Five House Dems call for regular inspections of firearm dealers
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Five House Democrats are calling for the state to perform regular inspections of firearms dealers throughout the state and require reporting of missing firearms and ammunition from firearms dealers.
Rep. Christopher Rabb, D-Philadelphia, is circulating a co-sponsorship memorandum for legislation he is drafting that would create the Firearms Dealer Accountability and Modernization Act. The bill has attracted co-sponsorship support so far from four fellow Democrats – Tarik Khan, Lindsay Powell, Benjamin Sanchez and Rep. Ben Waxman.
Earlier this year, Attorney Dave Sunday, the Allegheny County Police Department and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced arrests of seven juveniles and an 18-year-old in connection with the thefts and illegal transfers of numerous firearms, resulting from gun store burglaries.
Law enforcement officials charged members of the group in February with felony corrupt organizations, receiving stolen property, conspiracy, burglary, illegal transfer of firearms, illegal possession of firearms, and related offenses.
In all, the group is responsible for thefts of 79 firearms taken in burglaries at gun shops in Allegheny County and Ohio. Officials seized many of the firearms; about two dozen firearms hadn't been recovered.
The charges regard a burglary at Allegheny Arms in Bethel Park on January 13, 2025. During that break-in, 56 firearms were stolen. On the same day, members of the group attempted to burglarize two other gun stores in Allegheny County. On January 19, 2025, members of the group allegedly broke into Expert Outfitters in North Lima, Ohio, and stole 23 firearms.
Another case in late August in Lebanon County led to the recovery of four handguns stolen from a Myerstown Borough gun shop. Three people have been charged in relation to that break-in.
And, in 2025, a Bethlehem, Pa., man was sentenced to 40 months' imprisonment and $26,798 in restitution for multiple burglaries in which he stole more than 150 guns from licensed firearms dealers. U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said the guns were stolen over four months in 2023 from gun shops in Easton, Catasauqua and Telford, with firearms stolen from those shops being recovered from crime scenes ranging from Connecticut to the Caribbean.
"Research shows that this flow transcends county and city boundaries. Many of the firearms recovered by law enforcement originate in counties surrounding the urban centers where we've seen the most gun violence. And with more than 3,000 federally licensed firearms dealers across Pennsylvania, we must determine which establishments are complicit in this public health crisis -- focusing on the bad actors while providing support for good-faith dealers seeking to modernize their operations," Rabb said in his co-sponsorship memorandum. "Consider this: Pennsylvania has nearly seven times as many licensed gun dealers as Starbucks locations. It has more gun dealers than there are ATF special agents in the entire country."
Rabb proposes requiring the Pennsylvania State Police or someone designated by the State Police to conduct annual inspections of federally licensed firearms dealers, change state law to require firearms dealers to report lost or stolen firearms or ammunition, provide grants to federally licensed firearms dealers to modernize their operations as well as pay for the State Police to recruit, train and oversee inspectors to verify that dealers properly store and secure their firearms sales records, consistent with federal law.
"Ardent supporters of the Second Amendment emphasize that the best way to address gun violence is simply to enforce the laws already on the books and steer clear of further government restrictions on the rights of law-abiding firearms owners. This bill takes them at their word," Rabb said in his memorandum. "In addition to other substantive approaches to reducing gun violence, we need to address this epidemic from the supply side -- without infringing on Pennsylvanians' Second Amendment rights."