Pennsylvania has several firearm rules that do not fit neatly into the canonical permit, carry, and use sections. This section covers the Sportsman's...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
Pennsylvania has several firearm rules that do not fit neatly into the canonical permit, carry, and use sections. This section covers the Sportsman's Firearm Permit, the state PICS background check, magazine and suppressor rules, the dealer-licensing scheme, the antique-firearm exemption, the no-state-registry rule, family transfers, and a handful of other Crimes Code provisions that come up often enough in CCW classes that students need them.
Each topic gives the bottom-line answer first, then the statute, then the nuance. One overarching reminder: Pennsylvania is a licensed-carry state. A License to Carry Firearms under 18 Pa.C.S. 6109 is required to carry concealed on the person or in a vehicle, and carrying without that license is an offense under 18 Pa.C.S. 6106. None of the rules below changes that.
The Sportsman's Firearm Permit is a separate, county-issued credential that lets a hunter, trapper, or angler transport a legal firearm in connection with hunting, trapping, or fishing without holding a full License to Carry Firearms.
Under 18 Pa.C.S. 6106(c)(1), before any person 18 years of age or older who is licensed to hunt, trap, or fish (or who has been issued a permit relating to hunting dogs) can rely on the 6106(b)(9) or (b)(10) exceptions to the general carry-license requirement, that person must secure a sportsman's firearm permit from the county treasurer. The permit issues immediately, is valid throughout the Commonwealth for five years from the date of issue, and covers any legal firearm when carried in conjunction with a valid hunting, furtaking, or fishing license or a permit relating to hunting dogs. The county treasurer may charge no more than $6 for the permit.
The permit is not a substitute for an LTCF. It only covers carry that is connected to a valid hunting, trapping, or fishing license. If you are not actively engaged in (or traveling to and from) those activities, the permit does not authorize you to carry concealed. It does not unlock the 6106(b) categorical exceptions on its own. It is the gateway to subsections (b)(9) and (b)(10), not a general carry permit. Selling a sportsman's firearm permit for more than the statutory fee is a summary offense under 18 Pa.C.S. 6106(c)(2).
The Sportsman's Permit is the right tool for a student who wants legal firearm transport and field carry while hunting but does not need (or cannot yet qualify for) an LTCF. For everyone else, the LTCF under 18 Pa.C.S. 6109 is the broader credential.
Pennsylvania does not route firearm sales through the federal NICS system. It runs its own state-administered background-check program called the Pennsylvania Instant Check System, or PICS.
PICS is administered by the Pennsylvania State Police under 18 Pa.C.S. 6111.1. Under 6111.1(b)(1), upon receipt of a check request from a licensed dealer, the State Police must immediately review criminal-history, fingerprint, juvenile-delinquency, and mental-health records and either inform the dealer that the transaction is prohibited or provide a unique approval number. Under 6111.1(b)(2), if the system suffers an electronic failure, scheduled downtime, or similar event lasting more than 48 hours, a dealer may complete a sale without a finished instantaneous check, but must still obtain a completed application/record of sale and follow the 6111(b) procedure for a subsequent background check.
PICS is funded by statutory fees. Under 18 Pa.C.S. 6111(b)(3), the per-buyer instant-check fee is set at the cost of providing the service and is capped at $2 per buyer or transferee. Under 18 Pa.C.S. 6111.2(a), each firearm subject to tax under the Tax Reform Code of 1971 carries an additional $3 surcharge (the Firearm Sale Surcharge), which is deposited into the records-check fund. Under 18 Pa.C.S. 6111.3, that fund (now the Firearm Records Check Fund) is the restricted account that carries out the check program. So the $2 fee applies once per buyer, while the $3 surcharge applies once per firearm. Three firearms purchased in one transaction means $2 plus $9, or $11 to the State Police.
