min0 lee

OpenCarry.org members visited Zoo Boise to make a point | News Updates | Idaho Statesman

BY ANNA WEBB - awebb@idahostatesman.com

Edition Date: 07/20/08



When you go to the zoo, you expect to see monkeys, ducks in a pond. You don't usually expect to see visitors with handguns.

But you would have, had you visited Zoo Boise Saturday morning.
About 10 members of the local chapter of OpenCarry.org, a national group that advocates for citizens' rights to openly carry handguns, met there.
After a little confusion at the front desk about whether it's legal to bring an unconcealed handgun into the zoo - it is - the group bought tickets and sauntered through the front gates like all the other visitors.

That they were no different from all the other visitors was the point the group members were trying to make.
"Coming to the zoo was something we could do together, like any family would," said Carol Schultz of Nampa. She is never without her handgun and holds her holster in place with a heart-studded belt.

Schultz has gone through the steps, the training and the background check to qualify for a concealed weapons permit. Though her holster is now an integral part of her wardrobe, she can still imagine an unarmed world.
"In an ideal society, one of peace and people taking control of their own lives, ideally, you wouldn't need a gun," she said.

Unfortunately, said fellow OpenCarry.org member Blaine Tewell, of Eagle, the world is a dangerous place of random shootings in malls, even churches.
The former military man, who's in the process of getting a concealed weapons permit, openly carries for now. He's not a vigilante and has no desire to chase down criminals. He just wants to be safe, he said.
"When seconds count, police are still minutes away," he said.
Neither Schultz nor Tewell has ever had to use a gun in self-defense. They have been asked to leave private property, though, such as restaurants and stores where their guns made people nervous.

Lt. Alan Cavener of the Boise Police Department said reason must play a part in the open carrying of guns.
"We support peoples' constitutional rights, but we also want to ensure public safety. People need to use common sense about where they choose to bring a firearm," Cavener said.

Zoo visitor Laura Greaves, from Salem, Ore., questioned whether it was really necessary for someone besides a staffer working closely with dangerous animals to carry a gun at the zoo - legality aside. Saturday morning, the most ominous threats appeared to be runaway strollers and kids throwing tantrums.

"Legal and appropriate are two different things," said another visitor, Boisean Alex Lundgren.
Anna Webb: 377-6431

DOMS

Great!

maniclion

Hey if the baboons escape and start to get loud and rowdy I want to know there might be people who can take them out....

If an Officer Says "Gee Son....Your eyes look red, have you been drinking?" You probably shouldn't respond with, "Gee Officer your eyes look glazed, have you been eating doughnuts?"

min0 lee

Or you can just throw an Asian if front of you and run like hell.

BulkMeUp

min0 lee

They do have a knack for becoming snacks for Zoo animals.

BulkMeUp

Whats the point. The animals will be hungry again after and hour!

min0 lee

Will Brink

In states where open carry is legal, there is a general movement to actually do it. Most are doing it to make a specific point. In some states, people openly carrying a gun on their hip is not uncommon, and people don't even look twice. I understand and appreciate the point the group is attempting to make, and I support their rights to do so, but I personally don't have much interest in showing the world my gun or my business.

- Will @
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Will Brink

If you open carry, even in a state it's legal to do so, you may get arrested. However, you may also walk away with a bunch of $$$

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/277...?showALL=y&c=y
News Article Documents Successful Suit Against Gonzales, LA for Police Harassment of Open Carrier! - Hot Topics - Open Carry Brigade - OpenCarry.org - Discussion Forum

Mark Marchiafava says he’s earned the right to wear his .357-caliber Magnum pistol in a hip holster in Gonzales.

And, he says at a local mall, city residents paid him to demonstrate that right.

“I wish the taxpayers of Gonzales knew just how much money it is,” the 55-year-old Marchiafava adds.

In January 2006, the longtime Baton Rouge resident was at the same mall, wearing the same pistol, when a Gonzales police officer asked him why he was carrying a gun.

Marchiafava says he told the officer that non-felons can legally carry firearms that are not concealed.

That exchange led to Marchiafava’s arrest on a count of illegal carrying of a weapon. The arrest led to an hours-long stay at the Ascension Parish Prison.

But the case later was dismissed, and Marchiafava’s bond and weapon were returned to him.

Marchiafava didn’t let the dispute fade away. He sued for violation of his constitutional right to bear arms. The city recently settled the case by paying Marchiafava an undisclosed amount of money.

“I can’t disclose any client confidences,” said Bradley C. Myers, a Baton Rouge attorney for the Gonzales Police Department. “The details are confidential, not the fact of the settlement.”

So why pay Marchiafava?

“It was just a business decision that everybody makes during a civil suit,” Myers said.

