The Pennsylvania State Police are apparently keeping a handgun database on gun owners in PA. Just the other day I had a customer come in asking for a “proof” of sale or copy of his sales receipt and paperwork. He said he was pulled over, (didn’t say why), by some local police officers here in Luzerne County, PA. When they ran his drivers license they could see that he had a PA conceal carry permit. However, they could also SEE what handguns are “registered to you”. Since he had just purchased the gun the prior month the State Police hadn’t yet updated his file. The gun was showing it was still “registered” to the prior owner. ( The guy from whom I purchased the gun). He was not charged with anything since he was legally carrying the gun, but the local police CONFISCATED the gun and told him he needed to PROVE he owned the gun. It is my understanding that no agency/government entity is legally allowed to keep and/or maintain a database of gun owners. It seems the PA State Police are maintaining a database of handguns and their owners. The SP4 form required by the PSP for all background checks of handguns has the gun and serial number listed on the form. It seems the PSP is recording that information for each gun owner in the State and it is available to ALL local police agencies in the State. Where is the NRA, the PAFOA, Gun Owners of America and the rest? Is anyone aware of this? This should not be allowed to continue.

Last week, April 26, 2023 the Democrats in the PA House advanced four gun bills.

The package of four bills includes:

One to require long-barreled firearms to be sold with trigger locks. For decades now, FFL dealers have been required to include/provide a gun lock device with the sale of every handgun. Do you think that if the person buying the gun intends to commit a crime with that gun that they will lock it up from themselves?

A second requires gun owners to report a lost or stolen firearm to police within three days. Repeat offenders would face a misdemeanor charge. Within three days of what? What if you don’t realize your firearm is missing right away? Not all of us carry them everyday depending on where we are going. Most of us have more than one firearm, many more. This is making criminals out of law abiding citizens. How about you shoot at the criminal? How about you make stealing a firearm a TOUGHER SENTENCE AND EVEN TOUGHER YET IF YOU USE IT IN A CRIME.

A third bill would expand background checks on firearms buyers in Pennsylvania and end an exception for private sales of shotguns, sporting rifles and semi-automatic rifles, known as the “gun show” loophole. First of all it is not the “loophole” that is the exception. Background checks are the exception. Under the US and Penna. constitutions we have the right to keep and bear arms. There are no conditions. Free, open and conceal carry is the standard. These “rules” on law abiding citizens trying to carry out their rights are the “exceptions”.

The fourth, a so-called red flag bill, would allow a judge to order authorities to temporarily seize firearms from someone if asked by family members or police. Wow, wow, wow. So now we are going to alter or completely take away someone’s “RIGHTS” soley on the word of an angry or jaded spouse or significant other or even, a police officer based on what? Just because they “ASK”?

None of these proposals would have or will have any effect on gun violence. Why? Because GUNS don’t commit violence or crimes. PEOPLE DO. Focus on the PEOPLE that are committing crimes especially with firearms. STOP pleading down their sentences. Let them sit in jail. This is nothing but incrementalism. This is anti-gun fanatics trying to get every minute movement they can to remove guns.

Pennsylvania State Senators, do not let this stand. Protect our rights. Remember, if it weren’t for the firearms owned by the farmers, blacksmiths, merchants, and others the British flag would be hanging in the State House. You would be answering to the British Crown and Government.

STABILIZING BRACE RULE

On January 13, 2023, the Attorney General signed ATF final rule 2021R-08F, “Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached ‘Stabilizing Braces,’” amending ATF’s regulations to clarify when a rifle is designed, made, and intended to be fired from the shoulder.  This notice is to inform customers of their duties under this new ruling.  If you have purchased a firearm that meets the stabilizing brace criteria set forth by the ATF, you must comply with the options set forth by law here:  https://www.atf.gov/rules-and-regulations/factoring-criteria-firearms-attached-stabilizing-braces. 

Have you ever wondered which guns sell most on Gunbroker.com? As most probably know Gunbroker.com is the largest gun auction/sales sight in the US. Gunhippo has been selling on Gunbroker for years. You can check out our listings here. Well you may not have known that Gunbroker publishes a list of the tip selling firearms in many categories including new and used. According to Gunbroker the top 10 selling new handguns on GB for 2022 are:

1. Sig P365
2. Sig P320
3. S&W M&P9
4. Glock G19
5. Glock G43
6. Ruger Mark IV
7. Beretta Model 90 Pistols
8. Springfield Hellcat
9. Springfield XD
10. CZ75

So if you are interested you can review all of the GB stats on their GunGenius website.

GunHippo is now an authorized American Guardians dealer for Smith And Wesson. You will need to stop in our shop, complete the form and present your credentials. Check our website for more information. Click Here.

The following are eligible:

Sworn Law Enforcement (LE) State, County, and Local• Federal LEO – F.B.I., U.S. Marshals, DEA, DHS, etc.• Corrections Officers, including Parole Officers and Probation Officers• Retired LEO with “retired” credentials including Federal, State, County and Local Law Enforcement Academy Cadets with Enrollment Documentation from the Academy• State Licensed Security Companies and State/City Licensed Security Officers• Federal Flight Deck Officers• Court Judges, District Attorneys (including Assistant and Deputy District Attorneys)• First responders including firefighters and rescue personnel with appropriate I.D.• Military (including National Guard): Active, Retired, Active-Reserve, Disabled in any capacity• Veterans Honorably Discharged with Form DD214 (or National Guard equivalent)

Does this allow criminals to buy guns?