If PICS denies your purchase, 18 Pa.C.S. 6111.1(e) gives you a written-challenge right. You file the challenge with the State Police within 30 days of the denial. The State Police must review the record (and bear the burden of proving its accuracy), notify you of the basis for the denial within 20 days, and communicate a final decision within 60 days. If the challenge is ruled invalid, you may appeal to the Attorney General within 30 days for a de novo hearing under the Administrative Agency Law, with the burden on the Commonwealth, and from there to Commonwealth Court.
The practical point is that a Pennsylvania denial does not run through NICS. It runs through PICS, and the State Police challenge process is the only path for a Pennsylvania-based denial. Sending a federal NICS appeal to the FBI will not fix a PICS denial.
Pennsylvania does not impose any magazine-capacity limit. Standard-capacity magazines are lawful to own, possess, transport, and use throughout the Commonwealth. Chapter 61 of Title 18 contains no capacity-based restriction.
This is worth saying explicitly because several states near Pennsylvania (New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Delaware) do impose magazine-capacity limits. Pennsylvania's preemption statute, 18 Pa.C.S. 6120(a), bars any county, municipality, or township from regulating the lawful ownership, possession, transfer, or transportation of firearms and ammunition, so no Pennsylvania jurisdiction can set a different rule. If you cross a state line into a state with a capacity limit, the federal Firearm Owners Protection Act transport safe harbor (18 U.S.C. 926A) may protect lawful transport through that state, but it does not protect possession at your destination.
Suppressors are lawful in Pennsylvania for civilians who comply with the federal National Firearms Act process. The same rule applies to short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, machine guns, and any other weapon (AOW) properly registered with ATF.
Pennsylvania's offensive-weapons statute, 18 Pa.C.S. 908, makes it a misdemeanor of the first degree to deal in, use, or possess an offensive weapon, and the definition of "offensive weapons" in 908(c) reaches a firearm specially made or adapted for silent discharge, a machine gun, and a sawed-off shotgun with a barrel under 18 inches. But 908(b)(1) provides a defense for a person who has complied with the National Firearms Act (26 U.S.C. 5801 et seq.), except for a bomb, grenade, or incendiary device. Proper federal registration on a Form 4 (transfer) or Form 1 (manufacture) therefore takes a suppressor or other NFA-registered item out of the 908 prohibition.
The practical sequence for a Pennsylvania resident buying a suppressor: pick the suppressor at a licensed dealer, submit a federal Form 4 transfer application to ATF (with fingerprints and photographs), wait for ATF approval, then take possession from the dealer once the tax stamp issues. There is no separate Pennsylvania state permit, registration, or fee for a suppressor. The federal process is the entire process.
On the federal tax: historically every NFA transfer carried a $200 tax (with a $5 tax for an AOW transfer). Under Public Law 119-21, the making and transfer tax for most NFA items, including suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and AOWs, is reduced to $0. The $200 tax is retained only for machine guns and destructive devices. The change applies to calendar quarters beginning more than 90 days after July 4, 2025, with the first qualifying quarter starting January 1, 2026. As of that date a suppressor, SBR, or SBS transfer carries a $0 tax stamp, while a machine gun or destructive device still carries the $200 tax. The registration and approval steps are unchanged. You still file the form, wait for ATF, and take possession only after approval.
For machine guns, the federal Hughes Amendment limits civilian-transferable machine guns to those lawfully registered before May 19, 1986, and the same NFA process applies. For SBRs and SBSs, the procedure mirrors the suppressor process, again with no additional state-law layer beyond the 908 NFA-compliance defense. NFA trusts are lawful in Pennsylvania and are commonly used for shared possession and estate planning. Pennsylvania also permits the use of suppressors while hunting under Game Commission rules.
Antique firearms are largely outside the Uniform Firearms Act. Under 18 Pa.C.S. 6118(a), Subchapter A of Chapter 61 does not apply to antique firearms. Section 6118(c) defines "antique firearm" as: any firearm with a matchlock, flintlock, or percussion-cap ignition system; any firearm manufactured on or before 1898; or any replica of a pre-1898 firearm if the replica is not designed for rimfire or conventional center-fire fixed ammunition, or uses such ammunition no longer manufactured in the United States and not readily available in commercial trade.
