PA Bill Number: HB150
Title: In sentencing, repealing provisions relating to transfer of inmates in need of medical treatment and providing for modification of an imposed term of ...
Description: In sentencing, repealing provisions relating to transfer of inmates in need of medical treatment and providing for modification of an imposed term ...
Last Action: Re-committed to APPROPRIATIONS
Last Action Date: Jul 1, 2025
Monumental Decision: PA Supreme Court - Hicks - Is Carrying a Firearm Reasonable Suspicion of a Crime
Date: 05/31/2019
Today the PA Supreme Court issued a MONUMENTAL Decision 'stopping' the Commonwealth from pushing the notion that a 'police officer' is JUSTIFIED to investigatively detain a citizen IF a firearm is just seen!
In Hicks vs. Commonwealth, YOUR right to carry openly or concealed was at risk because the element at heart was "whether the mere open carrying of a firearm constitutes reasonable suspicion of a crime." The PA Supreme Court said emphatically NO!
Attorney Josh Prince filed an Amicus Brief on behalf of Members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, Firearm Owners Against Crime (FOAC), Firearm Policy Coalition, and Firearm Policy Foundation in support of Mr. Hicks and arguing, after conducting a 50 state and federal survey that the mere open carrying of a firearm does not constitute reasonable suspicion.
Justice Wecht, writing for the majority, declared that the Superior Court has consistently applied the "inverse of the bedrock rule" that an officer must have reasonable suspicion to stop and frisk an individual by holding that "possession of a concealed firearm by an individual in public is sufficient to create a reasonable suspicion that the individual may be dangerous, such that an officer can approach the individual and briefly detain him in order to investigate whether the person is properly licensed." As Mr. Hicks was stopped solely because a city camera saw him carrying a firearm, the Court held that "there being no other lawful basis for the seizure at issue," the Superior Court's decision affirming his conviction for DUI had to be reversed.
