After a PFA, what happens to my gun?

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You've been served with a PFA, but you own guns. What happens next?

The Lebanon County Sheriff’s Office follows a series of steps designed to help ensure the victim’s safety, Sheriff Bruce Klingler said.

• First, they meet with the victim of abuse. If the PFA order requires the defendant to give up their weapons, the sheriff’s office asks the victim if the defendant owns any firearms.
• A sheriff’s deputy (or a local police department at the sheriff's office request, if it is after business hours) then attempts to locate and hand-deliver the PFA to the defendant. If the PFA requires the defendant to relinquish weapons, they are required to sign and swear that they don’t own a weapon.
• If they do own a weapon and would like to turn it over to a third party, the sheriff’s office runs the third party's name through the Pennsylvania Instant Check System to ensure they are not prohibited from owning a weapon.
• If weapons are turned over to the sheriff’s office, they are inventoried and stored in the Lebanon County Courthouse. In addition to guns, that collection currently includes a crossbow and a Samurai sword.

Defendants can get their weapons back if the PFA order has expired, which typically occurs after three years, Klingler said. However, the sheriff’s office runs their name through a PICS check first to ensure they have not been convicted of a crime which would prevent them from owning a firearm, as many criminal charges filed in domestic violence-related cases would do.

A bill recently proposed in the Pennsylvania legislature would permit victims to seek an extension of the PFA order after their abuser is released from prison without showing that the abuser had engaged in a new act of abuse.

If a defendant is not eligible to receive their weapon back, the sheriff’s office will work with them to find a gun dealer who is willing to purchase it, Klingler said. They return the funds from the sale to the defendant.

Concealing weapons from the sheriff’s office at the time a PFA is served would constitute a crime by the defendant, Klingler said.

However, a November 2016 Joint State Government Commission report recommends combating the possibility of a lie by allowing courts to issue search and seizure orders as part of PFAs if they have reason to believe the defendant has weapons that they might use against a victim.

A recently proposed bill to tighten firearm access for people served with a PFA doesn’t include this, however, and even the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence isn’t sure it wants to go that far.

The PCADV is concerned about the rights of defendants, too, deputy director Ellen Kramer said – and that includes the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Kramer said that police can seize guns that are in plain sight if they are present to serve the PFA order. In many cases the defendant is charged with a crime in connection with the events that led to the PFA which itself allows police to seize weapons. In addition, police can always seek a warrant from a judge if they believe a defendant lied when asked to surrender their firearms.