By: Teresa Mull

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has quashed the Keystone State’s hopes of enacting Constitutional Carry legislation.

Constitutional Carry is a law that enables law-abiding citizens the ability to carry a firearm without first asking the government permission to exercise their Second Amendment rights. Dozens of states – especially recently – have passed these bills into law. Texas, a huge state with a high population, did so earlier this year.

“Wolf, a Democrat, called the bill ‘dangerous,'” according to the AP. “Wolf’s veto comes amid a tide of deadly gun violence in Philadelphia, the state’s largest city, and political finger-pointing over blame. Republicans said the bill would have made people safer.”

Indeed, states that have adopted Constitutional Carry (and there’s been a slew of them in recent years) have not experienced a surge in gun crime. In fact, the three safest states in the nation are all Constitutional Carry states. What’s more, after Arizona enacted Constitutional Carry years ago, the state saw the number of people seeking out gun safety classes soar.

Dr. Val Finnell, Pennsylvania Gun Owners of America director, told supporters in a message that Wolf’s veto means ‘battle lines [are] drawn for 2022 gubernatorial race.”

“Fortunately, Governor Wolf is term-limited and cannot run for re-election in 2022,” reports Finnell. “But there is an even more diabolically anti-gun person waiting to take his place, the current anti-gun Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Not only has Josh Shapiro come out against Constitutional Carry publicly, but he’s consistently taken aggressive anti-gun positions as Attorney General of Pennsylvania.”

Pennsylvania GOA is starting its quest now to elect a Republican governor:

“The primary elections will be extremely important for gun owners to select the best candidate to defeat Josh Shapiro. We’ll be endorsing the strongest pro-gun candidate early in the game to ensure that our next Governor signs Constitutional Carry and other pro-gun bills.”

For more information on Pennsylvania GOA’s work, click here.

Teresa Mull ([email protected]) is editor of Gunpowder Magazine.