A South Carolina man is facing felony weapons charges after he allegedly pointed a handgun at another driver during a road rage encounter on Interstate 81 in Franklin County last Wednesday evening. Troopers who later searched his truck say they found two loaded pistols tucked inside the center console, along with a concealed carry permit that carries no legal weight in Pennsylvania.
According to Tri-State Alert, the incident happened around 6:15 p.m. near mile marker 24.6 in Southampton Township, when a GMC Sierra pickup with South Carolina plates allegedly passed a victim in the right lane and cut him off. The victim told police the pickup's driver then pulled a handgun from the center console and pointed it at him. Pennsylvania State Police troopers out of the Chambersburg barracks responded to the reported road rage incident, which was logged under incident number PA 2026-1082669.
The victim did not stop on the highway. Instead, he drove to a rest area in Cumberland County, where he gave police the pickup's full South Carolina registration, according to the same report. That registration led investigators to identify the driver as 33-year-old Thomas Patrick Mulligan.
Two Pistols Found in the Console
When troopers caught up with Mulligan, he reportedly admitted to having a pistol in his car, per police, but he denied a consent search of the vehicle and refused to answer further questions. Investigators then applied for a search warrant for the truck, which a judge granted.
The search turned up a Kel-Tec .22 caliber pistol in the driver's-side center-console factory storage pocket and a 9mm Makarov pistol inside a factory safe within the same console, the outlet reports. Mulligan provided police with a concealed carry permit issued by South Carolina, but that permit does not authorize concealed carry in Pennsylvania because the two states lack reciprocity.
Why an Out-of-State Permit Didn't Help
Pennsylvania's Office of Attorney General maintains reciprocity agreements with dozens of states, but South Carolina is among a small group of jurisdictions — alongside California, New Mexico, New York, and Maryland — with which the commonwealth explicitly does not recognize concealed carry permits, according to the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. That gap matters because South Carolina rolled out permitless carry in March 2024 under House Bill 3594, letting residents 18 and older carry handguns openly or concealed without a permit at home, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. That permitless status, however, does not travel across state lines into non-reciprocating states like Pennsylvania, which is why South Carolina still issues its own permit — largely so residents can carry legally when visiting states that do have agreements with it.
Under Pennsylvania's Uniform Firearms Act, carrying a concealed firearm or keeping one in a vehicle without a recognized license is normally graded as a third-degree felony, punishable by up to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine, according to research compiled by Phil DiLucente & Associates. State law does carve out an exception that can reduce the charge to a first-degree misdemeanor for someone who would otherwise qualify for a license — but only if no other offense occurred during the same incident, per an analysis published by Justia Law. Because Mulligan also faces assault and threat allegations tied to the roadway encounter, that misdemeanor exception does not apply, pushing both firearm counts to felony grading.
The Full Charge Sheet
Mulligan is charged with two felony counts of carrying a firearm without a license, along with misdemeanor charges of terroristic threats, simple assault, and possession of an instrument of crime with intent, plus two traffic citations, Tri-State Alert reports. Pennsylvania grades terroristic threats and possession of an instrument of crime as first-degree misdemeanors, each carrying a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison, according to research from Ambler Law Offices.
Mulligan was released on $35,000 unsecured bail following his preliminary arraignment. Under Pennsylvania court rules, unsecured bail sets a dollar figure a defendant does not have to pay upfront but becomes fully liable for if he fails to show up in court, according to Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute — a status magisterial district judges typically reserve for defendants not viewed as flight risks. His case has been assigned docket number MJ-39304-CR-0000201-2026.
A Dangerous Pattern on the Interstate
Interstate 81 is a major East Coast trunk line running through Franklin County, carrying heavy passenger and commercial truck traffic that connects the Mid-Atlantic to southern states including South Carolina, according to county and state transportation records. The corridor has seen road rage violence turn deadly before: in January 2014, a northbound driver near Exit 3 was pursued, run into the median, and fatally shot along the same highway, according to Pennsylvania Highways.
The Franklin County case also lands amid a documented nationwide surge in road rage shootings. An analysis of Gun Violence Archive data by Everytown Research & Policy found road rage shootings jumped more than 400 percent between 2014 and 2023, with 483 people shot in 2023 alone — an average of one person killed or wounded in a road rage shooting every 18 hours nationwide. Separate research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that roughly 80 percent of U.S. drivers reported some kind of aggressive driving behavior behind the wheel in the prior 30 days, underscoring how common tense roadway confrontations are even before a weapon comes into play.
It remains unclear whether the two pistols recovered from Mulligan's truck will be matched against the victim's description of the weapon allegedly pointed at him during the encounter, an open question that the search warrant results have not yet resolved.
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