So we have idiots racking shells in a Walmart and the police are (or at least think they are) powerless.
The opponents of open carry laws haven’t been successful in getting these laws repealed. It may instead be the supporters who succeed at doing that.
There is apparently some disagreement about the scope of the open-carry law. Here is a 2013 article in which a chief of police in a different city says that brandishing remains illegal.
That’s what I would have thought.
Every hunter, and target shooter, is allowed to open carry. How else are they supposed to shoot game, or shoot targets??? You can open carry in your home, or your business.
What does this have to do with someone carrying a weapon in Walmart? Please, tell me.
Is there a solid definition of “brandish” under this law?
It’s a wonder some other open carry nutjob didn’t think that was a prelude to a robbery or worse and open fire on those two. It’s going to happen sooner or later. Here’s hoping that the casualties when it does are contained to the nutjobs.
I doubt that Walmart is the home or business of the men who did this. I also doubt that they were there engaged in hunting or target shooting. At least I hope they weren’t.
Walmart being a private property, wouldn’t it be up to the owner/manager to decide if you can or cannot carry a weapon into the store?
That’s exactly what I would have thought, they should be able to ask anyone to leave and have them charged for trespassing if they don’t.
Perhaps this guy is a bad enough shot that he has to shoot the targets while they’re hanging on a display rack.
Makes it difficult to carry the weapon you’re buying to the cash register, or from there to the door.
They don’t want to see headlines like “NRA Calls For Boycott of Walmart”.
Yep, Store Manager AdamF, you go right out there in your Wal-Mart Blazer and tell those two (?) guys with loaded guns that their business is no longer wanted in this store.
Yeah. Me too.
I tend to agree with davidm; CC laws will be done in by their adherents more than their critics.
Does this particular Walmart sell firearms and ammunition? Do they take returned firearms? Do they sell scopes, chokes, or recoil pads that mount on firearms?
Does state law allow open carry?
If state law allows open carry, and there is no legislative provision (law) for businesses to opt out of having firearms on their premises, it would seem to me that you could open carry in a Walmart that sells firearms.
Is there a state rule or law that requires firearms to carried in a case?
Yes, state law in this case allows open carry. That’s stated in the OP.
Purchasing firearms and carrying them out of the store is different from strolling through the store loading and racking shells.
This behavior is just asking for trouble. Suppose some other open carry vigilante sees this guy doing this and decides that it’s necessary to take him out?
And yes, I said vigilante, because at the end of the day that’s what most of these guys are playing at. They say so themselves when they talk about “good guys with guns” stopping “bad guys with guns”.
My own state has a similar definition – you can do whatever with it as long as it’s not threatening, and I think the implied interpretation is that just carrying a gun around isn’t threatening. Racking a shotgun, I dunno… I guess it depends on the details.
I assume that if I had been there and pulled out my CC 9mm and shot these guys because I felt I was in imminent danger and had no duty to retreat, that I would not be prosecuted. Right?
None of these statements – I don’t believe they are actually questions – has anything to do with your previous post. Let me repeat:
What do these statements have anything to do with carrying a weapon in a Walmart? I remind you that the story pertains not just to someone who is armed in a Walmart, but someone who appears to be attempting to intimidate others with the weapon.
So what does that have to do with being armed in your own house, or going hunting?
What, do you not have deer in your Wal-mart, city boy?
Questions usually end with question marks. You can make up any definitions you feel best meets your agenda.
Open carry is open carry. If you want to talk about open carry, hunting, target shooting, and homes are included. YMMV.
According to the article in the OP, the Police Chief would have arrested one, or both, if they had actually violated any laws. He wanted to arrest them because his officers had been dispatched to the scene.
Racking shells into a shotgun, in a Walmart that sells firearms, seems like a good way to test the shotgun.
Maybe there’s more to this story than has been reported, so far.