Fornicalia To Outlaw "Open Carry" In Public

Currently, because I am a full time peace officer in Fornicalia (though ancient, with about 40 years of service), I know that it is lawful for a citizen to openly carry a handgun in a holster, unloaded, in public. Some 2nd Amendment advocates have done so -- lawfully -- in recent Fornicalia demonstrations.

Because of this -- and the TEA Party/Right-linked inference, the Fornicalia legislature passed a bill recently, now sitting on Governor Jerry Brown's desk, which would forbid the practice completely, making any public carry of a firearm, unloaded, illegal.

Under the current section PC 12025 of the Fornicalia penal code:

(f) Firearms carried openly in belt holsters are not concealed within the meaning of this section.Meaning that, in this fashion, you cannot be arrested for "carrying a concealed firearm" under PC 12025 if the weapon is unloaded.

However, section (A) of PC 12025 states:

Both the pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person and the unexpended ammunition capable of being discharged from that firearm are either in the immediate possession of the person or readily accessible to that person, or the pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person is loaded as defined in subdivision (g) of Section 12031.

. . . which makes you guilty of "carrying a concealed firearm" in concert with the firearm actually being concealed on your person or in a vehicle.

California penal code section PC 12031 states:

(a) (1) A person is guilty of carrying a loaded firearm when he or she carries a loaded firearm on his or her person or in a vehicle while in any public place or on any public street in an incorporated city or in any public place or on any public street in a prohibited area of unincorporated territory.

Violations of both of these sections are misdemeanors and citeable; that is to say, in Fornicalia, a physical arrest is not mandated; a citation would suffice, dependent upon a number of variables. So far.

To date, open public carry of a handgun in Fornicalia is legal, as long as you are not in a post office, government building, school zone and a number of other delineated areas. The handgun must be displayed openly and be unloaded.

Some Fornicalia officers would, however, argue that carrying an unloaded firearm openly on your person and its ammo somewhere else (as in a pocket) is itself per se illegal. On its face, absent other circumstances, officers thinking that would be wrong. Lawful, abiding citizens not intending to commit a felony would be conducting themselves properly, in general. People v. Clark (1996) 45 Cal.App.4th 1147 , 53 Cal.Rptr.2d 99 -- indicates so.

Go here for California Open Carry.org.

Go here for the open carry argument.

Go here for a further analysis of the definition of "loaded" in Fornicalia.

Finally, from the LA Times article:

Brown has until early October to act on the bill, and his past comments and actions on the issue of guns have sent a mixed message. In April, he told a gathering of police officers that it is natural for people to have guns in their homes, and said he owned three firearms.

The Logical Extension, as I like to call it, is this: as goes Fornicalia, so goes the rest of the nation. Leftists and Socialists and Liberals and "Progressives" recognize it. With that in mind, the bill's passage (or not) will either buttress support for the 2nd Amendment -- or start the anti-gun snowball rolling down the hill, gravity-fed, in other states.

BZ