By: Teresa Mull

A newly introduced bill in Pennsylvania would require manufacturers selling ammunition in the Keystone State to encode the ammo.

“In a nutshell, this is ammo registration,” writes the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC).

HB 1786, sponsored by Democratic State Rep. Stephen Kinsey, would also tax ammo at five cents a round to fund a Pennsylvania State Police ammo database, according to FPC (more here).

The bill’s language states:

An Act amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in firearms and other dangerous articles, providing for encoded ammunition, imposing duties on manufacturers, sellers and owners of ammunition, providing for the powers and duties of the Commissioner of Pennsylvania State Police and the Secretary of Revenue, establishing the encoded ammunition database and the Encoded Ammunition Database Fund, imposing an encoded ammunition database tax and imposing penalties.

(Read the full text here.)

It’s not been a good month for gun owners in PA. Gun Owners of America (GOA) is involved in a Philadelphia lawsuit wherein the gun rights organization alleges the City of Brotherly Love is withholding license-to-carry permits.

“Despite applying for licenses to carry a gun and being approved for one by the Philadelphia Police Department, five residents claim in the suit the department has refused to actually issue their permits,” reports The Reload. “Instead, they’ve been told they are not allowed to legally carry a gun until they pick up their license during an in-person appointment, and the appointments aren’t available for 100 days or more. They claim withholding the licenses violates a state law requiring the documents to be issued or denied within 45 days of an application being submitted.”

Meanwhile, our neighbors to the south in West Virginia have made guns and ammo tax-free and have been offering free guns for people who get COVID-19 vaccines.

Despite these recent setbacks, however, Pennsylvania has made some headway this year in getting Constitutional Carry passed, and if this resident has anything to do with it, we’ll have our rights restored in no time!

Teresa Mull ([email protected]) is editor of Gunpowder Magazine.