“There are risks in all litigation and costs to defend litigation,” Myers said, adding that city officials weighed those risks and costs before opting for a settlement.

Marchiafava won’t talk dollars and cents, either.

“The confidentiality agreement prevents me from disclosing that amount,” Marchiafava said.

But he said the settlement would “buy someone a brand-new motorcycle.”

“All of this could have been avoided,” Marchiafava said. “I kept telling them: ‘Don’t arrest me.’”

After his arrest, Marchiafava said, Police Chief Bill Landry told other people: “‘We have a policy of arresting anybody carrying any type of firearm without a concealed-gun permit.’

“It’s not the people who are openly carrying weapons that you need to worry about,” Marchiafava said. “It’s the people who carry concealed guns that you need to be concerned about.”

Marchiafava said he remains concerned that someone else may someday be arrested under similar circumstances because: “In Gonzales, the law is whatever the cops say it is.”

That’s not correct, Chief Landry said.

“We will follow the law as prescribed,” Landry said, adding that the law permits carrying a firearm in an unconcealed holster. But Landry will not discuss the case further.

“I’ve got no comment on that,” Landry said. “I’ve got no comment.”

Donald North, a professor at Southern University Law Center, said Marchiafava has the legal right to carry a firearm in a holster on his hip.

North says carrying the firearm in that manner falls under the same law that requires hunters to keep their shotguns and rifles on gun racks visible through the rear windows of their vehicles.

“If you’re not concealing it, the statute does not prohibit your carrying of that weapon,” North explained.

“This only applies to law-abiding citizens,” the professor said. “Convicted felons can’t do this.”

North adds that he is merely explaining the law, not advocating a particular behavior.

“I’m not trying to suggest we should go back to the days of the Wild West,” North said.

Marchiafava says he does not regret carrying the pistol — even when it draws unwelcome attention from police officers.

He says other people should exercise their right to lawfully carry firearms.

“When they (police officers) shoved a gun in my face, I was thinking: ‘These guys are dangerous.’

- Will @
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Witmaster

Now... could you imagine the looks they would have got if they had entered to zoo carrying .308's and 30-06 rifles over thier shoulders?

"We're headin' to the Gazell exhibit!!"

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Will Brink

The issue/debate is strictly about handguns and most people view handguns as "evil" and rifles as having uses such as Hunting, etc, so they don't get as freaked out. Now, if they are of the scarry black rifle variety, then they are "assault" rifles, which magically makes them evil too. Anyway, as mentioned above "OpenCarry.org, a national group that advocates for citizens' rights to openly carry handguns"

In many states it is in fact legal to open carry a handgun, yet police will either ignore the law and arrest you, or they are ignorant of the law, and will arrest you. Some are willing to get arrested to make their point, and some come away with a truck load of $$$$ after making said point.

I'm not a big fan of open carry myself, that is, I have no desire to show the rest of the world I am armed, but I will support the right of others to do it if that's what their state law allows and or it's viewed as Const. supported.

- Will @
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Witmaster

Errrrrrr. Thanks

But my "point" was (aparently) a poor attempt at sarcastic humor - Hunting rifles + zoo =

Maybe not

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I can run faster mad than you can scared

"All right brain... I don't like you and you don't like me. So let's just do this and I'll get back to killing you with beer" ~ Homer Simpson

Will Brink

Went right over my pointy head!

- Will @
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Witmaster

Hey, it's late afternoon here. Morning there. You just probably need more coffee.

It's all good.

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I can run faster mad than you can scared

"All right brain... I don't like you and you don't like me. So let's just do this and I'll get back to killing you with beer" ~ Homer Simpson

clemson357

I think it is great. People need to get over the idea that guns are bad. A gun in the hand of a responsible person with no criminal record is nothing to be afraid of.

________________________

maniclion

Anyone who has served there country should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon anywhere they want in this day and age. They've been trained to use them why not make the most of that training and let them continue to protect our people, it's not like there aren't criminals with pistols in there waistbands roaming our streets anyway....

If an Officer Says "Gee Son....Your eyes look red, have you been drinking?" You probably shouldn't respond with, "Gee Officer your eyes look glazed, have you been eating doughnuts?"

ALBOB

Yeah, that's kind of my feeling. I applaud the effort, but think it would be better spent working toward national CCW laws.

Rules? You mean we have RULES for that???
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Will Brink

Well, they fight the good fight, but i agree with you. Better time and effort spent on other issues, such as national CCW. You can get pretty close to national CCW with the right res and non res CCWs, but it's a big PITA and takes time and $$$.

- Will @
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ALBOB

Nevada, Utah and Florida gets you pretty close. All it takes is $$$.

Rules? You mean we have RULES for that???
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Will Brink

I have those, plus MA, NH, and ME.

- Will @
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