Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s latest remarks reveal a prosecutor who views lawful gun ownership itself as the problem rather than the criminals who misuse firearms. By blaming “way too many” concealed-carry permits for the city’s homicide rate, Krasner flips cause and effect: the very citizens exercising their constitutional right are painted as the source of violence, while repeat offenders continue to cycle through a revolving-door justice system that his own office has been accused of enabling. The implication is unmistakable—more permits equal more crime—yet the data from shall-issue states consistently shows the opposite: permit holders are among the most law-abiding demographic groups, with revocation rates often below one percent.
What Krasner frames as prudent “revocation” behind closed doors is, in practice, an administrative end-run around due process that chills the exercise of a fundamental right. When citizens must justify their carry permits to a prosecutor who has already prejudged the permits as excessive, the Second Amendment becomes a permission slip subject to bureaucratic whim rather than a protected liberty. Law-abiding Philadelphians who navigate the fingerprinting, training, and fees required by Pennsylvania law now face the added risk that an elected official’s policy preference could strip them of that permit without ever committing a crime.
For the broader 2A community, Krasner’s comments serve as a warning flare: progressive prosecutors are shifting from prosecuting criminals to prosecuting the right itself. If “too many” permits are the supposed problem, then the logical endpoint is fewer permits, more discretionary denials, and ultimately a de facto may-issue regime in a shall-issue state. The response from gun owners should be organized, data-driven pushback—highlighting permit-holder crime rates, tracking revocation patterns, and supporting legislative and electoral efforts that remove discretion from officials who treat the Constitution as an inconvenience rather than a constraint.
