Josh Shapiro

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I Guess He’s Still Mad About Gettysburg

April 19, 2018 by 1 Comment

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D-PA) announced the completion of a review of concealed carry reciprocity agreements that the commonwealth has with other states. According to his release, Pennsylvania now recognizes the carry permits of 29 other states which is up one from before the review. Conversely, the number of states recognizing the Pennsylvania permit remains at 32.

Shapiro announced a tool on his website that allows you to check whether your permit is good in Pennsylvania or whether your Pennsylvania permit is good in other states. All you need to do is click on the outline of the state in question to find out the reciprocity status. I did this for all the states bordering Pennsylvania and it was quite interesting. The border states with the strictest gun control – Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York – have no reciprocity with Pennsylvania in either direction. However, both Ohio and West Virginia which are much more gun friendly have complete reciprocity with the commonwealth.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, Pennsylvania now recognizes the carry permits of 29 states. From the release on the additions and one subtraction.

Pennsylvania has entered into updated reciprocity agreements with 13 states to guarantee uniformity and consistency with the Pennsylvania Uniform Firearms Act, the state law governing the process. The Commonwealth has added two recognized states – Idaho and Alabama – and will remove one state, Virginia, after 30-days’ written notice, because its background check requirements are weaker than Pennsylvania’s.

Shapiro, though a native of Missouri, must think it incumbent upon himself to keep armed Virginians out of Pennsylvania. I guess he’s still mad about what happened during those three days in July 1863 when Bobby Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia came to visit.

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Bloomberg Buying Another Attorney General For Pennsylvania?

October 5, 2016 by 1 Comment

Michael Bloomberg’s first attempt at buying an Attorney General for Pennsylvania didn’t end too well. As most know, his investment in former AG Kathleen Kane was for naught as she had to resign her office in disgrace.

However, like any good investor Bloomberg is resilient. He knows that if one investment doesn’t pay off you cut your losses and look for a better one. His new investment is named Josh Shapiro. Mr. Shapiro is a former Pennsylvania State Representative and is the current chairman of the Montgomery County (PA) Board of Commissioners. Shapiro is the Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Pennsylvania.

“Gun violence” (sic) is one of the items on Mr. Shapiro’s agenda.

“The horrific violence perpetrated against victims in every corner of our Commonwealth makes clear that we must do more to combat gun violence. Gun trafficking, straw purchases, and gray market gun sales threaten us all by putting weapons in the hands of dangerous people. As Attorney General, I will aggressively pursue the sources of these illegal guns and work with police and prosecutors across Pennsylvania to reduce gun violence.” – Josh Shapiro

  • Beef up and expand the Gun Violence Task Force beyond Philadelphia’s borders.
  • Establish and implement model gun show procedures.
  • Prosecute prohibited purchasers who fail background checks.
  • Review concealed carry permit reciprocity agreements.
  • Increase awareness of laws against straw purchasing and simplify purchase forms.
  • Expand background checks to cover private sales of long guns.
  • Advocate for a statewide lost or stolen gun reporting requirement.

 You may wonder why in a state with over 1 million hunters that a candidate for attorney general would think gun control is a winning platform. Perhaps it is because he has 250,000 reasons to be for gun control.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Democratic Attorney General candidate Josh Shapiro may favor a number of gun-control initiatives, but he doesn’t lack for political ammunition. According to campaign-finance reports released last week, he received an eye-popping $250,000 donation from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a leading proponent of more expansive gun-control measures nationwide.


That Aug. 1 contribution accounted for more than 9 cents of every dollar raised by Mr. Shapiro and his rival, state Sen. John Rafferty, R-Montgomery, this summer.

 The NRA-PVF has rated Sen. Rafferty as an A- and given him their endorsement. Meanwhile, Shapiro was lucky to get a D instead of a F.

While anti-gun attorneys general do not make the law, how they carry it out sets policy. You can see that in the past month with the way Massachusetts AG Maura Healy has redefined what qualifies as an “assault weapon” in that state making thousands of gun owners potential felons. Moreover, carry reciprocity agreements have been negated by both former Pennsylvania AG Kane and by current Virginia AG Mark Herring. While Herring’s attempt was overthrown by legislation, I don’t recall that Kane’s move has been.

I have seen reader polls putting Rafferty ahead of Shapiro in this race but I don’t put much faith in them. With Hillary leading Trump in the state and Pat Toomey (RINO-PA) dead even with Katie McGinty (D-PA), down ticket races like this will be impacted. I hope for my friends in Pennsylvania that Rafferty can pull this one out.