DA moves to close gun loophole

Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham announced this morning that the Gun Violence Task Force will begin arresting people who falsify applications to carry a firearm.

Abraham, in a news conference at her office, described the new initiative as closing another loophole that has allowed people to illegally acquire and carry firearms.

"This is a multifaceted problem," Abraham said about illegal gun possession. She described the problem as "like an amoeba that when you block its path it throws a foot in another direction."

The task force was created in December 2006 with state funding to attack the epidemic of illegal guns in the city, which that year helped drive the number of Philadelphia homicides above 400.

Since then, the task force has moved against straw purchasers - people who buy guns for felons who cannot legally possess them - and those who provide guns to juveniles.

Abraham said those who lie on a permit to carry a firearm can be charged with making unsworn falsifications to authorities, a misdemeanor, or in cases of a person not permitted to possess firearms, a felony punishable by up to a year in prison.

Since the task force began, Abraham said, it has opened 1,136 investigations involving the illegal transfer of firearms, made 346 arrests and seized 673 guns.