Trump administration launches investigation into Philadelphia gun permit denials

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The U.S. Department of Justice announced this week that they are investigating the city of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Police Department for canceling gun permits for what the DOJ calls “vague” reasons.

Currently, Pennsylvania state law allows local law enforcement agencies to issue, deny or cancel gun permits partly based on the “character and reputation” of the applicant.

In a letter to Mayor Cherelle Parker, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said they would look to determine whether the city is violating residents’ constitutional rights under the Second Amendment.

“Law-abiding Americans, regardless of where they live, should not have to worry that their city will revoke their means of self-defense,” he said in a statement.

Local proponents of gun ownership rights are applauding the decision.

“For many years, the Department of Justice was focused on vindicating many of the other rights that are embedded in the Bill of Rights and it is nice to see them finally paying attention to this very important right that matters a lot to a lot of Americans,” Jonathan Goldstein, who serves on the board of the National Rifle Association and is a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania law school said.

However, Adam Garber, CEO of CeaseFirePA, said he believes the federal government is using the investigation in an effort to remove all restrictions on gun ownership.

“The Department of Justice should be focusing on keeping communities safe, not going after law enforcement for taking actions to ensure that more violence doesn’t happen here in Philadelphia,” he said. “I think that they are looking for any excuse to weaken our most basic public safety protections.”

The Second Amendment

The Second Amendment to the U.S. The Constitution, ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, was written to protect “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” when Americans viewed an armed citizenry as an important safeguard against tyranny.

However, since then, the amendment’s meaning and scope have been the subject of significant legal and political debate. Supporters of expansive gun rights argue that it protects an individual’s right to own and carry firearms, while others contend that the amendment’s reference to a “well regulated Militia” gives the government broader authority to regulate firearms in the interest of public safety.

The U.S. Supreme Court appeared to rule in favor of the individual’s rights in its 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. In that case, a D.C. police officer sued the city after he was denied a license to keep a handgun at his home. In a 5-4 majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that “Nowhere else in the Constitution does a ‘right’ attributed to ‘the people’ refer to anything other than an individual right.”

However, the decision left the door open to some restrictions.

“Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited,” Scalia wrote. It is “not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”

In 2022, the Supreme Court struck down a New York law that required people to demonstrate a special need for self-defense before receiving a license to carry a handgun in public. The 6-3 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen held that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to carry a firearm outside the home for self-defense and directed courts to evaluate gun regulations based on the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation

The DOJ referenced those cases in its announcement of the investigation.

Pennsylvania restrictions

Philadelphia, like other local jurisdictions in the commonwealth, is generally prohibited from enacting its own local gun restrictions. The state of Pennsylvania has strict “preemption” laws, which give Harrisburg exclusive authority to regulate the ownership, sale and transfer of firearms.

Residents convicted of most violent felonies — such as murder, robbery or aggravated assault — are automatically disqualified from obtaining a license under state law, as are those with active restraining orders and those determined to have certain mental illnesses.

However, state license-to-carry law gives local governments broad discretion in approving permits, which they can refuse or cancel over questions about “character and reputation.”

Goldstein, who represents clients in Second Amendment cases, agrees that people convicted of violent crimes or who are found to be mentally ill should be disqualified, but, in those cases, he points out, a “third party” made the determination and that the “character” standard is “very, very subjective.”

“When that firearm gets pulled for highly subjective reasons… that starts to become very, very problematic from a constitutional standpoint,” he said. “We don’t want people mouthing off to police officers, but should you lose a core constitutional right over it?”

Garber disagrees, calling it “appropriate for the law enforcement community, the people that are here to keep us safe, to evaluate whether something is happening that is endangering public safety.”

Garber said law enforcement has a responsibility to weigh public safety concerns when evaluating applicants.

“At the core, what the law enforcement community is saying is [that] what these individuals were doing put public safety at risk,” he said. “The Department of Justice should focus on what their job is, which is keeping our community safe by enacting reasonable, proven, evidence-based, lifesaving laws.”

Garber argued that anyone who loses their gun permit under the “character” standard could legally appeal the decision.

“You have the Department of Justice stepping into a small, local matter that is about keeping communities safe rather than letting the local judicial process work its way out if people have concerns about their permits being revoked,” he said.

WHYY News also reached out to the mayor’s office, the city’s Law Department, and the Philadelphia Police Department, all of which declined comment.