Second Amendment supporters are watching as Pennsylvania lawmakers consider SB 357 and SB 822, Constitutional Carry and stronger statewide firearm preemption enforcement. IMG Jim Grant
Pennsylvania gun owners have two major Second Amendment bills moving in Harrisburg, and anti-gun cities should be paying attention.
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SB 357 would bring Constitutional Carry to Pennsylvania. SB 822 would put real enforcement behind statewide firearm preemption. One bill protects the right to carry without a government permission slip. The other puts financial consequences on local governments that keep trying to create illegal gun-control traps.
If SB 357 becomes law, Pennsylvania would become the 30th Constitutional Carry state, confirming what gun owners already know: permitless carry is not an outlier. It is the normal rule across most of America.
Pennsylvania Gun Rights, the state affiliate of the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), is now urging gun owners to contact key senators and push for SB 357 to pass the full Senate “with no anti-gun amendments.” Their action alert notes that Pennsylvania has fallen behind the 29 states that already have Constitutional Carry laws on the books and says Republicans need to hear from gun owners as the bill moves forward.
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SB 357: Constitutional Carry Moves To The Full Senate
SB 357, sponsored by Sen. Cris Dush, was reported out of the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee on May 6, 2026, by a 9–5 vote and received first consideration the same day. The bill has not passed the full Senate yet, which is why gun-rights groups are turning up the pressure now.
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The bill does more than clean up licensing language. It repeals provisions related to carrying firearms without a license and creates a new section titled “License not required.”
The heart of SB 357 is straightforward: a person in Pennsylvania who is not prohibited from possessing firearms under state or federal law would have an “affirmative, fundamental and constitutional right” to keep and bear firearms, including carrying openly or concealed, loaded or unloaded, without a Pennsylvania carry license. The bill also makes the License to Carry Firearms optional rather than mandatory.
That is how a constitutional right should be treated. A right does not become real only after a citizen pays a fee, fills out paperwork, and waits for government approval.
SB 357 also repeals Pennsylvania’s special Philadelphia carry restriction. Current law treats Philadelphia differently by restricting carry on public streets or public property unless the person is licensed or exempt. SB 357 would remove that city-specific trap and bring Philadelphia back under the same carry standard as the rest of the Commonwealth.
That change alone makes the bill worth fighting for. Gun owners should not become criminals because they crossed an invisible municipal line.
No Anti-Gun Amendments
The warning from Pennsylvania Gun Rights is the right one: pass SB 357 clean.
Gun-control lawmakers love amendments. They use them to turn strong bills into weak bills, delay bills until the clock runs out, or load them with new restrictions that defeat the purpose of the reform.
A Constitutional Carry bill should not become a vehicle for training mandates, new disqualifiers, expanded “sensitive place” restrictions, local carve-outs, or any other poison pill dressed up as a compromise.
Pennsylvania does not need watered-down carry reform. It needs real Constitutional Carry.