You obviously haven’t called the State Police and asked about this. I have. They told me that if they saw me doing it and I was off of my own property, I would be arrested. As noted in my post below, I was once chatting with a State Trooper in town and asked him about it to get a second opinion, and he said the same thing. Don’t do it, you will get arrested. I have a friend who did get arrested and convicted (disorderly conduct as I recall). He was carrying an unloaded shotgun in open view on his bike, and someone called and complained about it.
Believe me,
Don’t ever ask a cop for an opinion on the law. A lot of times, they are ignorant of it. You are right though that it is not smart to do. However, if you have the time and money to fight it, you will prevail in the end as long as you were just openly carrying and not brandishing. Most of the stories that I have heard, people were not arrested but asked to leave establishments (such as malls). Again, as I said it’s not a smart thing to do in this state unless you are looking for trouble. However, that does not change the fact that it is legal. If a cop tells you otherwise ask him to show you the law, ordinance (other than Philly) or statute that says otherwise. He won’t be able to point it out (unless he’s a Philly cop).
Also, this only applies in suburbs, city etc.. out in the country, people do open carry.