Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Back in May, we covered the unusual case of five members of Philadelphia’s Black Lion Party for International Solidarity losing their concealed carry permits after a tense confrontation with police. At the time, the group argued the city was using Pennsylvania’s vague “good cause” standard to punish them for exercising their First and Second Amendment rights.
Now, the U.S. Department of Justice is officially taking a closer look. And that’s what makes this story much bigger than a dispute involving one activist group.
In June, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division announced it had opened an investigation into whether the Philadelphia Police Department improperly uses the city’s “good cause” standard to revoke licenses to carry firearms.
According to the department, the investigation will focus on whether officials are relying on vague, discretionary standards that violate the Second Amendment. The DOJ also made clear that its investigation “does not support any armed obstruction of federal or local law enforcement.”
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I have directed the Civil Rights Division, through our Second Amendment Section, to defend law-abiding citizens from local authorities who infringe the right to safely carry legal firearms,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in announcing the investigation. “Law-abiding Americans, regardless of where they live, should not have to worry that their city will revoke their means of self-defense.”
The investigation stems from a January confrontation between members of the Black Lion Party and Philadelphia police officers. Video obtained by 6ABC shows armed members of the group and officers engaged in a heated verbal exchange in North Philadelphia. No shots were fired and no arrests were made, but five members of the group later received notices revoking their licenses to carry firearms.
According to Philadelphia police, the permits were revoked under Pennsylvania’s “good cause” standard, citing concerns over public safety and the permit holders’ “character and reputation.”
That’s exactly what has drawn the DOJ’s attention.
SEE ALSO: Black Lion Party Fighting Philadelphia After Gun Permits Were Revoked
In its announcement, the department pointed to the Supreme Court’s decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, arguing that government officials cannot rely on broad personal discretion when deciding who may exercise a constitutional right.
Civil rights attorney Paul Hoetzenecker, who spoke with 6ABC but is not representing the Black Lion Party members, said the case extends beyond the Second Amendment.
“Ultimately, the paramount issue here is First Amendment rights,” Hoetzenecker said. He argued that the permitting process should not be used to suppress a political viewpoint.
Whether people agree with the Black Lion Party’s tactics is almost beside the point. The DOJ’s investigation isn’t about whether citizens should conduct armed neighborhood patrols. It’s about whether government officials can revoke a carry permit using broad, subjective standards rather than objective legal criteria.
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If federal investigators conclude Philadelphia has established a pattern of violating constitutional rights, the Justice Department says it will first seek voluntary changes. If those efforts fail, litigation could follow.
Whatever happens next, this case has evolved well beyond one confrontation on a Philadelphia street. It could become another important test of how far local governments can go when deciding who gets to exercise their 2A rights.
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is a seasoned outdoorsman, lifelong hunter, and the kind of guy who’d rather track whitetails than scroll social media. As an editor for GunsAmerica, he’s got a sharp eye for spotting both solid gear and bad gun laws. Whether he’s deep in the woods or deep in editorial deadlines, Larry brings a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is approach to firearms, hunting, and the great American tradition of self-reliance. If there’s a hot debate on gun rights or the latest in hunting tech, you can bet Larry’s got an opinion—and it’s probably backed up with both facts and field experience.
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These are NOT responsible gun owners. Their stated mission includes violating the law. DO NOT allow radicals like these OR gun control whack jobs to goad you into defending their actions or 2A rights. That’s to the detriment of us all. I would say the same regarding any radical white group saying the same thing (KKK, idiotic “Sovereign” nuts).
Who cares… It’s just another far left criminal black group complaining about injustice. The same people who voted for their mayor who made the concealed carry permits difficult to get. And still not smart enough to figure out how to vote.
I visit many times in the Philadelphia area and the town itself. Travel in Pa with a permit. Would like a permit to carry in Philadelphia. How is one to obtain a permit to carry in Philadelphia and be legal?
Philadelphia cannot mandate concealed carry laws that are permitted by the state. So if you live outside of Philadelphia County, just apply for a concealed carry permit in another county. If you are an out of stater and have a permit for your state, check the reciprocity laws with Pennsylvania.
To o rain a permit to carry in PA, you need to live in the county you apply for your permit in.
Don’t know about out of state.
The BLP’s own stated mission is to “protect the public from criminals, the police, and federal immigration agents.”
What’s the BLP track record?
How many criminals have been brought to justice by the BLP?
How has the public been protected by BLP from the police and/or federal immigration agents?
