PRINTER'S NO. 3501
No. 2694 Session of 1994
INTRODUCED BY GODSHALL, REBER, BELFANTI, BLAUM, COY, O'BRIEN,
BAKER, SCHULER, FARMER, BUNT, RUBLEY, TRELLO, DEMPSEY,
LEVDANSKY, TRUE, FICHTER, M. N. WRIGHT, WAUGH, PLATTS,
CORNELL, HERMAN, SAYLOR, DERMODY, MAYERNIK, GEIST, TULLI,
MERRY, ADOLPH, WOGAN, SAURMAN, HASAY, STAIRS, STABACK,
McCALL, BROWN, KING, CESSAR, COLAIZZO, KASUNIC, LEH, GERLACH,
TANGRETTI AND TOMLINSON, APRIL 11, 1994
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, APRIL 11, 1994
AN ACT
1 Amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania
2 Consolidated Statutes, providing for sentencing for altering
3 or obliterating marks of identification.
4 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
5 hereby enacts as follows:
6 Section 1. Section 6117 of Title 18 of the Pennsylvania
7 Consolidated Statutes is amended to read:
8 § 6117. Altering or obliterating marks of identification.
9 (a) Offense defined.--No person shall change, alter, remove,
10 or obliterate the name of the maker, model, manufacturer's
11 number, or other mark of identification on any firearm.
12 (b) Presumption.--Possession of any firearm, upon which any
13 such mark shall have been changed, altered, removed, or
14 obliterated, shall be prima facie evidence that the possessor
15 has changed, altered, removed, or obliterated the same.
16 (c) Penalty.--A violation of this section constitutes a
1 felony of the second degree.
2 (d) Mandatory sentence.--A person convicted of violating
3 this section shall be sentenced to a mandatory minimum term of
4 imprisonment of five years. There shall be no authority in any
5 court to impose on an offender to which this section is
6 applicable a lesser sentence than provided for herein or to
7 place the offender on probation, parole, work release or
8 prerelease or to suspend sentence. Nothing in this section shall
9 prevent the sentencing court from imposing a sentence greater
10 than provided herein. Sentencing guidelines promulgated by the
11 Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing shall not supersede the
12 mandatory sentences provided herein.
13 (e) Appellate review.--If a sentencing court refuses to
14 apply this section where applicable, the Commonwealth shall have
15 the right to appellate review of the action of the sentencing
16 court. The appellate court shall vacate the sentence and remand
17 the case to the sentencing court for imposition of a sentence in
18 accordance with this section if it finds that the sentence was
19 imposed in violation of this section.
20 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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