Can Pa. stores keep you out if you openly carry a gun? (2024)

People have the right to openly carry firearms in Pennsylvania — but not into private stores and business that don’t want the guns inside.

Those businesses have the right to ask customers openly carrying guns to leave or, if they refuse, have them arrested or banned.

After a gunman opened fire in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Aug. 3 and killed 22 people, several national retailers announced they no longer would allow guns in their stores. Among the retailers who have said they want their customers to leave their guns at home were Walmart, Target and Wegmans.

Last weekend, gun owner Ryan Flohr brought his gun to a Giant Food Store in East Manchester Township, as he’d done on past visits. But this time police were called to investigate and the store was evacuated.

"I wasn’t aware I wasn’t permitted to open carry at the store because there were no signs saying I couldn’t,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

Flohr said Northeastern Regional Police officers who responded to the Giant on Glen Drive treated him respectfully. The department’s chief couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.

When police arrived, they approached the Dover man, asked him to put his hands up and asked him if they could take his gun, Flohr explained in his Facebook post. He complied.

"The officers told me it’s my Second Amendment right to open or conceal carry and that I broke no laws,” wrote Flohr, of Dover. "He told me the way the world is now to maybe not open carry this gun only because it just takes one person to call and complain that will cause more inconvenience in my life than theirs. The police were respectful and so was I.”

• Related: Central Pa. Giant evacuates customers after man with gun enters store
• Related: CVS, Wegmans and Walgreens no longer allow patrons to openly carry guns in stores

By law, gun owners can’t open-carry firearms in Pennsylvania courthouses and prisons, said state police spokeswoman Trooper Megan Frazer.

But owners of businesses can choose whether to allow guns inside their establishments. "A private business still has a right to deny a person,” Frazer explained. "As law enforcement, we want to make sure the individual owns the firearm legally.”

If a person works with law enforcement, as Flohr did in the East Manchester Township situation, there is no reason to charge them with crime, Frazer said. But if the person is not cooperating with law enforcement and the situation escalates, it could turn into a criminal case, leading to arrest.

The person carrying the firearm could face disorderly conduct or trespassing charges, depending on how far the business wants to press the matter.

If the same person tried to bring their gun to the store again, they could be banned.

"The store could file for a certified letter with the magistrate’s office for no trespassing,” Frazer said. "Then we can take police action and charge them with defiant trespassing. We’re just going to do what the law says and enforce the law.”

Frazer continued: "We’re not recommending carrying a large gun. Can you? Yes. But there’s a perception issue and unfortunately, with everything going on in the world with shootings and active shooter events, we’re telling people perception can get you into trouble.”

Frazer said she was familiar with what happened at the Giant in York County Sunday, and doesn’t know of any similar incidents that have occurred in Pennsylvania recently.

"He didn’t do anything wrong, technically,” Frazer said. “Perception may have been bad, but he wasn’t cited.”

Several companies, such as CVS and Wegmans, have asked their customers not to open carry in their stores, but have not banned open carry outright, according to The New York Times.

Giant couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday. About a week ago, the supermarket said on social media that it endorses a no-open-carry policy.

“We respectfully request that customers not bring firearms in our stores even if permitted by applicable state and local laws,” the company tweeted.

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