Herr Hauptmann Kane you never miss a chance to attack Black People but if they had been White and called the White Lions you would be screaming that their 2nd Amendment rights had been violated. And would have signed the bottom of your post with Sieg Heil!!!!!
Pretty sure from past reading, after the GA ran an article on BLP, there is an affiliated group calling itself “White Lions.” Same standards would apply that are listed in the op.
Here’s just one other example of how stupid you are dacian. There is all sorts of in fighting with the BLP. Paul Birdsong, oh wait, you don’t know Paul or any of the other players despite how easy it check the details. I will share a little fact with a you since you are a lost lazy fool. Paul was accused by “Mike Africa” from MOVE of having “sex-offender charge” on the books.
BPP chairman Aaron Dixon is distancing himself from Paul. Now there are rumors that Paul is an seems “op.”
I’m sure this is all over your head.
Like I said last time the BLP, (Most likely this group will accomplish nothing worth note, and a few will check out like Huey Newton.)
quote—————Pretty sure from past reading, after the GA ran an article on BLP, there is an affiliated group calling itself “White Lions.” Same standards would apply that are listed in the op.———quote
Another one of your bold face lies. I have never seen you once attack your Far Right Stormtroopers or admit when they commit crimes but you never miss a chance to attack Black People even to go so far and tell bold face lies about them. When in Portland Oregon the Proud Boys were caught posing as Black Lives Matter and trashing a town they were caught, arrested and exposed by none other than the FBI and when I confronted you with this you denied it and made all kinds of excuses for them.
OK, so you have no problem with me pointing out that there is much internal conflict with the BLP such as Mike Africa claiming that founding member Paul Birdsong was facing a “sex offender charge. You might have even read that Myeshia Newton (Huey’s niece) is suing BLP, you probably never even heard of Huey. It’s NOT me that suspected Birdsong of being a “CIA Operative.” It wasn’t me that said Aaron Dixon said resisting ICE “isn’t our fight.” None of that’s my fight either.
I never of that alleged Portland event. Provide the proof that you claim to have on me dacian.
You lose again dacian.
Someone loves the BBC
Hey Herr Hauptmann Kane,
How to you like the sky high gas prices under Herr Drumpf.
How to you like the high food prices now.
How do you like the high consumer prices because of Herr Drumpf’s idiotic latest tariffs.
How do you like the fact that the idiot Herr Drumpf tore up the Obama/Kerry peace treaty with the Iranians that allowed the U.S. to conduct “on site” inspections of their Nuclear Program. Now we have no treaty and no access to their Nuclear Program.
How do you like the fact that Herr Drumpf has spent trillions on an endless war we cannot win which is driving up the National Debt to the highest it has ever been in U.S. History compared to Clinton who actually balanced the budget during his Presidency.
How do you like the fact the Herr Drumpf and Herr Hauptmann Hegseth are now classed as War Criminals by breaking international laws at sea and machine gunning and murdering survivors clinging to boat wreckage at sea and killing the rest without trial.
How do you like the fact that Herr Drumpf did not install the true winner of the Presidential race Edmundo González in Venezuela and left the criminals there still in power simply because they cut a oil deal with him.
How do you like the fact that Herr Drumpf is still talking about attacking NATO member Greenland/Demark and invading and enslaving it? Shades of Hitlers invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland.
How do you like the fact that Herr Drumpf has said he will run for a 3rd term when the Constitution forbids it? Shades of Hitler destroying democracy in Germany.
How do you like the fact that Herr Drumpf is trying to disenfranchise millions of U.S. voters in the upcoming November elections. Shades of Adolf Hitler’s illegal rise to a dictatorship.
How do you like the fact that Herr Drumpf’s criminal Republicans took away the Obama Care extensions health coverage from 330 million Americans while giving billions in tax breaks to Billionaires.
Glazed eyed Maga Mania Morons (who you are a star poster boy for) has fallen to a new low and Herr Drumpf now has only a 33% approval rating. Try and lie your way out of that fact Herr Hauptmann Kane.
snicker
:^)
dacian July 30, 2026, 7:57 pm
Hey Herr Hauptmann Kane,
How to you like the sky high gas prices under Herr Drumpf.
How to you like the high food prices now.
How do you like the high consumer prices because of Herr Drumpf’s idiotic latest tariffs.
How do you like the fact that the idiot Herr Drumpf tore up the Obama/Kerry peace treaty with the Iranians that allowed the U.S. to conduct “on site” inspections of their Nuclear Program. Now we have no treaty and no access to their Nuclear Program.
