, is from the required affidavit under § 6109(c), under which the applicant must verify that "I authorize the sheriff, or his designee, or, in the case of first class cities, the chief or head of the police department, or his designee, to inspect only those records or documents relevant to information required for this application."

We get used to treating the law as magical, but it isn't. There is no reason for an issuing authority to engage in inexplicable departures from statute when the solution has long since been available. If a sheriff wants to make something law, he ought to enact a regulation, an act which generally requires request for comment, filing, and publication. If a sheriff wants to carry out statute or regulation in a particular manner, he makes a statement of policy, available for inspection. For some agencies, the Commonwealth Documents Act and Regulatory Review Act require comment periods and publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin; for mostly everyone else, particularly county officers, filings should go to the prothonotary. There is no grandiose and cumbersome effort placed upon the issuing authority to comply with these procedures. They remove the ability of the sheriff to depart from what he calls law, to make things up as he goes, to act arbitrarily or capriciously, or for a court to solidify something that cannot even be backed up in words.