The US Dept. Of Justice Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Form 4473 (5300.9) Firearms Transaction Record;

Section B #21c. Have you ever been convicted in any court, including a military court, of a felony, or any other crime for which the judge could have imprisoned you for more than one year, even if you received a shorter sentence including probation?

Section B #21 e. “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance? Warning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside.”

These two questions are among those that an applicant to purchase a firearm must answer. So the Biden pardons raise some questions themselves.

“The Justice Department will expeditiously administer the President’s proclamation, which pardons individuals who engaged in simple possession of marijuana, restoring political, civil, and other rights to those convicted of that offense,” the department said in a statement. “In coming days, the Office of the Pardon Attorney will begin implementing a process to provide impacted individuals with certificates of pardon.”

The first obvious question is will these previously convicted criminals now have their right to buy, own and possess a firearm be restored? How should they answer these questions if they apply to buy a firearm?

Has our anti gun president just restored the rights of convicted criminals to go out and buy a gun? He is pushing the Federal Government and State Governors to change the status of marijuana as a controlled substance. We are not disagreeing with such a change but just wondering how will this be handled with the right to buy, own, and possess firearms? It seems a bit contradictory for such an anti gun administration to allow criminals to buy and own guns.

So far we have not heard any discussion of this dilemma in any national media. At some point it needs to be addressed. Stay tuned we will keep you posted on any developments.

More on Marijuana and guns from marijuanamoment.net from August 2022

The Department of Justice asked a federal court on Monday to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to overturn a policy blocking medical marijuana patients from buying or owning guns. The filling is partly premised on the government’s position that it would be too “dangerous to trust regular marijuana users to exercise sound judgment” with firearms.

In making its case for dismissal, DOJ also drew eyebrow-raising historical parallels to past gun bans for groups like Native Americans, Catholics, panhandlers, those who refuse to take an oath of allegiance to the government and people who shoot firearms while drunk.

The lawsuit at hand, which was filed by Florida’s Democratic agriculture commissioner Nikki Fried and several medical cannabis consumers, asserts that the federal government is unlawfully depriving patients of their constitutional rights on multiple grounds, and the plaintiffs filed a revised complaint last month following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on an unrelated gun rights case in New York.

As plaintiffs anticipated, DOJ submitted the motion to dismiss the case on Monday, the court-imposed deadline for a response. The government provided a justification for its dismissal request in an attached memorandum.

At a top level, the Justice Department said the gun rights are generally reserved for “law-abiding” people. Florida might have legalized medical cannabis, but the department said that doesn’t matter as long as it remains federally prohibited. It also said that, while two of the plaintiffs who were denied firearms after admitting on a federal form that they use medical marijuana might have standing for injury, it said neither the commissioner nor a separate defendant could say the same.

DOJ’s memo is also full of curious references to precedent and historic gun policies, in addition to dismissing the definition of medical marijuana altogether because the government upholds that cannabis “has no currently accepted medical use.”

read the whole article here

CLAIM YOUR FREE COPY OF The Essential 2nd Amendment Handbook!

Merriam-Webster definition of fault is: a moral weakness less serious than a vice. a physical or intellectual imperfection or impairment, responsibility for wrongdoing or failure. So, let’s suppose a major league baseball pitcher throws a pitch that hits the batter in the head and kills him.

Where is the fault? The pitcher because he threw the ball? The batter because he didn’t move or was standing too close? The catcher because he held his glove in the wrong place causing the pitcher to have an errant throw? Can the pitcher even be at fault since he lost control of the ball as soon as it left his finger tips? Who do we blame? Well if the pitcher was holding a gun and shot the batter we all know it would be the fault of the gun. So the fault lies with the baseball. It was the baseball that hit the batter and killed him. It was the baseball that allowed the pitcher to throw it at over 90 miles an hour and hit the batter. So if a person were to kill someone with a baseball shouldn’t baseballs have to be regulated and only be purchased at a Federal Baseball Dealer?

Ok, Ok, sounds absurd. That’s the point. When a person is injured or killed with a gun it cannot and is not the FAULT of the gun. A gun like a baseball is an inanimate object incapable of moral weakness, or responsibility. For that matter so is an automobile. that is why no one calls for automobiles to be banned when a drunk driver kills someone.

When you consider that guns are constitutionally protected where autos and baseballs are not why do guns get “blamed” when autos and baseballs do not? IMHO it is the educational system. Students at all levels are not being taught proper and accurate American Constitutional history.

So we need to keep up the fight. Be vigilant. Join pro second amendment organizations. NRA, Gun Rights, etc, Every chance you get you must educate friends, relatives, elected officials etc. It must be from an educational perspective not a confrontational one. Don’t let them paint you as a “right wing fringe kook”. Educate yourself and pass it on.

Just a quick update on GH. Although we currently have a small brick & mortar shop, we have plans to build a new storefront onto our existing building. Plans were for this past spring but the pandemic effect on lumber prices etc. have delayed plans. So now we are “shooting” for next spring.

In the meantime we’ll make due with the current situation. We accept all major credit cards. Most items can be shipped directly to your home. Firearms of course, must be shipped to your favorite FFL dealer or you can pick them up in our store. We have some handguns, a few shotguns, and some 9mm and 40 cal ammo in stock in our local store. We also continue to receive firearms for customers making purchases online. Charges are $30 for any gun. Additional guns in the same transaction are $10 for each gun. You can reach us at 570-486-6676 or sales@gunhippo.com. Have a great Thanksgiving holiday.

Let’s go Brandon

Nuff said…………………