After a brutally cold winter, spring is around the corner and many of our neighbors love to get out into the water. So one legal question is, “Is it legal to carry a firearm while boating?”
Under the fishing and game code, it is illegal for anyone to have a loaded gun, whether that’s a short barrel rifle, short-built shotgun, any type of pistol or any type of long gun loaded on a watercraft unless you have a license to carry a firearm. This is just another reason that you should get a license to carry a firearm. They are very easy to get in PA.
Another question that comes up is “Are boats considered to be vehicles?”
Why would someone care about that? In Pennsylvania, we have a very broad castle doctrine that includes when someone attempts to get in your car or remove you from a car. Well a boat is not a car or a vehicle under the vehicle code and so that’s not going to be something that’s going to be covered under the castle doctrine in Pennsylvania.
However, that does not get rid of your right to self-defense. You still have the right to self-defense. You just lose that presumption of reasonableness.
One exception may be houseboats. There are a lot of houseboats up on some of the lakes around Pennsylvania. So is a houseboat a dwelling? A dwelling is important again because of the castle doctrine, because if someone attempts to enter or breach your dwelling then the castle doctrine applies that presumption of reasonableness which is very powerful under the law. The technical definition of a dwelling is any structure which, for the time being, is home or place of lodging. So a houseboat can be a dwelling depending upon how it’s regularly used or how it’s used in this particular set of circumstances. So you can argue there that a dwelling can cover a houseboat.
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