Should you be traveling or moving between Pennsylvania and Indiana, you might find this useful. Firearms regulations in Indiana and Pennsylvania are very similiar, but there are a few differences.
De facto gun registration
Indiana has none. Period. Pennsylvania does (the state supremes ruled that it wasn’t gun registration because it wasn’t called gun registration). If you buy a gun in Pennsylvania, it goes into a database. That’s why I haven’t bought a gun here (it’s not like I didn’t already have quite a few).
License requirements
Pennsylvania can require references, which Indiana does not. If you have a gun-friendly sheriff in Pennsylvania, it shouldn’t take more than 15 or 20 minutes to get your license. Less gun-friendly sheriffs are likely to require references and make you wait, but Pennsylvania is a shall-issue state, so if you pass the check, you get your LCTF. You must be 21 in Pennsylvania to get an LCTF. (You can get your photo put on it for an additional fee.)
Indiana is a bit more complicated, because the local sheriff fingerprints you and does an initial check, then the State Police do the check and issue the CHL (if you live in an incorporated community, you’ll probably go to the police station, not the sheriff’s office). In Indiana, you can either get a four-year CHL or a lifetime CHL (only the fees are different). Here is the procedure for either:
- Go to the sheriff’s office or local police station with your Indiana DL, and tell them you want to apply for a CHL. They’ll give you a half-page application to fill out; there are two boxes, Target/Hunting and Personal Protection. If they didn’t check Personal Protection, do it when you fill it out.
- They will take your application and fingerprint you, then tell you to come back, usually in a week. They may ask you for the ten-dollar fee then, or when you return (fifty dollars if you are applying for a lifetime CHL). Cash or money order only.
- When you go back, they will give you your application with a large envelope addressed to the State Police firearms division. Drop it in the mail, along with a thirty-dollar money order (seventy-five dollars for a lifetime CHL).
- In 4-12 weeks, you will receive a letter from the Indiana State Police, printed on pink paper. Cut out the CHL, and take it to Kinko’s to be laminated.
You must be 18 (not 21) in Indiana to have a CHL.
Recognition of other states’ licenses
Indiana recognizes all states’ gun licenses, which leads to some problems for Hoosiers. The Indiana AG does not actively pursue legal reciprocity agreements with other states (and why would you, if you recongized all fifty), so relatively few states recognize an Indiana license. Pennsylvania recognizes licenses from fourteen other states (New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Alaska).
Warning: If you are traveling to the area known as the Region, just across the state line from Chicago (Gary, East Chicago, etc.), know that the law enforcement in the area is not at all gun friendly, no matter what state law may say. Be low key.
Vehicle carry
Indiana prohibits carrying firearms in a vehicle without a license (this has no exceptions, not even from the gun store back to your home, although you do not need a license to keep firearms on your own property–if you buy a gun in Indiana and do not have a CHL, follow federal transportation regulations). However, Indiana has no restrictions on whether the gun is loaded, whether it is in the open or concealed, or where it may be kept. Pennsylvania also does not restrict how you may carry in a vehicle, and requires a license to carry in the vehicle, but unlike Indiana, has a whole list of exceptions (see the state info page on packing.org).
Neither Indiana nor Pennsylvania requires you to tell a law enforcement officer that you are armed.
Open carry
Indiana issues a LCH/CHL (license to carry a handgun), not a concealed-carry license. Concealed, open, you have to have a license, but open carry is legal in Indiana (just not necessarily advisable). Pennsylvania issues a LTCF (license to carry firearms), but it’s reallly a concealed-carry license, since you require no license to open carry in Pennsylvania (except for Philadelphia). You must, however, have a license to carry in your vehicle.
Private sales
Indiana requires no check for private sales. Pennsylvania does.
Cultural climate
In Indiana, the Region is a gun-hostile area in an otherwise extremely gun-friendly state; I have never heard reports of Indianapolis being gun-hostile, and have never had any trouble there. Pennsylvania is also a very gun-friendly state, other than Philadelphia, and I understand Pittsburgh (the interim Sheriff there, from what I’ve read on the packing.org forums, is not gun-friendly, though Allegheny County is historically one of the most gun-friendly areas in the state). Despite the interim Sheriff’s attitude toward the Second Amendment, Pittsburgh is not nearly as gun-hostile as Philadelphia. From what I’ve been told, if you carry in Philly, be very low key. The biggest issue in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) seems to be that the interim Sheriff makes applicants wait 45 days instead of issuing LTCFs on the day of application.
I have never seen a NO FIREARMS sign anywhere in the state of Indiana. Note that you do see them at every rest area in Ohio (though not Pennsylvania). I have seen NO FIREARMS signs on a couple of businesses here.
