GOA Celebrates Reciprocity Win in Pennsylvania and Virginia

Since we don’t have national reciprocity–at least, not yet–we have to make do with states having reciprocity agreements with one another. That means when a state decides to cut off its agreement with another, it’s kind of a big deal. Especially if you live in one state and travel to the other.

It sucks.

And Pennsylvania cut off Virginia residents entirely, not that long ago. That was bad news for people from the Old Dominion State who travel there for work or vacation.

Luckily, it looks like that’s been handled, and Gun Owners of America is celebrating the win.

From a press release:

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday reestablished concealed carry reciprocity with the Commonwealth of Virginia, ending a 7-year moratorium on recognizing Virginia concealed handgun permits (CHPs). 

The memorandum of agreement was signed on June 9, 2025 between Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday and Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, overturning former PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s decision to unilaterally end Pennsylvania’s recognition of Virginia CHPs in April of 2018. 

Gun Owners of America’s (GOA’s) Pennsylvania Director Dr. Val Finnell and legal counsel Gilbert Ambler, Esq. met with Attorney General Dave Sunday in April of this year. Part of the discussion at that meeting was to inform the Attorney General of the errors in then-AG Shapiro’s reasoning for unilaterally revoking concealed carry reciprocity with Virginia. 

“This is great news for the 718,000 CHP holders in the Commonwealth of Virginia. No longer will Virginians be treated as second class citizens when they travel to Pennsylvania. They will be able to exercise their constitutional right to keep and bear arms once more,” said Dr. Val Finnell, Pennsylvania Director of Gun Owners of America. 

Gun Owners of America was joined by the Virginia Citizens Defense League in the effort to reestablish concealed carry reciprocity between the two states. 

Now, for those who weren’t going to Pennsylvania, this is a non-issue, but seeing as how American history buffs would likely want to go to Philadelphia, at least for a day or two, I suspect this is going to impact more Virginians than you might imagine.

Of course, none of this would have been necessary with national reciprocity or national constitutional carry. Either of those measures would solve all of these problems without GOA having to negotiate or chat with state attorneys general to try and work out agreements.

It shouldn’t be an issue.

Unfortunately, it was, and this is a good win. Every win is a good win, and I’m legitimately glad to see it.

We need to take them and celebrate all of them. No, it shouldn’t be necessary to be thrilled that gun owners from one state that many of us don’t live in, get to carry in another state most of us don’t live in. The thing is, the needle of liberty rarely stays static. It either moves toward more liberty or less, and while this isn’t the biggest thing in the world, it’s a move toward liberty, and I’ll take it.

Take the wins when they come, because it wasn’t all that long ago that we weren’t getting many.