PA's Constitutional Carry Law
is Common Sense - Opinion

The same predictions of doom and bloodshed keep coming from 'gun-control' activists. They warn us of pending disaster should Pennsylvania become the 22nd state to adopt so-called constitutional carry rules that would allow law-abiding adults who legally own a handgun to conceal-carry it without a permit. Thirty-four states, including Pennsylvania, already allow open carry without a permit.

With the U.S. Supreme Court set to decide how the Second Amendment applies to people's ability to defend themselves outside the home, the debate in states like Pennsylvania matter.

Constitutional carry laws are at the heart of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. During the oral arguments for the case, Chief Justice John Roberts expressed skepticism about the permit system. He noted to Brian Fletcher, the principal deputy solicitor general of the United States, that "when you're looking for a permit to speak on a street corner," you don't have to justify what you are going to say. "Why do you have to show in this case," Roberts asked, "that you're entitled to exercise your Second Amendment right?"

After Fletcher replied that asking people to prove a "demonstrated need" was consistent with the Second Amendment, Roberts responded: "I'm not sure that's right.... Regardless of what the [constitutional] right is, it would be surprising to have it depend upon a permit system."

We heard the dire predictions now being made about constitutional carry back when states first adopted right-to-carry laws, which now exist in 43 states. None of these warnings came true after other states adopted constitutional carry. Not a single one of them has seen the need to reverse its laws. None has even held a legislative hearing, let alone a vote, on undoing them. .....