"You will be arrested."- MONTCO Sheriff's Dept.

[emsjeep]

I am a resident of New York State. I have a permit from New York State. As I was not in Pennsylvaina at the time I wanted to apply I did the mail order process through the Centre County Sheriff's Office and received my Pennsylvania License to Carry Firearms with my New York address and all the other pertinent information.
Problem: The card is big and laminated. As I spend time in Montgomery County PA who issues a nice looking Driver Lic. style LTC, I called and asked if I could pay the fee and have my permit reissued from Montgomery County as one of the easier to carry licenses.
Response: Montgomery County and the State of Pennsylvania do not issue non-resident LTC Permits. The Centre County Sheriff was mistaken when he issued that to you. Rip it up and never use it. If you carry a firearm in this county with your illegitimate LTC you will be arrested.
I said, "Ok, thank you, have a nice day and its a good thing I called."

Then I called the Centre County Sheriff's Office and spoke directly to Sheriff Denny Nau (nice guy by the way). He says that even though Montgomery County may not issue PA LTCs to non-residents he does and if he issues a license it is good throughout the state of PA regardless of whether the local county Sheriff wishes to issue non-resident permits or not.

At this point I don't think I will ever want to carry in Montgomery County, and as I spend most of my time in Montgomery County, I won't ever carry in PA...I really don't need to get arrested. Would perhaps a letter of clarification from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Dept. be of some use so that I can carry that around if/when I want to carry here to avoid being arrested? Please help me out on this one...I'm sort of upset.
Thanks.

[dgg9]

Send a letter to the PS state AG and request clarification. Carry a printout of the letter with you when you CCW in PA.

Barring that, have a good lawyer queued up and sue them if arrested.

[c.sander]

the montco sheriff you spoke to is mistaken and ignorant of pa law.. a LTCF issued by any county is good state wide... and any county may issue out of state licenses whether or not the sheriff chooses to is a different story...dont worry about carrying as long as you have your LTCF and you could do the sheriff one better and Open Carry your sidearm which does NOT require a license outside of a vehicle (except for inside philadelphia city limits)

[emsjeep]

Unfortunately ignorance of the law is enough to arrest me...I would rather avoid that whole issue.

[Ramtuff]

Pay no mind to that asshat of a Sheriff. Unless you go to the court house, you're very, very unlikely to ever run into the Sheriff or his deputies anyway. If you get stopped, it'll be by a local police agency or the State Police, and I doubt any of them are dumb enough to arrest you for carrying on a PA non-resident license. I doubt the Montco Sheriff is really that dumb...sounds like he just wants to limit those who carry and is trying to scare you.

[emsjeep]

It was some Deputy answering the phones, what does he care? You think the Sheriff's Office puts that message out there intentionally? I thought these guys were on the good guy's side, seems like Sheriff Nau was...I was scared btw...

[jtkratzer]

Unfortunately ignorance of the law is enough to arrest me...I would rather avoid that whole issue.

This is part of the problem. If we do not exercise our rights for fear of illegitimate punishment, we have effectively succumbed to their pressures and forfeited our rights.

[knight0334]

ah come on.... carry there and let them arrest you.. It'd be like winning the PowerBall.


As others have stated, your nonresident license is good throughout the state despite what the Montco Sheriff said.

[Asterix909]

Problem: The card is big and laminated. As I spend time in Montgomery County PA who issues a nice looking Driver Lic. style LTC,

huh?
I got my ltcf in centre county from Nau and it is smaller than a driver license... are you sure you arn't carrying the 'take home paper version'?
it is my understanding they are all identical...

[mjf]

First off, I think that deputy you spoke to was probably "one of a kind"... I'd bet that most LEO's, upon validating you have a LTCF, will let you go.... Silly sheriffs department.