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The Pennsylvania Judicial Center

(File photo)

A Pennsylvania resident must have a state-issued permit to carry a concealed firearm in Pennsylvania and cannot use a similar permit issued by another state as a substitute, the state Superior Court has ruled.

"There is nothing optional with respect to whether a Pennsylvania license is required for a Pennsylvania resident who wants to carry a concealed weapon in Pennsylvania," Judge Jacqueline O. Shogan wrote in a decision handed down Tuesday.

The court issued its ruling in dismissing a State College-area man's challenge to the constitutionality of Pennsylvania's gun permit laws. Hobson L. McKown filed that challenge in appealing his 2011 conviction on a charge of carrying a firearm without a license.

He was arrested in September 2008 for trying to take a concealed pistol into a district judge's office.

McKown, whose Pennsylvania carry permit had been revoked several months before his arrest at the judge's office, claimed that he was still licensed to carry a concealed weapon at the time because he also had a carry permit issued by New Hampshire.

According to court records, McKown, 28, was arrested by State College police when he brought the pistol to the office of District Judge Jonathan Grine and at first refused to reply when a police officer asked him whether he was armed. McKown finally admitted that he had a loaded gun in his pocket.

His Pennsylvania carry permit had been revoked by Centre County Sheriff Denny Nau months before the incident at the district judge's office after McKown was accused of assaulting another person without provocation while he was drunk.

After his conviction in the gun case, a third-degree felony, McKown was sentenced to 2 years of probation, and all the weapons in his home were seized.

On appeal, McKown mounted not only the constitutional challenge, but argued that his conviction should have been graded as a lesser misdemeanor, that his sentencing hearing should have been closed to the public, and that authorities should not have seized his weapons that were not firearms.

He prevailed on just one point. The Superior Court ordered that two Airsoft plastic pellet pistols, two crossbows, four knives and 17 canisters of ammunition be returned to McKown. Court records show that 11 firearms also were taken from McKown's house.

McKown is running a write-in campaign for a Centre County district judge seat in next month's general election. In an online posting, he describes himself as a "constitutional and criminal law frontiersman."