A permit is required to openly carry a firearm in Philadelphia.
Under current law in Pennsylvania, a person must have a concealed carry license to carry a firearm in Philadelphia, regardless of whether the firearm is carried openly or not.
Philadelphia is the only place in the Commonwealth with such a rule. Everywhere else in Pennsylvania allows a person to carry a gun without a permit, so long as the gun is visible.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is set to reexamine the state law after Zaire Livingston was convicted for openly carrying a gun in Philadelphia.
Livingston was arrested in Philadelphia after he was observed selling drugs in an alley by police. He was charged with drug possession and possession with intent to distribute, but was also charged with violating the Uniform Firearms Act. He had a handgun in his waistband and pleaded guilty to drug possession and the gun charge.
Livingston’s lawyers have argued that the state Uniform Firearms Act’s exception for Philadelphia violates the equal protection provisions of the state and federal constitutions.
Three Superior Court judges rejected that argument in Livingston’s initial appeal last December and upheld his convictions. About six months later, the same panel of judges ruled differently in another firearm case from Philadelphia.
Riyaadh Sumpter was arrested by Philadelphia police after he was observed walking on the street with a handgun stored in his waistband. He was convicted of violating the Uniform Firearms Act.
Sumpter also made an appeal, and the three Superior Court judges found the law unconstitutional on an equal protection basis because it places people in Philadelphia at a “special disadvantage in the exercise of their Second Amendment right.”
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office is in the position of defending the state law in the appeal. A spokesperson for Krasner said in a statement that unlicensed open carrying of firearms in public spaces should be a violation in every county in the Commonwealth.
“This matter could be resolved by new legislation, rather than the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, if Republicans in the state legislature applied violations of [Section 6108 of the Uniform Firearms Act] to all counties across the state rather than unjustly singling out Philadelphia,” said the statement.
Livingston’s case is now before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Its justices have limited the question to whether the license requirement in Philadelphia violates Article 1 of the state constitution and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The Uniform Firearms Act has been law in Pennsylvania since 1972.
