A recent incident in Warren provides an example of just how easy it can be to skirt well-meaning laws written to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

A couple with Buffalo addresses living in Warren were both charged earlier this spring with several felony charges related to alleged false statements made on gun purchase forms, including five purchases in Warren County for firearms then taken to New York state and sold to the sort of people who won’t undergo background checks.

What should make people on both sides of our nation’s intractable gun debate consider is that this scheme was only foiled because of an argument about the straw purchase scheme.

That’s right.

This small pipeline from Warren into New York state could have continued for months if not for an argument about illegally purchasing more firearms. What’s really noteworthy, though, is that it’s a situation being played out throughout the commonwealth.

A 2025 analysis by Everytown, a gun violence advocacy group, states between 2017 and 2021, only 14% percent of crime guns recovered in Pennsylvania were recovered in the possession of the original purchaser, which the non-profit says is an indication of firearm trafficking. Federal ATF data estimates 5,600 crime guns recovered in Pennsylvania in 2023 were likely illegally trafficked by individuals who purchased them from licensed dealers. Those guns are ending up in other states. In 2023 alone, 17% (532) of crime guns recovered in New Jersey and 8% (599) of crime guns recovered in New York were sourced from dealers in Pennsylvania. The top two methods of trafficking were straw purchasing and unlicensed dealing.

There isn’t much that we can agree on when it comes to guns, but finding ways to increase prosecutions and punishments of straw purchases should be one of them. As long as there is money to be made filling the demand for illegal weapons, there will be those willing to sell guns on the black market. In Pennsylvania, making a materially false written statement on a firearm application – typically ATF Form 4473 or PA SP4-113 – is punishable by up to seven years in prison and $15,000 in fines. In our view that punishment isn’t enough given the number of straw purchases prosecuted each year. Obviously, the reward in the illegal gun trade is greater than the risk faced by straw purchasers and other purveyors of the illegal gun trade.