I don’t have a story to link to here, but it appears that Kathleen Kane’s office has quietly dumped our reciprocity agreement with the State of Utah. You will notice it is absent on the AG site, and if you look at handgun law.us, it notes at the bottom that as of yesterday, “Pennsylvania NO Longer Honors Utah.” That she would do this quietly is unconscionable, because it makes it far more likely someone is going to end up in prison because they were unaware of the reciprocity change. This isn’t the first reciprocity agreement she has revoked. On July 29th of last year, the same day that Pennsylvania gained statutory reciprocity with Kansas, she rescinded our reciprocity agreement with Idaho.
The Attorney General’s office, under state law, has an duty to sign reciprocity agreements in 6109(k):
(k) Â Reciprocity.–
(1) Â The Attorney General shall have the power and duty to enter into reciprocity agreements with other states providing for the mutual recognition of a license to carry a firearm issued by the Commonwealth and a license or permit to carry a firearm issued by the other state. To carry out this duty, the Attorney General is authorized to negotiate reciprocity agreements and grant recognition of a license or permit to carry a firearm issued by another state.
(2) Â The Attorney General shall report to the General Assembly within 180 days of the effective date of this paragraph and annually thereafter concerning the agreements which have been consummated under this subsection.
I’d argue that concurrent with that duty is not to exit reciprocity agreements that have been negotiated under this subsection. I’d note that Pennsylvanians can still carry in Utah and Idaho, because those states honor any other state permit. But residents of Utah and Idaho may no longer lawfully carry in Pennsylvania. For residents of those states, I’m very sorry, but elections have consequences, and when we elect a Bloomberg-bought Attorney General, these are the wages.
I’d really like to see NRA put some legislative muscle into fixing this problem. First suggestion would be to blow up 6106(b)(15)(ii):
(15)Â Â Any person who possesses a valid and lawfully issued license or permit to carry a firearm which has been issued under the laws of another state, regardless of whether a reciprocity agreement exists between the Commonwealth and the state under section 6109(k), provided:
(i)Â Â The state provides a reciprocal privilege for individuals licensed to carry firearms under section 6109.
(ii)Â Â The Attorney General has determined that the firearm laws of the state are similar to the firearm laws of this Commonwealth.
And by clarifying 6109(k) to make clear that the Attorney General may not revise or rescind existing agreements unless the reciprocal state requests it, or there has been a change in the reciprocal state’s statutory law. Most importantly, I think we all need to work to make sure Kathleen Kane becomes a one-term Attorney General.
UPDATE: Here’s a copy of the letter sent to Utah. I thought she had tweaked all the agreements with states that issued to non-residents so that PA would not recognize non-resident permits? Why suddenly get rid of the whole thing? Also, Superior Court has already ruled that PA residents must have a PA LTC to carry in PA. This is just a way to screw us and to please her patron Bloomberg, if you ask me.
I object to this post’s use of one of the photoshopped glamour shots she used in her campaign.
Maybe a candid photo like this would be more appropriate: http://i62.tinypic.com/34ycy2x.jpg
I try to look for ones that I’m not going to get sued over. Though, I suppose I could get away with that one :)
Yeah, that’s the way I picture her……
Merle
LOL! And her little frog, too. Guess I am just going to have to be more careful. Have an AZ permit, Far as I know that hasn’t been rescinded. Funny how we jump through hoops to be able to aid LE in these states if necessary, and the A.G. acts like such an ICEhole. Cost of gas jumped 20 cents a gallon. WTH r the people in PA drinking? Fracking water couldn’t be making y’all this stupid.
Ms. Kane has some ugly teeth her gums are gross !!!
Id be even happier for her to be impeached and all of her doings as AG reviewed and overturned if required.
Perhaps someone should challenge the permit system in court. After all Murdock v. PA says paying a fee for a right is unconstitutional. PA has a renewable permit which you pay a fee to have issued. Further, Shuttlesworth v Birmingham made plain that a permit which must be applied for, and may be accepted or denied based on an individual, or group of individuals, decision, is unconstitutional censorship, or prior restraint, and as Shuttlesworth continues, quoting Staub v. Baxley, “And our decisions (Note more than one, and likely many) have made clear that anyone faced with such an unconstitutional licensing law may ignore it, and engage with impunity in the (right) for which the law purports to require a license.”
I’d be happier for her to be in a graveyard. I hope she gets a brain tumor.
I wouldn’t wish a brain tumor on anybody, her included.
Or you could just be a reasonable person and hope she loses reelection.
That would require her having a brain, or one that uses logic from the get go.
Annoying. It appears that they will not recognize any permits issued by other states to non-residents of those states.
When I first relocated here from VA I carried on a VA resident permit (with VA your resident permit remains valid until it’s revoked/expired regardless of where you actually reside), but who knows, now its looks like if I ever actually ran into any issues I might be hung out to dry. In other words just shifting over to a non-resident VA permit which was otherwise honored seems to be asking for trouble, and getting a LTCF was the safest way to go.
Some liberal delegates down in VA are basically trying to do the same thing, by requiring anyone who wants to carry in VA using a VA non-resident permit have a resident permit from their state as well. Basically they’re trying to nibble away at reciprocity until one day your permit will only be good for the state you reside in.
