Allegheny County Firearms Division closes due to COVID-19

By JEFF STITT

jstitt@yourmvi.com

The Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office has closed the Firearms Division in downtown Pittsburgh until further notice as a result of a COVID-19 exposure.

The announcement was made early Friday.

“We will be sanitizing the office and waiting room as a precautionary measure due to COVID exposure,” ACSO said in a Facebook post. 

The sheriff’s office did not state how many people in the division or at ACSO have been exposed to the virus or any details about when they were exposed.

ACSO said those who had previously scheduled an appointment with the Firearms Division will be able to reschedule when the division reopens, but did not give a time frame for a reopening date and time.

The announcement comes after Chief Deputy Kevin Kraus announced Nov. 19 that “due to the spiking COVID rate in Allegheny County,” the Sheriff’s Office would cease all walk-in license-to-carry applicants, but would service applicants who had an appointment.

A license-to-carry event in Ohio Township has also been postponed.

On Nov. 19, Kraus said the decision about ceasing walk-ins and postponing the satellite event was “made after the county-wide report this weekend of unprecedented cases and the closing of the hosting township’s school district last week.”

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