How do you like the fact that Herr Drumpf has spent trillions on an endless war we cannot win which is driving up the National Debt to the highest it has ever been in U.S. History compared to Clinton who actually balanced the budget during his Presidency.
How do you like the fact the Herr Drumpf and Herr Hauptmann Hegseth are now classed as War Criminals by breaking international laws at sea and machine gunning and murdering survivors clinging to boat wreckage at sea and killing the rest without trial.
How do you like the fact that Herr Drumpf did not install the true winner of the Presidential race Edmundo González in Venezuela and left the criminals there still in power simply because they cut a oil deal with him.
How do you like the fact that Herr Drumpf is still talking about attacking NATO member Greenland/Demark and invading and enslaving it? Shades of Hitlers invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland.
How do you like the fact that Herr Drumpf has said he will run for a 3rd term when the Constitution forbids it? Shades of Hitler destroying democracy in Germany.
How do you like the fact that Herr Drumpf is trying to disenfranchise millions of U.S. voters in the upcoming November elections. Shades of Adolf Hitler’s illegal rise to a dictatorship.
How do you like the fact that Herr Drumpf’s criminal Republicans took away the Obama Care extensions health coverage from 330 million Americans while giving billions in tax breaks to Billionaires.
Glazed eyed Maga Mania Morons (who you are a star poster boy for) has fallen to a new low and Herr Drumpf now has only a 33% approval rating. Try and lie your way out of that fact Herr Hauptmann Kane.
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dacian, what does this rant have to do with the article, or the point-counterpoint going on. Are you admitting that you don’t have a leg to stand on and just posted so you would have a comment in the discussion? Also, you know when you start the “what abouts” you’ve lost the argument.
Whataboutisms are directly from the communists propaganda.
Deflection, misdirection and lies.
Do better Dacian.
WhoMe be specific as to what you are referring to so I can make a complete fool of you.
You are too busy making a fool of yourself with your endless authoritarian socialist nazi ideas. Throw in your communist whataboutisms and you cannot make a fool of anyone unless they share your ideology.
Who was I referring too? You claim a 5th grader could understand, I used your name directly.
The reference was specific, the exchange has already been lost totally by you, dacian.
Get a clue.
What does that mean when you say, “I specialized in WWII History”?
Are you an accredited journalist or historian? List whatever creds you claim you have. I could use a laugh.
I miss recalled when I wrote Defeated Enemy Forces, it should have been Disarmed Enemy Forces. I caught my small mistake; you did NOT because you know nothing of this aspect of WWII that has been debate since the Socialist Canadian Journalist James Bacque published his research in 1989.
You have never written anything on this MB anything worth remembering.
You are a clown with no funny skit or circus that would claim dacian.
Like the monster you are, you have rejoiced at the shooting death of Ashli Babbitt.
You have called me and my Gaelic Celt Ancestors “‘German Nazis” who would be among the + 90,000,000 million German men, women and children you would starve to death if you only could. Take a stroll down memory lane.
“…The Germans got what they described when they finally surrendered. I personally would have starved them all to death, they were monsters not human beings.” -dacian
My people were starved under the rule of the British Crown, I know many of the names during “famine.” I would never want to see the British people, military or any other group starved to death. That is cruel and unusual punishment and yet you do NOT realize what a human monster you really would be if you were more than just a peon.
You should apologize to everyone that has ever be exposed to your twisted thoughts.
Anyway, gotta go for now.
Regards
The Socialists nominated and ran an actual nazi in Maine. Sanders endorsed him and showed no remorse after the nazis past came out.
Socialists in name only.
“You damn well know that I gave you follow up posts when you tried to twist what I said. How many times must you keep lying about what I said and meant and later re-posted and then again re-posted to you. Sorry it did not work Kane, you only exposed yourself for the despicable stormtrooper you are.”
privet Commissar dacianov,
I went to the original thread, no “follow up posts” on how you wanted to starve millions of people. If you are talking about those lame explanations’ weeks later on another thread, go ahead and repost and I will discredit you lies again.
so what would happen if a group of whites took the same photo? hint it would involve the words domestic terrorists, racists, and fascists…..
If the Dems take the WH in the near future and an organization identifying as Whites are formed to “protect the public,” while in their own homes, from the ATF (i.e. Brian Malinowski, Craig DeLeeuw Robertson) (say their names) the Dems would not be satisfied until several dogs are shot, an unarmed woman holding a baby is shot dead, a young lad is fatally shot in the back and several buildings full of children are burned to the ground in a rescue mission and a worthless Capitol Police Officer is awarded the highest civilian Medal for shooting an unarmed female veteran for crawling through a broken window.
