Second Amendment Blog
If you ever go on a tour of Philadelphia …
Posted by: Sebastian on 
Feb 26th, 2008 | 
Filed under: Philadelphia
… you might not want to believe some of the things you hear from tour guides. The tours at Independence Hall that are guided by the park rangers have tended to be pretty good. Some rangers are far better at doing the tour than others. It’s about half scripted, and half whatever the ranger feels like talking about that day.
No carrying in the building that The Constitution was signed in, and the Second Amendment was ratified. Even if we fix the National Park carry ban, it’s still a federal facility, so 930(a) applies. I’ll have to be happy to have carried in the room the second amendment was likely first drafted in.
February 26th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
That George Washington/Abe Lincoln thing is so easy to disprove. Washington died 10 years before Lincoln was born.
Only an idiot tour guide would tell that lie.
February 26th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
So that thing about Washington boning Betsy Ross wasn’t true???
February 27th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Doesn’t D(3) cover other lawful purposes = carrying for ones own safety? ’self-defense’ is what is on my id card… that’s a lawful purpose…
February 27th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Maybe. You want to volunteer to be the test case? :)
February 27th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Still hasn’t happened yet I take it. I’ve seriously thought about it (have considerable amount of resources/would be able to get support from various groups, clean civil background, well documented/trained, etc)… because I’d rather it be a person like me than Unkeptnik Joe who carries his pistol in his pocket with an expired ccw or worse. =\
February 27th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
No… there’s a process that has to be gone through in order to make a change to the Code of Federal regulations. There will be a public comment period beginning in April.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Well, if lawful purposes includes carrying a concealed weapon/licensed/noncriminal, it’s fine the way it is. ?
February 27th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
“No carrying in the building that The Constitution was signed in”
Oops. They can’t arrest you after the fact, with no evidence, can they?
That’s a hypothetical question, you understand.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Concealed means concealed. But in reality, when I went into the courthouse, there were metal detectors and whatnot. Now I *thought* there was also a law/provision for a safe place to store/temporarily surrender your firearm upon entry and you could pick it up.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:49 am
There is. Courthouses in PA are required to allow you to check your firearms. Most will send you over to the sheriff’s office, and the deputies will keep it for you during your time in court.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:55 am
What about other federal buildings? If I go on a tour this spring with my girl I don’t want to have to walk back to the car and cause a fuss. No problem if it would be like the courthouse scenario.
February 28th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Any federal facility. It could be argued this applies to an outhouse in a National Park. As far as I know, there’s not much case law here.
February 28th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Okay, so barring the outhouse facility, they ‘must’ have a way to accomodate my firearm?
February 28th, 2008 at 10:36 am
According to state law, yes. The feds have no such requirement, and the supremacy clause prevents Pennsylvania from forcing it on federal facilities.
February 28th, 2008 at 11:38 am
No metal detectors or pat downs when we went to Independence Hall, and nobody said anything about firearms.
February 28th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Is that where the liberty bell is? That would be the bees knees as they say. =)
February 28th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Naw, the Liberty Bell is in its own museum-like structure just across the street. The Liberty Bell was one of those, “Eh, I’ve seen it now” things. Independence Hall was pretty remarkable.
February 28th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
10-4. Thank you Prof
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