The exemption is broad but not unlimited. Under 18 Pa.C.S. 6118(b), the carve-out does not apply to two situations:
For everything else (PICS, dealer licensing, transfer rules), the antique-firearm rule is straightforward: an antique falls outside the Subchapter A apparatus. PICS does not run on a black-powder revolver. Under the federal Gun Control Act, antique firearms are also excluded from the definition of "firearm" (18 U.S.C. 921(a)(3)), so they are outside federal background-check requirements as well.
Anyone who sells firearms direct to consumers in Pennsylvania must be licensed as a state dealer. The state-law requirement at 18 Pa.C.S. 6113 operates on top of the federal FFL requirement.
Under 6113(a), the chief or head of a city police force or department, and elsewhere the county sheriff, grants three-year licenses to reputable applicants on a form prescribed by the State Police. The license carries seven conditions, breach of any of which forfeits the license. The most operationally important: business may be carried on only on the premises designated in the license or at a lawful gun show; a true record in triplicate must be made of every firearm sold and maintained by the dealer for 20 years; and no firearm may be displayed where it can readily be seen from outside the premises. The fee for the state dealer license is $30 under 6113(b), paid into the county treasury. The license may be revoked for cause under 6113(c), with judicial review available under 18 Pa.C.S. 6114. Section 6112 backstops 6113 by making it a separate offense for a retail dealer to sell, transfer, or expose a firearm for sale without a license.
The federal FFL is one layer. The Pennsylvania 6113 license is a second layer. A dealer that loses the state license is selling unlawfully even if the federal FFL is in good standing.
Pennsylvania does not register firearms. 18 Pa.C.S. 6111.4 is a flat prohibition on any registry of firearm ownership: "nothing in this chapter shall be construed to allow any government or law enforcement agency or any agent thereof to create, maintain or operate any registry of firearm ownership within this Commonwealth."
The State Police records that flow from a sale are a record-of-sale system, not a registry. Under 18 Pa.C.S. 6111(b)(1.1)(v), the application/record of sale for a long gun must be destroyed by the State Police within 72 hours of completing the background check, unless the buyer is found to be prohibited under 18 Pa.C.S. 6105. Under 6111(b)(1.3), any person who knowingly and intentionally maintains or fails to destroy that information, or otherwise violates 6111.4, is subject to a $250 civil penalty per violation, on top of the criminal penalty in 18 Pa.C.S. 6119.
For a CCW student who asks how to register a handgun in Pennsylvania, the accurate answer is that they cannot, because Pennsylvania does not run that system. The federal NFA registry (suppressors, SBRs, SBSs, machine guns, AOWs, destructive devices) is a federal system, not a Pennsylvania registry. This rule is what makes Pennsylvania a no-registration state in popular shorthand, and it is one reason local lost-and-stolen reporting ordinances have been challenged under the 6120 preemption rule.
Pennsylvania exempts certain intra-family firearm transfers from the dealer-channel requirement and the PICS process. First, a scope point: the 18 Pa.C.S. 6111 transfer-through-a-dealer rule applies to "firearms" as defined in 18 Pa.C.S. 6102, which means handguns (a pistol or revolver with a barrel under 15 inches), short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and any firearm with an overall length under 26 inches. An ordinary rifle or shotgun is not a "firearm" for this purpose, so a private sale of an ordinary long gun between two unlicensed Pennsylvanians is not required to go through a dealer or sheriff at all. The family carve-outs below matter mainly for handguns.
