Court Opinion

ID: 9753702
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 19:23:07.396021+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:40.702216
License: Public Domain

Justice SAYLOR,
Concurring.
While I join the majority opinion, I do not view Appellees as being any closer to a restoration of their firearms rights. Rather, as the federal statutory procedure for removing the firearms disability imposed by federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 925(c), is unavailable due to a lack of funding, see United States v. Bean, 537 U.S. 71, 74, 75 n. 3, 123 S.Ct. 584, 586, 587 n. 3, 154 L.Ed.2d 483 (2002) (citing Government Appropriations Acts from 1993 through 2002), as no statutory procedure exists in Pennsylvania for restoring civil rights, see Beecham v. United States, 511 U.S. 368, 373, 114 S.Ct. 1669, 1672, 128 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994), and as Appellees do not meet the limited criteria for obtaining an expungement of their criminal records under Section 9122(b) of the Crimes Code, 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122(b), their only recourse is through gubernatorial pardon upon recommendation of the Board of Pardons. See Pa. Const, art. IV, § 9.1 I recognize that the federal government has an *389overarching interest in this area. See Caron v. United States, 524 U.S. 308, 316, 118 S.Ct. 2007, 2012, 141 L.Ed.2d 303 (1998) (explaining that, “[a]s to the possession of weapons, ... the Federal Government has an interest in a single, national, protective policy, broader than that required by state law”). However, in light of the absence of a viable federal procedure for removing a firearms disability, where such disqualification results from a state conviction, consideration by the General Assembly of a more flexible statutory procedure for addressing the circumstances presented by Appellees would seem to be in order.

. The provision permitting restoration of firearms rights in Section 6105.1, 18 Pa.C.S. § 6105.1, does not apply in the present context, as it *389is limited to convictions under earlier versions of the Vehicle Code or the 1939 Penal Code that would not be currently graded as a crime punishable by more than two years imprisonment or that no longer constitute violations of the law. See 18 Pa.C.S. § 6105.1(a), (e).