Editorial | One Gun a Month

Philadelphia Inquirer, The, May, 2006

The National Rifle Association has stock arguments it uses when anyone suggests new firearm regulations, including one-handgun-per-month purchase limits.

Two bills languishing in Pennsylvania propose such a limit. The legislation is meant to make it harder to buy handguns - the weapon most often used in Philadelphia homicides - through a transaction known as a straw purchase.

In a straw-purchase scheme, a felon, barred by law from buying guns, recruits someone who can legally buy numerous guns at one time. The intermediary fills out forms, passes a background check, purchases the guns, then gives them to the felon, who uses them to commit crimes or illegally resells them for a big profit.

Handguns bought this way don't end up in the homes of law-abiding citizens who want to defend their families against intruders.

A handgun purchase limit would help to dry up the illegal market that ...