Under 18 Pa.C.S. 6111(c), a private transfer of a covered firearm between two unlicensed persons must generally be conducted at the place of business of a licensed importer, manufacturer, dealer, or county sheriff's office, with the dealer or sheriff running the same 6111 procedure as a retail seller. But 6111(c) then provides: "The provisions of this section shall not apply to transfers between spouses or to transfers between a parent and child or to transfers between grandparent and grandchild." Those three intra-family transfers do not require a dealer-channel transaction. The 6111(b) record-of-sale form mirrors the same five-relative perimeter (spouse, parent, child, grandparent, grandchild) for the actual-buyer warning that controls straw-purchase analysis at retail.
For inherited firearms, 18 Pa.C.S. 6115(b)(2) provides a separate, broader pathway. Section 6115 is the general anti-loan and anti-lending offense, but 6115(b)(2) provides that nothing in the section prohibits the transfer of a firearm under 20 Pa.C.S. Ch. 21 (intestate succession) or by bequest, if the individual receiving the firearm is not precluded from owning or possessing a firearm under 6105. A firearm passed by will or by intestate succession to a non-prohibited heir is lawful without a 6111 transaction at all.
A parent giving a pistol to an adult child is a 6111(c) family transfer, no PICS required. A grandparent leaving a deer rifle to a grandchild via will is a 6115(b)(2) intestate or bequest transfer, also no PICS required. In both cases, the receiving relative still has to be eligible to possess under 6105. A family transfer to a relative with a disqualifying conviction is not a defense to a 6105 possession charge.
Outside the family and estate transfers above, lending or giving a firearm to another person can be a separate criminal offense in Pennsylvania.
Under 18 Pa.C.S. 6115(a), no person may make a loan secured by mortgage, deposit, or pledge of a firearm, and no person may lend or give a firearm to another or otherwise deliver a firearm contrary to Subchapter A. The exceptions in 6115(b)(1) cover a person who holds an LTCF under 6109, a person otherwise exempt from licensing, a person engaged in a hunter-safety program certified by the Pennsylvania Game Commission or an NRA-sanctioned firearm-training program or competition, a person under 18 supervised by a qualified adult under 18 Pa.C.S. 6110.1, a person lawfully hunting or trapping in compliance with Title 34, and a bank or chartered lending institution that can adequately secure firearms in its possession. Section 6115(b)(3) adds a dwelling-or-place-of-business exception: lending or giving a firearm to another within your dwelling or place of business is not prohibited if the firearm stays there. Section 6115(b)(4) permits relinquishing firearms to a third party for safekeeping under 23 Pa.C.S. 6108.3 (PFA orders).
Handing a friend your pistol on a public range to try out is lawful if your friend holds an LTCF, is otherwise exempt, or you are at a sanctioned training program or competition. Handing the same pistol to the same friend in your kitchen is lawful under the dwelling-or-place-of-business carve-out. Handing it to that friend on a public street, with no LTCF or exemption applicable, can be a 6115 offense.
Changing, altering, removing, or obliterating the manufacturer's number integral to the frame or receiver of any firearm is a felony of the second degree under 18 Pa.C.S. 6117(a) and (c). The presumption-of-knowledge provision that historically appeared in this statute was deleted by amendment, so the prosecution must prove the offense without that shortcut.
For a student who recovers a firearm with an altered or obliterated serial number (typically a stolen handgun later returned), the move is to stop, decline normal possession, and route the firearm to the State Police for examination and serial-number restoration before bringing it back into circulation. Federal law (18 U.S.C. 922(k)) imposes a parallel offense.
Pennsylvania does not generally ban armor-piercing handgun ammunition for civilian possession. What it bans is using armor-piercing ammunition in a crime of violence.
Under 18 Pa.C.S. 6121(a), it is unlawful to possess, use, or attempt to use a "KTW teflon-coated bullet or other armor-piercing ammunition" while committing or attempting to commit a "crime of violence" as defined in 18 Pa.C.S. 6102. Section 6121(b) grades the offense as a felony of the third degree. Section 6121(c) imposes a five-year mandatory minimum that may not run concurrently with any other sentence and that bars suspension, probation, and parole. Section 6121(d) defines "armor-piercing ammunition" by performance: ammunition determined under the NILECJ Type IIA standard (NILECJ-STD-0101.01, December 1978) to be capable of penetrating bullet-resistant apparel or body armor.
