4.22.2015

And Speaking Of Open Carry




I wrote this morning about the legal question of whether police would have a "reasonable suspicion" to stop and detain someone if they saw an exposed handgun if the proposed Open Carry If You Have A Concealed Handgun bill passed. Cops can only detain someone if they have a reasonable suspicion that a crime might be occurring. The County Attorney and I actually talked about just last week.

But I had complete missed the above news that trickled out over the last 24 hours that there was an amendment to the bill on Friday which passed the House:


That answers my question. The courts would never have to decide if the cops could lawfully detain someone for seeing an open guy because the legislature has settled it. (If the bill becomes law.)

But here's the unintended kicker: If cops can't stop you to check your license, then doesn't it become practcially open carry for everyone? Sure it would still be a crime to open carry without a license but cops will need a different reason to detain to ever discover that. So it's not legally open carry for everyone but more of a "there's a really good chance you can open carry without a license and not get caught" situation.

I suppose it is like driving on a suspended license. Yeah, it's illegal, but you are going to have to be stopped for a different traffic violation for the cops to ever discover that.
at 4:25 PM