Pittsburgh Review

Last week Gov. Wolf and Pennsylvania police officials announced that they will be ready to implement statewide rules regarding ghost guns, which will align with a federal rule recently announced by the Biden Administration.

According to an April 29 release, the new rule involves partially manufactured frames and receivers needing to include background checks for buyers. Dealers and gunsmiths in Pennsylvania will also need to serialize and put into inventory unregistered guns without serial numbers that come into their businesses.

“The numbers don’t lie: ghost guns are being seized and recovered from crime scenes at an alarming rate,” said Wolf. “If you want to own a gun, you need to go through checks and balances that are necessary to ensure public safety. Unserialized guns are an untraceable threat to our society, that’s why we’re ready to immediately mirror this new federal regulation at the state level as soon as possible.”

Wolf and Attorney General Josh Shapiro created a strategy in 2019 where 80% of receivers are classified as firearms requiring serial numbers and a background check. The receivers are the external housings of guns that are used to make unserialized ghost guns.

At the beginning of April, the Biden Administration announced the creation of federal regulations, and the Quaker State police departments plan to align with them. Federally they will be implemented 120 days from April 26.

“Violent crime involving firearms is one of our top public safety concerns, and the existence of ghost guns can compound this issue,” said Colonel Evanchick. “Ghost guns can make it more difficult to solve violent crimes and hold those responsible accountable.”

Ghost guns are a major concern across the U.S. In 2019, Philadelphia started tracking ghost guns. That year they recorded 95 seizures and recoveries of ghost guns, followed by 250 in 2020 and then a jump to 571 in 2021. This year, Pennsylvania State Police and Philadelphia combined to recover 147 ghost guns.

Police officials in Pennsylvania have been making efforts for years to stop gun violence. In 2019 Wolf signed an executive order and created a Special Council on Gun Violence and more than $50 million has been invested in gun violence prevention programs. In 2021 Wolf vetoed Senate Bill 565, which would have removed licensing and background requirements for concealed weapons, as well as overturned Philadelphia’s requirement for open carry permits.

“Let’s be frank, whether in a school, on a street corner, or at a local mall, gun violence is the number one threat our communities are facing all across this state,” said York City Police Commissioner Muldrow. “The one thing I hope we can all agree on, no matter what side of the line you fall on, is doing the things we have to do to keep our kids and communities alive.”