The statute is a sentence-enhancement statute tied to a predicate crime of violence. A lawful defensive shooting governed by Pennsylvania's use-of-force law is not a crime of violence and does not implicate 6121. Carrying defensive ammunition that happens to meet the Type IIA penetration standard is not, by itself, a 6121 offense. For civilians, the federal armor-piercing rules on manufacture and importation (18 U.S.C. 922(a)(7) and (a)(8)) are the more commonly relevant framework.
When you are carrying a firearm concealed on or about your person or in a vehicle under an LTCF, 18 Pa.C.S. 6122(a) requires you to produce the license for inspection upon lawful demand of a law enforcement officer. Failure to produce the license at the time of arrest or at the preliminary hearing creates a rebuttable presumption of nonlicensure.
Section 6122(b) extends the same rule to anyone carrying and claiming a 6106(b) exception (such as the dwelling or place-of-business carve-out, out-of-state carry under 6106(b)(15) or (16), or any other categorical exemption). On lawful demand, you must produce satisfactory evidence of qualification for the exception.
Pennsylvania does not require a CCW holder to volunteer the existence of the license at the start of every police encounter (see the Duty to Inform section). What 6122 requires is production on lawful demand. Carry your physical LTCF or a copy you can produce quickly. A "the license is at home" answer is the rebuttable-presumption trigger.
A federal waiver of firearm disability under 18 U.S.C. 925, a full pardon from the Governor, or an overturning of a conviction removes the corresponding disability under Subchapter A, with one important exception. Under 18 Pa.C.S. 6123, those mechanisms do not remove the 18 Pa.C.S. 6105 disability (the felony-and-similar-offense possession bar). For a student with a prior conviction pursuing federal relief or a state pardon, the federal-and-pardon path can clear Subchapter A disabilities (such as PICS denials and transfer restrictions) but will not by itself lift the 6105 prohibition.
Three smaller rules round out the Subchapter A apparatus.
First, 18 Pa.C.S. 6128 governs abandonment of firearms, weapons, or ammunition relinquished into or coming into the custody of a police department, the State Police, a coroner, a medical examiner, a district attorney, a sheriff, or a licensed dealer, including items listed under a Protection From Abuse order (23 Pa.C.S. 6108) or items whose possession is barred by 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(9). The section sets the timelines (generally one year) after which such property is deemed abandoned. For a PFA respondent who later regains possession rights, 6128 is the backstop that keeps lawfully relinquished firearms from sitting in storage indefinitely. Coordinate any return-to-owner process with the holding agency and the issuing court.
Second, 18 Pa.C.S. 6125 requires the State Police, beginning January 1, 1996, to distribute firearm-safety brochures (including a summary of the major provisions of Subchapter A) to every licensed firearm dealer in the Commonwealth, with a copy provided without charge to each purchaser. The State Police firearms-laws materials are the official starter reference a student should expect to encounter at any Pennsylvania-licensed dealer.
Third, the proof-on-demand rule in 6122(b) tracks the general burden allocation for 6106 exceptions. The Commonwealth has the burden of proving the elements of a 6106 violation beyond a reasonable doubt. But if the defendant claims a 6106(b) categorical exception (peace officer, military duty, dwelling, place of business, sportsman's permit holder, or out-of-state license under 6106(b)(15) or (16)), the burden of producing evidence to support the exception is on the defendant. Bring the documentation to any encounter where you intend to invoke an exception. The Commonwealth does not have to disprove your status if you cannot produce evidence of it at the time of arrest or the preliminary hearing.
This page covers one part of our Pennsylvania concealed carry guide.
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