Editor’s Note: Gun Pulse, formerly an email newsletter from The Sentinel meant to cover the battle over the Second Amendment in our nation, is now exclusively available on our website.
Pennsylvania Republican Representative Aaron Bernstine unveiled a bill to codify constitutional carry, marking the first time in four years that such a bill has been introduced in Pennsylvania.
Bernstine introduced the bill with support from Pennsylvania Gun Rights, the affiliate of the National Association for Gun Rights in the commonwealth. The last time constitutional carry was introduced in the state, now-former Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Tom Wolf vetoed the legislation, which had passed in both chambers of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
Proponents of constitutional carry, under which firearm owners do not need to apply for a concealed carry permit in order to conceal their weapons in public, reason that such permit regimes deny the right given from God for self-defense by requiring government permission.
Bernstine remarked in a press release from Pennsylvania Gun Rights that “as Harrisburg Democrats continue to attempt their erosion of our constitutional rights, we must remain on the offense,” meaning that he will use “every legislative maneuver possible in order to force a vote.”
Pennsylvania Gun Rights executive director Craig Storrs similarly commented in the press release that “constitutional carry is the simple concept that if you can lawfully possess a firearm, you should be able to carry that firearm without having to jump through bureaucratic hoops and without having to repurchase your Second Amendment right from the government.”
Several other states have introduced and approved constitutional carry legislation in recent years. That includes twenty-nine states with active laws, according to the National Association for Gun Rights, and even includes other northeastern states like Maine and Vermont.
Some policies related to constitutional carry have been submitted in Congress. Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, reintroduced a national constitutional carry act for the new Congress, noting in a statement last year that “not every American enjoys the same right to carry firearms in public because some states and localities infringe upon this right.”
Beyond constitutional carry, Representative Claudia Tenney, a Republican from New York, introduced legislation last month that would prohibit states from overriding federal gun laws with more aggressive firearm bans, an attempt to supersede gun control laws in her home state.
