“Probably two or three times a day I have to turn away a New York resident from buying a high-capacity magazine because they’re not allowed to have them.”

This is according to Mark Stilts, a firearms specialist at Sportsman’s Outlet in Bradford, who said he has seen a steady stream of New York state customers since April when that state adopted some of the toughest gun control laws in the country. Stilts said they are coming in, hoping to take advantage of Pennsylvania’s comparatively lax legislation.

Signs hang in the store reminding New York state residents of the prohibition on magazines of 10 rounds and larger.

“Everybody reads it and everybody thinks they can get away with it,” Stilts said. 

A month after the December 14, 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., just 88 miles from Albany, the New York State Legislature passed the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act. 

It was signed into law by New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Jan. 15 and effectively limits the capacity of ammunition magazines to 10 rounds, and instituting universal background checks on gun purchases, while also strengthening New York’s existing assault weapons ban. It changes the definition to include more of the above mentioned semi-automatic pistols and rifles that utilize detachable magazines, but nowhere near all of them.

Among its most contentious provisions is a requirement mandating all ammunition sales be subject to a background check and set to take effect next year. 

Dealers of ammunition will be required to perform background checks on every purchase and report all sales to the state, including their amounts and Internet sales of bullets would have to be shipped to and picked up at a licensed New York state dealer.

The motivation is as much financial as anything, with background checks costing between $25 and $40 per transaction. 

“To buy one box of ammunition they want to do a background check on them which obviously would cost the person buying the ammunition a lot more money,” Stilts said. 

But a loophole may have emerged with New York state residents circumventing the SAFE Act in Pennsylvania, where they would not be required to undergo background checks before purchasing bullets. 

“We would not be required to make them do a background check. It would only be for residents of the state in the state,” Stilts said.  

According to Ridgway-based state police, it is not illegal for Pennsylvania dealers to sell ammunition to New York state residents, but in some cases Pennsylvania dealers have begun refusing to do so as confusion sets in over the law’s implications beyond the New York state border.

Perry Burdick, owner of McKean County E-Sales in Smethport, said he will continue to sell ammunition to New York state residents, saying, “As far as I know it’s 100 percent legal.” 

“I’m only required to follow Pennsylvania and federal laws,” Burdick said. “New York state law does not apply.”