Pennsylvania Back to School 2017

In Pennsylvania, what are the laws concerning guns and schools?



Guns in school in Pennsylvania is a hot-ticket item. I mean everyone has their opinion about it. I'm here to tell you what the law is.

So what we have to do when we talk about guns in schools, is we have to differentiate between two different types of schools. That's K through 12, both private, parochial and also public schools. That's one group, and then there's college, or post-secondary schools.

When it comes to college and post-secondary schools, they can make up their own policies when it comes to whether or not they want to have handguns or rifles or anything on campus. That is just that. It's just a policy. It isn't the law. The most that they can do is ask you to leave, and if you stay, then you can be hit with defiant trespass and it becomes a criminal case, but it is not per se against the law when it comes to campus carry. Meaning of course post-secondary education.

Now when it comes to K through 12, this is where it gets a little bit dicey and again I'm here to tell you what the law is, not what we want it to be.

There is a debate, and it is ongoing in Pennsylvania, about the ramifications of this case called Goslin. G-O-S-L-I-N if you want to Google it. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v Goslin had to deal with a guy who brought a knife, a pocketknife, into school when he was talking about his kid being expelled for bringing a similar type pocketknife into school, and the argument that was made, unsuccessfully at first, was that was not against the law, and then ultimately in what we call an "en banc," or more judges, decision that it was found to be lawful under those particular circumstances. Some lawyers and some district attorneys read that very broadly, and what that means is that it is okay if you have a license to carry a firearm.

If you carry a lawful weapon when you're dropping your kid off at school, or at a school-related activity, or even potentially at school with with a firearm, I highly, highly, highly recommend against it, for two basic reasons.

Number one, I think that's a really, really broad reading of that case, and as such, it is extremely dangerous because that original case had to do with the little pocketknife. We're talking about a handgun, or a rifle, or shotgun, that's going to be a different ball of wax.

Number two is no one wants to be that test case, because your name gets dragged through the mud and you take a lot of risk. So we recommend AGAINST bringing any sort of firearm at school, on school property, school-related activities that are held on school property.

So those are the things that we have to be very careful and very aware of when it comes to guns and K through 12. We recommend against it. In fact what I do when I drop off my daughter is I park my car across the street, and I walk her over to school, because I have guns in my truck, and on my person I leave the gun behind in the truck, and walk her across.

That's the law in Pennsylvania like it or not.