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Pennsylvania

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Pennsylvania

This jurisdictional hub aggregates FRC holdings related to Pennsylvania. It supports research on the state’s firearms history, technology, law, policy, and culture from the colonial and provincial periods through statehood to the present.

  • Legal sources: statutes and session laws, administrative code, attorney general opinions, appellate decisions, and select municipal ordinances.
  • Historical materials: newspapers, photographs, maps, catalogs, frontier and militia records, armory and manufacturing archives (e.g., gunmaking traditions), and oral histories tied to Pennsylvania people and places.
  • Research outputs: technical reports, academic studies, training manuals, and curated datasets relevant to the state.

Cite the Firearms Research Center and the item’s handle/DOI when using materials. Rights and licensing vary by item.

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Jurisdiction: search.filters.coverage.PennsylvaniaStart date: 1881

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Now showing 1 - 13 of 13
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    Item type:Item,
    1909 Pa. Laws 466, No. 261, § 1
    (1909)
    Prohibited unnaturalized foreign born residents from hunting in the Commonwealth, or to possess a shotgun or rifle.
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    Item type:Item,
    1929 Pa. Laws 777-78, No. 329, §§ 1-4
    (1929)
    Prohibited selling, giving, transferring, or possessing a machine gun. Punishable by fine up to $1,000 and imprisonment by separate or solitary confinement at labor up to 5 years. Also Prohibited using a machine gun during an attempted crime. Punishable by separate and solitary confinement at labor for up to 10 years.
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    Item type:Item,
    1919 Pa. Laws 710, No. 286, § 1
    (1919)
    The department may adopt and enforce rules and regulations governing the having, using, storage, sale and keeping of gasoline, naptha, kerosene, or other substance of like character, blasting powder, gun powder, dynamite, or any other inflammable or combustible chemical products or substances or materials. The department may also adopt and enforce rules and regulations requiring the placing of fire extinguishers in buildings.
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    Item type:Item,
    1923 Pa. Laws 386, No. 228, art. 7, § 704(a)
    (1923)
    . . . It is unlawful to hunt for, or catch or take or kill or wound, or attempt to catch or take or kill or wound, game of any kind, excepting raccoons, through the use of what is commonly known as an automatic gun or an automatic firearm of any kind, or a swivel gun or an air-rifle or the apparatus known as a silencer, or from an automobile or vehicle or boat or craft of any kind propelled by any mechanical power. . .
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    1931 Pa. Laws 498, No. 158, § 4-6
    (1931)
    Prohibited individuals convicted of violent crimes from owning, possessing or having a firearm under their control.
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    1903 Pa. Laws 198-99, No. 142, §§ 1-2.
    (1903)
    §Be it enacted that six months after the passage of this act it shall be unlawful for any person to discharge, on the streets or alleys, of any city or borough in this Commonwealth, a flobert rifle, air gun, spring gun, or any implement which impels with force a metal pellet of any kind.§
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    Item type:Item,
    Ordinances of the Borough of Shamokin, Pa. 71-72 (1896)
    (1896)
    This section regulates the transportation of gunpowder, blasting powder, and other explosives through borough streets. Quantities greater than 25 pounds must be securely covered with canvas to prevent spilling or accidental ignition from sparks. Anyone violating the rule may have the explosives forfeited and, upon conviction, must pay a fine of $1 to $10.
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    Item type:Item,
    1905 Pa. Laws 252-53, No. 180, § 8
    (1905)
    No person shall make use of what is known as buckshot in hunting deer or fawn within this Commonwealth, or shall kill or wound, or attempt to kill or wound, any deer or fawn within this Commonwealth, or shall kill or wound, or attempt to kill or wound, any deer or fawn within this Commonwealth by or with or through the use of a gun propelling or emitting more than one pellet, bullet or ball at a single discharge; and persons violating this provision shall be subject to the penalties provided by existing law for the unlawful taking or killing of deer or fawn.
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    1905 Pa. Laws 279-80, No. 189, § 1.
    (1905)
    §Be it enacted, that if any person shall willfully and maliciously, either by day or by night, with or without breaking, enter any building with intent to commit a felony by the use of nitroglycerine, dynamite, gunpowder, or other high explosives, such person shall be guilty of felony, and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and undergo an imprisonment, by separate and solitary confinement at labor, not exceeding twenty-five years.
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    Ordinances of Tyrone Borough, Pa. 35 (1893)
    (1893)
    That from and after the passage of this Ordinance it shall be unlawful for any person to discharge any gun, pistol, or other fire arm (in or upon any of the streets or alleys) within the limits of the borough of Tyrone. §2. Any person violating the provisions of this Ordinance, shall, upon conviction before the Burgess, be subject to a fine of not less than one ($1) dollar nor more than fifty ($50) dollars at the discretion of the Burgess, and in default of payment thereof be confined in the lock-up not exceeding forty-eight (48) hours.
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    1881 Pa. Laws 111, No. 124, § 1
    (1881)
    makes any person, "who shall knowingly and willfully sell or cause to be sold, to any person under sixteen years of age, any cannon, revolver, pistol or other such deadly weapon, ... shall, in every such case, be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding three hundred dollars."
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    A Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania: From the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred to the Sixth Day of July, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-Three, at 423-24, Crimes, pt. 6, § 113 (11th ed., Vol. 1, 1885)
    (1883)
    Any person who shall knowingly and willfully sell or cause to be sold to any person under sixteen years of age, any cannon, revolver, pistol or other such deadly weapon, or who shall knowingly and willfully sell, or cause to be sold, to any such minor, any imitation or toy cannon, revolver or pistol so made, constructed or arranged as to be capable of being loaded with gunpowder or other explosive substance, cartridges, shot, slugs or balls and being exploded, fired off and discharged, and thereby become a dangerous or deadly weapon, or who shall knowingly and willfully sell, or cause to be sold to any such minor, any cartridge, gunpowder or other dangerous and explosive substance, shall in every such case, be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding three hundred dollars.
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    1903 Pa. Laws 178, No. 136, §§ 1-2
    (1903)
    Imposed licensing requirement for non-residents and unnaturalized foreign-born resident to possess a gun in the fields, forests, or waters of the State. Punishable by fine.