Pennsylvania
Permanent URL for this collectionhttps://dspace.firearmsresearchcenter.org/id/frc0001/5079
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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Item type:Item, 10 Stat. at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1801, at 191 (1904)(1780)Every militia company had to "provide or hire one able-bodied man not less than eighteen or more than forty-five years of age" to serve in the Pennsylvania Volunteers.Item type:Item, 10 The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1801, at 191 (1904)(1780)Every militia company had to "provide or hire one able-bodied man not less than eighteen or more than forty-five years of age" to serve in the Pennsylvania Volunteers.Item type:Item, An Act for Erecting the Town of Reading, in the County of Berks, into a Borough, ch. LXXVI, § XLII, 1783 Pa. Laws 211(1783)Restricted the transport of gunpowder to a maximum of thirty pounds in weight and secured in a "good bag or bags." Violators fined twenty pounds.Item type:Item, By-Laws and Ordinances of the City of Pittsburgh 28-29 (1828)(1774)Ch. 703, § 1 : Prohibited on any thirty-first day of December, or first or second day of January, in every year, wantonly, and without reasonable occasion, discharge and fire off any hand-gun, pistol or other fire-arms, or shall cast, throw or fire any squibs, rockets or other fire-works, within the inhabited parts of this province, to the disturbance of any of his majesty's subjects there inhabiting and beingItem type:Item, The Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, at 365-66, ch. 167, § 57 (Mar. 20, 1780)(1780)Prohibited members of the militia from parading in unfit, drunk, or disobedient condition, use abusive language, or to quarrel with himself or other during parade of the Milita.Item type:Item, 33 THE DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION 739 (John Kaminski et al. eds., 2019).(1787)Ordered the collection of all public arms to have them repaired in Philadelphia.Item type:Item, 11 Stat. at Large of Pa. 209, ch. 1059, §§ 1-2 (1782)(1783)all gun-powder brought into the port of Philadelphia should be deposited in a certain powder house therein described, under the penalty of ten pounds for every offense: And Whereas another powder house or magazine hath been erected in the said city in the public square on the south side of Vine street, between the Sixth and Seventh streets from Delaware at the public expenseItem type:Item, A Digest of the Acts of Assembly, and the Ordinances, of the Commissioners and Inhabitants of the Kensington District of the Northern Liberties: for the Government of that District, at 45-47, Gunpowder § 2 (1832)(1787)No person shall keep in any house, store, shop, cellar or other place within the city of Philadelphia, nor the country adjacent, within two miles of the said city, any greater quantity of gunpowder, at one time, than thirty pounds weight thereof, under the penalty of forfeiture of the whole quantity so over and above stored or kept, together with the sum of twenty pounds for every such offenseItem type:Item, 9 Stat. at Large of Pa. 336-37, ch. 833, § 9 (1903)(1779)That if any person within this commonwealth shall challenge the person of another to fight at sword, pistol, rapier or other dangerous weapon, such person so challenging shall forfeit and pay for every such offense (being lawfully convicted by the testimony of one or more credible witnesses, or by the confession of the party offending,) the sum of five hundred pounds, or suffer twelve months imprisonment without bail or mainpriseItem type:Item, An Act for the Regulation of the Militia of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (20 March, 1780), § 57, Penalty on Officers Misbehaving while on Parade; § 60, Rules and regulations, 12th rule.(1780)§ 57 "...and if any non-commissioned officer or private shall, on any occasion of parading the company to which he belongs, appear with his arms and accoutrements in an unfit condition, or be found drunk or shall disobey orders or use any reproachful or abusive language to his officers or any of them ; or shall quarrel himself, or promote any quarrel among his fellow soldiers, he shall be disarmed and put under guard, by order of the commanding officer present, until the company is dismissed, and shall be fined in any sum not exceeding the price of ten day's [sic] labour, nor less than one day's labour.Item type:Item, 9 Stat. at Large of Pa. 348, ch. 836 (1903)(1777)Required an oath of allegiance; refusal of which punishable by disarming.Item type:Item, 9 Stat. at Large of Pa. 347-8, ch. 836 (1903)(1779)Prohibited firearm possession for people "disaffected to the liberty and independence" of the state, empowered officers to disarm any person who did not take an oath."Item type:Item, 1776 PA. CONST., Declaration of Rights, § XIII(1776)Declared a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the state.Item type:Item, 11 Pennsylvania Statutes at Large ch. 1059 at 209-12 (1906)(1782)prohibited storing more than 30 pounds of gunpowder in Philadelphia or within two miles, except in the public powder magazineItem type:Item, Resolution of the Pennsylvania Committee on Safety, Oct. 27, 1775, Col. Rec. Penn. 10:383.(1775)Requiring that all muskets be "proved" prior to purchaseItem type:Item, 1782 Pa. Acts 193, ch. 101, § 5(1779)Authorized the liutenant or sub-liutenant to disarm those who have not taken an oath of allegianceItem type:Item, 9 Stat. at Large of Pa. 91, ch. 750, § 32, pt. 9 (1903)(1777)Any officer or private man found drunk when under arms, shall be suspended from doing duty in the battalion, company or troop on that day, and be fined at the discretion of a General or Regimental Court-Martial.Item type:Item, 1776 Pa. Laws 11, An Ordinance Respecting the Arms of Non-Associators, § 1(1776)Authorized officers to collect all arms in the hands of "non associators". -Item type:Item, 8 Stat. at Large of Pa. 410-12, ch. 705, § 1 (1902)(1774)Restricted the firing of handgun, pistol, or other firearms, as well as squibs, rockets, or other fireworks on New Years Eve or the two days following. Violators fined ten shillings.