Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
by: James Stoker
In mid-March, I decided I’d heard enough questions asking which county sheriffs in Pennsylvania were issuing non-resident licenses to carry firearms that I decided it was time to dig in a little. Conversations with Stephen LaSpina, Rick Erb, and Klint Macro all came to mind where I had an old list but needed to update it. After spending hours searching for the answers in online forums, I found that very few sources claimed to carry the information, and the ones that did were inaccurate.
So, I set out to identify which counties in Pennsylvania would issue non-resident licenses to compile a list for our website and hope it was helpful. It’s not an easy task, especially when most of the websites don’t specify whether they issue non-resident, so I set up a spreadsheet and began making phone calls.
You see, Pennsylvania law requires every county to issue licenses to carry to non-residents (see Title 18, Section 6109), but it’s not an easy thing for the sheriffs to do. Background checks for an out of state applicant require phone calls to their home states if there are court records with unreported dispositions, and that requires cooperation from other agencies or courts that may or may not be easy to attain. Add to that the fact that a state may revoke someone’s license to carry and a Pennsylvania sheriff would never know, and you have the reasons some may wish they were not required to issue.
I would argue this is all the more reason we need to pass constitutional carry in Pennsylvania. The right to keep and bear arms in defense of oneself or the state should not be up to a sheriff to decide. It is a natural or God-given right, and I take issue with the concept that one woman or man should be in a position to decide that for another. But I digress…
After calling every sheriff’s office in the Commonwealth, we found that fifty-one (51) sheriff’s offices were doing it right. Issuing non-resident licenses to carry as required by our statute. We know it’s difficult for the staff, and we applaud those who were doing it right. But what about the other sixteen (16) counties?
Thirteen (13) counties weren’t issuing non-resident licenses at all. Three others would issue the permit only if the applicant had relatives or property in their county, or in one county’s case, they still provided references, which is also illegal to require in Pennsylvania.
I’m not writing this article to put sheriffs on blast for this issue, as many of the sheriffs in this Commonwealth are absolute stalwarts at protecting the Article I, Section 21 rights of the citizens. And I can’t speak from first-hand knowledge if the ones not issuing them were aware this is a “shall issue” condition or if they genuinely felt it was within their power to make such a decision. But I can tell you that a conversation with Sheriff Mike Slupe (Butler County), has gone a long way towards resolving the issue. Sheriff Slupe is a member of the Pa. Sheriff’s Association Executive Board, and welcomed the conversation. His office already does issue non-resident licenses, but he understood the situation and presented our information to the Executive Board, which sent notice out immediately to all of the sheriffs in the Commonwealth. Many have already come into compliance by changing policies. Sheriff Kilkenny (Montgomery County) had the information sent out immediately and has reportedly brought his own office into compliance as well.
Unbeknownst to us, at the same time it apparently also caught the attention of the US Department of Justice and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Her office sent a letter to Montgomery County Sheriff Kilkenny and Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, explaining they are violating the 2nd Amendment, Pennsylvania’s Article I, Section 21, and Pennsylvania statutes in denying non-residents licenses. (https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1399551/dl)
Currently, a non-resident may get a license in any county except Blair, Bucks, Cambria (required relative or property), Carbon, Chester, Clinton (required relative or property), Columbia, Fulton, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Montgomery, Northampton, Northumberland (required references), Philadelphia, or Westmoreland counties. All of which confirmed electronically or by phone that they would not do a non-resident license or would only do so if specific conditions were met. Again, Sheriff Slupe informed me that some of these counties have already changed policy or are in the course of doing so, so if you know anyone trying to attain a non-resident license, have them reach out to the county nearest them or most convenient for them and give it a go. If they are denied for being a non-resident, please email me directly and we will work towards resolving this infringement right away.
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