Greetings Herr Hauptmann Kane, who supported the violent take over of the U.S. Government by Herr Drumpf and his Jackbooted Stormtroopers who were trying to install Herr Drumpf as dictator for life and wipe out the U.S. Constitution and all Democracy in the U.S.
Ashley Babbitt who you have repeatedly tried to exonerate as a heroine was one of Herr Drumpf’s thugs who were screaming they were going to hang Republican Vice President Mike Pence and murder all the Democrats there that day. She may not have been armed but plenty of the other thugs were as proven when they were arrested and searched for weapons.
You Herr Hauptmann Kane are the reincarnation of Hitler’s Nazi thugs.
Don’t worry, I remember and have the quotes on the shooting of Ashli Babbitt. You wanted a criminal civilian, CPD Michael Bird, awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor that is strictly reserved for US Military members.
Don’t worry, I still have the quotes on how you wanted all the German men, women and children, approximately 90,000,000 starved to death at the end of WWII.
You daddy dacian, that you claim served in WWII, must be so proud how you turned out.
Want the mega data?
:^(
to Herr Hauptmann Kane
quote—————Don’t worry, I still have the quotes on how you wanted all the German men, women and children, approximately 90,000,000 starved to death at the end of WWII.———–quote
Another one of your bold face lies. I never said anything about killing women and children I was talking about your relatives the German Nazi’s who murdered millions of innocent people. Anyone who would have any sympathy for these fiends really says it all about himself and how you obviously have great sympathy for these fiends. What is next Kane will you be telling us that the Holocaust never happened and is just a Jewish conspiracy of propaganda.
Try again Kane you caught yourself in your own lies.
his daddy was a field phone!
“…The Germans got what they described when they finally surrendered. I personally would have starved them all to death, they were monsters not human beings.” -dacian
As “Supreme Commander” DDE stripped POW protections from the surrendered German soldiers at the close of WWII and put the DEF (Defeated Enemy Forces) on 1000 calories a day or less and slave/forced labor for years after the war. There were several million soldiers that surrendered. German, women and children were in DDE’s camps along the Rhine without any provided shelter. Historical FACTs. You would have loved that Republican and as SC he should have left the treatment of prisoners to Congress.
When you said you “starved them all to death” who were talking about?
Kane once again you distort the truth and make bold face lies. No German Civilians were ever imprisoned in Allied prisoner of war camps, none. You are quoting far right web sites no more accurate than the lies Trump gives every day. In fact the Americans actually fed German Civilians to keep them from starving after the war. None of this happened instantaneously. I might add that Concentration Camp survivors were given food and even medical treatment and even transported to hospitals. One G.I. came every day to visit a girl he rescued and fed and later married her.
I specialized in WWII History so you cannot vomit out Far Right lies about what the U.S. did after the defeat of Nazi Germany. Again no civilians were treated that way, none were starved to death, none were involuntarily placed in prisoner of war camps either, that is ridiculous. You flunked all history classes assuming you ever had any.
The Far Right distort anything they can. Naturally there was a lack of sufficient food for Germany until the U.S. aid could flow in. The first priority was for American Soldiers and starving Concentration Camp Survivors. Remember there were millions of German Civilians hungry after the defeat of Nazi Germany. Are you naive enough to be brainwashed into thinking because the food shortage was not instantly solved it was some sort of conspiracy to do so. You uneducated Far Right Fanatics will believe anything the Far Right feeds you without doing any historical research for yourself.
And once again you attempt to distort what I said. I was speaking of German Nazi’s in my post not civilians and that is how you tried to twist my post. Your are a despicable liar. Even a fifth grader could see that. Try again it did not work.
quote——————–When you said you “starved them all to death” who were talking about?——-quote
You damn well know that I gave you follow up posts when you tried to twist what I said. How many times must you keep lying about what I said and meant and later re-posted and then again re-posted to you. Sorry it did not work Kane, you only exposed yourself for the despicable stormtrooper you are.
I will state this again. Nazi prisoners of war would have been last on the food list and the millions of innocent people they murdered gave them no reason to be pitied or given any priority for food. Decent human beings came first to feed and help. Nazi’s were the scum of humanity and still are, tell that to your Proud Boy worshiped stormtroopers. Show me the difference between them and the German Nazi’s. They were/are all hate mongers and racists and they are proud of it when they scream “White Power” or bow down to Herr Drumpf who ran on racism to be elected.
Try again Herr Hauptmann Kane you failed as usual.