The 1873 Convention to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution raised this very question as to whether the arms provision protected concealed carry as well as open carry. Delegates debated whether to add the word “openly” before “to bear arms.”[1] Delegate Ewing argued against this amendment asking “Have there not been repeated occasions within the past ten years when it has been unsafe for people to abroad in Philadelphia upon the public streets without carrying deadly weapons?”[2]
Delegate Dallas arguing for the addition of “openly”
responded that “the purpose of such laws is not to prevent peaceable citizens
from protecting themselves from the superior muscular power of ruffians, but to
prevent the ruffians from arming themselves against peaceable citizens.”[3] The final vote on whether to add “openly”
which would both guaranteed a right to open carry and justified legislative prohibition
of concealed carry was 54-23.[4] The Convention chose to leave both open and
concealed carry constitutionally protected.
[1] 7 Debates of the Convention to Amend the Const. of Penn.
258 (1873).
[2]
7 Debates of the Convention to Amend the Const.
of Penn. 260 (1873).
[3]
7 Debates of the Convention to Amend the Const.
of Penn. 260, 261 (1873).
[4]
7 Debates of the Convention to Amend the Const.
of Penn. 261 (1873).
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