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, 1847 Pa. Laws 266(1847)No. 208, § 1: That if any person shall open any tomb or grave in the lands of the cemetery of Laurel Hill cemetery company of Philadelphia . . . or shall shoot or discharge any gun or other fire arms within said limits shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. . .Item type:Item, Acts of Assembly Relating to Fairmount Park 18 (1868)(1868)§ 21: No persons shall carry fire-arms, or shoot birds in the Park, or within fifty yards thereof, or throw stones or other missiles therein.Item type:Item, 1868 Pa. Laws 321, No. 288, § 2, pt. 6.(1868)To regulate, by ordinances . . . the storage, sale of gun powder, fire works and other inflammable or dangerous articles, and the location of refineries.Item type:Item, A Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania, from the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred to the Tenth Day of July, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy-Two, at 323, Crimes, pt. 7, § 40 (10th ed., vol. 1, 1873)(1864)Any person, within the limits of the county of Schuylkill, (b) who shall carry any fire-arms, slung-shot, dirk-knife, or other deadly weapon, concealed upon his person, with the intent, therewith, unlawfully and maliciously, to do injury to any other person, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanorItem type:Item, 1851 Pa. Laws 382, No. 239, § 4.(1851)That any person who shall willfully and maliciously carry any pistol, gun, dirk knife, slung shot, or deadly weapon in said borough of York, shall be deemed guilty of a felonyItem type:Item, Purdon's Digest. A Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania, from the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred to the Twenty-Eighth Day of May, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-three, at 150, Concealed Weapons, § 1 (1853)(1853)Any person within the limits of the city and county of Philadelphia, who shall carry any fire-arms, slung-shot or other deadly weapon concealed upon his person, with the intent therewith unlawfully and maliciously to do injury to any other person, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon the conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to undergo solitary confinement at hard labor in the prison of said county for a period of not less than one month, nor more than one year, at the discretion of the court; and the jury trying the case may infer such intent as aforesaid, from the fact of the said defendant carrying such weapons in the manner as aforesaidItem type:Item, A Digest of Acts of Assembly, Relating to the Incorporated District of the Northern Liberties; and of the Ordinances for the Government of the District, at 101-02, Gun Cotton, § 1 (1847)(1847)§That no gun-cotton shall be introduced in Philadelphia, nor placed in storage therein, in greater bulk or quantity in any one place, than is permitted by existing laws, with regard to gunpowder; and that all the fines, penalties and forfeitures imposed by an act entitled "An act for securing the city of Philadelphia, and the neighborhood thereof, from damage by gunpowder,"Item type:Item, A Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania, from the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred to the Tenth Day of July, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy-Two, at 1051, Militia, pt. 10, § 102 (10th ed., vol. 2, 1873)(1864)A soldier who unnecessarily, or without order from a superior officer, comes to any parade with his musket, rifle or pistol loaded with ball, slug or shot, or so loads the same while on parade, or unnecessarily or without order from a superior officer, discharges the same, when going to, returning from, or upon parade, shall forfeit not more than twenty dollars, to the use of the brigade fund.Item type:Item, T. Henry, A Digest of the Ordinances of the Corporation of the District of Penn, and Acts of Assembly Relating Thereto 286 (1852)(1851)That there shall be appointed a captain of the watch, and a sufficient number of able bodied men as watchmen, as may be deemed necessary from time to time; and it shall be the duty of the said captain to aid the watchmen in preventing burglaries, robberies, and other outrages and disorders within the district. And to that end, be and they are hereby empowered and required to arrest, apprehend and confine all persons whom they shall find disturbing the peace, or shall have cause to suspect of any unlawful or evil design, or persons discharging or firing off any hand gun, pistol or other firearms, or shall cast, throw or fire any squibs, rockets or other fireworks, or make or assist at making bonfires within the regulated parts of the district in the night time; and shall take the person or persons so apprehended, as soon as conveniently may be, before the police or other magistrates, as may be from time to time directed, to be examined and dealt with according to law?Item type:Item, Purdon's Digest, A Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania, from the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred to the Twenty-Eighth Day of May, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-Three, at 107, Burial Grounds § 2 (Vol. 8, 1853)(1849)Any person who shall willfully destroy, mutilate, deface, injure or remove any tomb, monument, grave, stone or other structure, placed in any cemetery or grave yard appropriated to, and used for the internment of human beings, within this state, or shall willfully injure, destroy, or remove any fence, railing or other work for the protection or ornament of such places of internment, or shall willfully destroy, cut break or remove any tree, shrub or plant within the limits of said places of internment, or shall within the same, shoot or discharge any gun or other fire arms, or shall open any tomb or grave within the same, and clandestinely remove or attempt to remove any body or remains therefrom, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction thereof, before any justice of the peace of the county where the said offence is committed, be punished by a fine, at the discretion of the justice, according to the aggravation of the offence, of not less than one nor more than fifty dollars, for the use of the said county. . .Item type:Item, A Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania, From the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred to the Twenty-First Day of May, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty-One, at 250, Criminal Procedure, § 6 (9th ed., 1862)(1860)"If any person, not being an officer on duty in the military or naval service of the state or of the United States, shall go armed with a dirk, dagger, sword or pistol, or other offensive or dangerous weapon, without reasonable cause to fear an assault or other injury or violence shall be required to find surety upon a complaintItem type:Item, Laws and Ordinances of the Corporation of the Borough of Minersville 33 (1887)(1858)any person within the limits of said Borough of Minersville, who shall carry any fire arms, slung shot, or other deadly weapon concealed upon his person with the intent therewith unlawfully and willfully to injure any other person, shall be deemed guilty of a violation of this ordinanceItem type:Item, Ordinances of the Borough of Phoenixville, at 9-10, Ordinances 25-26 (1855)(1855)§It shall not be lawful for any person or persons whatever to wantonly fire any gun, pistol or any other kind of firearms within the bounds of the Borough, and any person or persons so offending, upon conviction before the Burgess or either of the Justices of the Peace, shall pay a fine of five dollars for each offence, and in default of payment of said fines and costs shall be committed to the jail of Chester County: Provided, That this ordinance shall not apply to the High Constable or to any officer appointed by the Burgess or Town Council in the legal discharge of their office. Also prohibited the concealed carry of firearmsItem type:Item, 1848 Pa. Laws 182, No. 147, § 13(1848). and if any person shall be guilty of carrying any lighted cigar . . . or who shall discharge any pistol or gun, or any fire arms on or near said bridge, so that the said bridge, by possibility, be set on fire, or injured by said cause, he or she so offending shall forfeit and pay to the said corporation, the sum of five dollars for every such offence. . .