Indiana is a Castle Doctrine state (you are not required by law to retreat before using deadly force). Pennsylvania is not. If your firearm is stolen, then used in a crime, you cannot be sued or charged in the state of Indiana. You can be in Pennsylvania. Not even in the Region do Indiana prosecutors try to charge you in clear cases of self-defense. The only such stories I’ve seen here in Pennsylvania are in Philadelphia (and only a couple since we’ve moved here); other than those, Pennsylvania prosecutors do not try to bring charges in clear cases of self-defense. In Indiana, an employer is prohibited from banning guns in the parking lot. In Pennsylvania, this is not the case.
Red areas on the maps below indicate not-so-gun-friendly counties in both states.
Finally, Ohio recognizes neither Indiana nor Pennsylvania licenses, so follow federal transportation regulations when driving between Indiana and Pennsylvania. And note that on I-70 all the way across Ohio, there are often speed traps, and the State Police will stop you for going even five mph over the speed limit. I’ve made the trip several times now, and half the time, they are everywhere–I was also stopped once, for going only five mph over (he just verbally warned me). Beware. I would probably not volunteer that I had firearms in the car to an Ohio police officer, unless for whatever reason, he would find out on his own. Follow federal regulations.
Robert says:
Thanks for this informative post. We’ve been thinking about getting a gun for the house ever since the aftermath of Katrina. After the VT shootings, I tried to do some research on Indiana gun laws and it’s pretty hard to find out what the rules are unless you pretty much know what they are already.
Do you know of any VT-like exceptions to state gun laws — that is, places like university campuses that are isolated pockets of gun control — in Indiana or Pennsylvania?
May 20, 2007, 8:31 amrightwingprof says:
The best place to get state law information (for all fifty states) is at packing.org. The following are off-limits in Indiana:
In or On School Property.
On A School Bus.
In or On Property That Is Being Used By A School For A School Function.
Private School (IC 20-9.1-1-3) & (IC 35-41-1-24.7).
Head Start (IC 35-41-1-24.7
Preschool (IC 35-41-1-24.7).
IC 35-47-9-1 Allows the carry of firearms by persons permitted to possess and who are transporting a person to or from school or a school function.
On an Aircraft.
Controlled Access Areas Of An Airport
A Riverboat Casino.
During Annual State Fair 80 IAC 4-4-4 (Must lock in Vehicle.)
Shipping Port 130 IAC 4-1-8 (Controlled by the Indiana Port Commission)
Casinos are required by law to provide secure storage for your firearm (which is probably safer than leaving it in your car, always a bad idea). As for university campus policies, I’m no attorney, but from my reading of state law, I suspect if they were challenged in court, they would be stricken down. Indiana state law specifically prohibits “units” from passing additional gun control restrictions–it would revolve around whether a university was a “unit” or not. IU had no such ban until (guess who?) Myles Brand, who also forced the local range twenty miles from town, shut down the indoor range at the student union, the rifle team, and all marksmanship courses.
May 20, 2007, 9:04 amJeffrey Quick says:
And then too, it would depend on whether the university was public or private. At Case, we’re screwed.
Sorry about Ohio. You might have caught the case of Jeffrey “Hunter” Jordan, several years back, who was stopped about a week before we got CCW here. The Staties and press made him sound more dangerous than ObL…all because he forgot to remove his concealed piece at the state line.
May 20, 2007, 9:12 pmjimmyb says:
The Ohio State Highway Patrol are kind of pricks, as you have noted.
May 21, 2007, 6:08 pmHowever, they are NOT state police like Indiana has. They are highway cops.
Sherriffs handle the crime stuff, although the SHP tried to become the state police a few years ago, but it didn’t happen.
jimmyb says:
Ohio doesn’t recognize IN carry because there is no training requirement there, and there is in Ohio.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol are not very friendly at all, as you have noted, but they are NOT state police, like Indiana has.
The are what their name implies; highway cops.
Sherriffs and local PD’s do the crime stuff.
The HP tried to become state police a few years ago, but the voters didn’t like the idea (imagine that).
May 21, 2007, 6:12 pmjimmyb says:
Ooops.
May 21, 2007, 6:16 pmSorry for the double post.
Stupid computers….
Dave says:
Wow, very good post.
This issue about handgun policies on Indiana campuses is very frustrating to me. I’m a student at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and have a lifetime Indiana handgun permit. I want to be able to carry my firearm (legally) onto campus like anywhere else in town or in the state. I hope the issue does get challenged in court because it is ridiculous—-even dangerous if you ask me. I know that one state’s supreme court struck down its universities’ policies against carrying on campus (I think the state was Idaho but I could be wrong). In that state, universities and colleges are legally forbidden from banning guns on campus. As you might immagine, there have been no shootings in that state since the law was enacted. Simple game theory economics.
January 18, 2008, 10:38 amrightwingprof says:
I think the state that struck down university gun restrictions was Utah. You might be interested to know that IU’s gun ban applies only to staff and students, but not to faculty. The trustees would not rubber stamp it otherwise.
January 18, 2008, 12:05 pm