Governor Shapiro’s Budget Funds Backdoor Gun Control

Once again, Governor Shapiro is trying to assault your Article 1, Section 21 rights in his proposed 2026-2027 Pennsylvania budget.

Shapiro proposes to fund $1M for the Office of Gun Violence Prevention within the Pennsylvania Commission for Crime and Delinquency. This office would be nothing more than a propaganda machine to justify more calls for gun control through legislative advocacy.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Shapiro’s budget also calls for doubling the funding for the Pennsylvania Instant Check System (PICS) to $8.9M that would likely result in expanded bureaucracy that would quickly outpace the funding.

The PICS budget increase could lead to higher costs passed on to gun owners through fees and taxes such as the unconstitutional $2 fee for every PICS check and the $3 tax on the purchase of new firearms.

Instead of increasing funding to the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) for PICS, the Pennsylvania General Assembly should eliminate funding for the PICS “Record of Sale” system entirely. This system creates an illegal handgun registry through use of the “Firearm Application/Record of Sale” form (SP4-113).

Without appropriated funds, the PSP cannot continue their handgun registration scheme, ending this unconstitutional infringement on your God-given rights.

That’s why I need gun owners like you to send a message to your state representative and senator (by using the form above), demanding that they slash funding for Governor Shapiro’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention and to zero-line the “Record of Sale” handgun registry.

Let’s slash gun control from Shapiro’s budget!