Once again, elections matter. Too many whiners sat home in 2012 and this is what happens.
No, too many PSU alums wanted blood for Corbett. And now they are paying for it.
Has she dumped Indiana yet?
Or is Indiana okay because we don’t issue non-resident permits?
(Technically, Indiana does if you have a buisness here).
I ask because unlike Utah, Indiana doesn’t have a training requirement. Thus if Indiana still has reciprocity then the “screw over gun owners” becomes all the more obvious.
Indiana is recognized by statute.
So there’s some states that are recognized by statute and others that are left to the discretion of the AG?
Yes… I quote the statutory section above. Basically if you recognize our license, and the AG determines that our laws are substantially similar, that state gets recognition without there needing to be any reciprocity agreement.
That was the deal with Utah too. Utah and Indiana (and Idaho) were covered by category 2 (recognition by statute). But as we see, all it takes is for the AG to make a determination that the laws are no longer similar and reciprocity is gone.
In my opinion, Cat. 2 is more vulnerable because the AG has discretion. Technically under Cat. 1 (reciprocity agreement) the AG can only enter into agreements. This probably makes what Kane did with FL, AZ, VA illegal, but not with UT.
How is the best way to reach Kathleen Kane? It’s fairly easy to reach congressman, reps, etc… but the best I’ve found for her in the way of contact info is this page:
http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/theoffice.aspx?id=71
If you click thru for the email form it wants you to select topics from things like “tobacco related”, “criminal law”, “consumer”, “charity”, etc… ” violating oath and duties of office” doesn’t seem to be on the list.
Is there an actual kathleenkane@bloomburgspockets.com email to get her directly? anybody know? Or is it best to just call at the general office number?
Why would she want to talk to the people? She knows best after all.
If we didn’t have the laziest legislature this side of the nut house, I’d be more optimistic about getting a fix.
The first step to fixing it is to remove the AG from most of the process- all other states permits are automatically recognized, regardless of whether they recognize us or not. That lets other carry here.
The second step is to modify the language saying the AG shall have the duty to expand the number of reciprocity agreements, and shall have no power to terminate the agreement, and the agreement shall only terminate upon the other states request.
What I would like to see is all terminations of reciprocity voted on by the legislature. If the AG can make the case to both chambers, and get a majority vote in both chambers, then reciprocity can be revoked. This puts the decision back in the hands of the people, putatively. However, given the fact that PA has a useless legislature with ineffective leadership that does not appear to care all that much about 2A issues, I don’t see this happening.
At the end of the day, I think we’ve made all the progress we’re going to in PA in the present environment. We’ve made some advances, but I don’t get the sense of any appetite for moving forward in a way that will lead to any meaningful changes. In fact, I’m not really convinced that our legislators want to, which is why nothing has been done. The sense I get from the lack of motion on anything pro-2A is that leadership, at the least, doesn’t want to, and if leadership doesn’t want to, there’s absolutely nothing we can do.
I would love to be wrong, but that’s my gut feeling on this.
And those on the far left call Metcalfe’s effort to bring impeachment against Kane “heavy handed”, and “partisan politics”. B.S. says me. Kane’s obvious slap in the face of the Pennsylvania Legislature is unconscionable. I have a Utah CCW permit, and a PA resident License to Carry Firearms. If Utah decides to yank reciprocity in response to her illegal act, does anyone want to join me in a class action lawsuit against Kane. It will be expensive, but if we can cost share, it will be worth it. If we can get 100,000 folks to throw 50 bucks at this evil witch’s scheme, we can probably buy a few news outlets, and let the rest of PA know that they have a lawless AG. I do not want to lose reciprocity with Ohio and others.
Utah would require a legislative act to rescind their reciprocity with Pennsylvania, as their statute recognizes all other licenses.
I’m in. Let me know.
Thanks, Sebastian, I appreciate the heads up on Utah law. I’d still like to see the wicked witch in the Iron Bar Hotel.
How about Kathleen Kane ends up in jail for violating the US AND PA Constitutions? That sounds like the solution.
Jail leaves her alive for committing treason. Rope is the only cure for this lunacy, and until the gun owner public is willing to pony up for the gallows, we are in serious trouble from the leftwing dimwit nutcases running the eastern states, and particularly NY, PA, CT, MA, NJ, DE, MD, D.C. It doesn’t take a halfwit to see where this all ends, and what the eventual outcome will be. PA’s better get their act together, and start coming out to vote, and picking people worthy. BTW, this includes those RINO’s who are not much less idiots than the diimwitocRATs.
What do you mean “not be questioned?” What she did was illeagal. These demodRATS get away with everything. Should be impeached with other things she did.
Bloomberg’s organization should be re-named, “Mayors *for* illegal guns”. All they are doing is tweaking laws so that more and more guns are illegal, thereby increasing (not decreasing) the amount of so-called illegal weapons. Your are spot on that this change is extremely unlikely to prevent crime, but more likely to send some unknowing non-PA resident to prison over a technical violation.
I moved here from VA.I have my VA consealed permit. I lived in PA for 5 years, and now I can no longer consealed carry because of this tramp!!! What a waste of life. I value my dogs excrement more than Laughleen Lame.
Who not get a PA LTC?