Philly gun dealers must post new signs warning against the ‘straw purchase’ of weapons

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Buying a gun for someone who is not allowed to have one is a crime often referred to as a “straw purchase.”

Philadelphia gun stores will now have to post signs warning customers of that fact under a new ordinance signed into law by Mayor Cherelle Parker on Monday afternoon.

Parker called it a matter of reinforcing common sense.

“Any time that a purchaser misrepresents who the weapon is being purchased for or who it’s going to be transferred to, they will be breaking the law,” she said.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said many people accused of making a straw purchase claim they were unaware that it was illegal to buy a weapon for someone prohibited from having one.

“One thing we have to think about is that young person, particularly, in many cases, women are sitting and locked up in a cell block and say, ‘Well, I wish somebody had just told me I couldn’t do that, because I didn’t know,’” Bethel said.

“Eight of out 10 straw purchases are made by women, often young women, who are walking into the store procuring these weapons for someone who knows they can’t have it,” said Adam Geer, the city’s public safety director.

City Solicitor Renee Garcia said the city has been consistently warning gun shops to be careful about potential straw buyers of guns.

“We filed a lawsuit against three firearm dealers who had hundreds of crime guns come out of their shop,” she said. “One of them had their license revoked by the ATF after we filed suit and we’re still litigating against the other two.”

The city plans to “use every tool we can because it works. All of us working together, it works and we are making a difference,” she said.

While the signs are required at gun stores within the city limits, they don’t include gun shows often held in the suburbs.

Straw purchasing is a federal offense, and the signs will remind shoppers that doing so can be punished with up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The jail time can go up to 25 years if the gun is used to commit a felony, a terrorist attack or drug trafficking.

The city will provide signs featuring large-print wording to roughly half a dozen gun stores still operating in the city limits.