PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Jan. 11, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Governor Tom Corbett today ceremonially signed into law the Brad Fox Law or the Straw Purchase Gun bill, also known as House Bill 898.

Corbett was joined at the ceremony by Rep. Marcy Toepel (R-Montgomery), who sponsored the legislation, and the family of Plymouth Township Police Officer Bradley Fox who was shot and killed last September.

"Officer Fox died in the line of duty last year at the hands of a felon who should never have had a gun and, less directly, by the hand of the man who later admitted buying the gun and passing it along,'' Corbett said.

"Such 'straw buyers' are as deadly a threat to our citizens and our first responders as the felons to whom they pass along the weapon.

"State and federal laws are very plain: convicted felons are forbidden from owning firearms. And those who knowingly provide firearms to felons are themselves criminals and worthy of being locked up.''

The new law allows for imposition of a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for repeat offenders who transfer guns to persons who are not legally allowed to own them in Pennsylvania.

The law, supported by the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association and Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, went into effect on Dec. 26, 2012.

"Brad Fox was always accountable to his family, to his community, to his country,'' Corbett said. "It is time we held others accountable in his name.''

Fox, who died one day before his 35^th birthday, had been with the police department for five years, after serving two tours of duty in Iraq with the U.S. Marines. Fox's wife, Lynsay, is expecting the couple's second child in March.

For more information, visit www.pa.gov.

Media contact:  Janet Kelley, 717-783-1116

SOURCE Pennsylvania Office of the Governor