Those Places You Can’t Carry

Dear Fellow Survivalist;

I’ve carried concealed for a number of years. I believe that’s a constitutional right, although I obey the law and have the required license for my state. Even so, there are still some places I can’t carry, either because of federal law or state law. Being a law abiding citizen, I try to make sure that I leave my gun in the car, when I go into those places.

I’m always a bit concerned when I go into one of those places. To start with, it always feels like a personal insult when I’m told I can’t bring my gun into someplace. Apparently I’m more likely to be a criminal in those places, than I am anywhere else. After all, doesn’t everyone want to hold up a Post Office?

My second concern is about the risk of leaving my gun in the car. I’ve heard that criminals view places with “no guns allowed” signs as a shopping mall. Break into enough cars, and they’re bound to find a gun or two. Not only is the price right, but they don’t have to worry about all that messy paperwork.

I’ve at least partially solved this problem by mounting a lockbox in my trunk. I’ve also disabled the interior latch, so you can’t open the trunk by pulling the little lever next to the driver’s seat. If you want to get into my trunk, you’ve got to have the key. Having to break through two locks should discourage them and keep them away. If it doesn’t, breaking through two locks should at least slow them down, even if it doesn’t fully stop them.

Then there’s the third issue; the biggie. We all know that gun free zones are free fire zones for criminals. While I’m not worried about those criminals holding up the Post Office while I’m there, I can’t say the same for the bank, stores and restaurants I visit.

I don’t know about you, but there are times when I’m just not comfortable leaving my gun in the car, for all of the reasons listed above, when I go into some of these places. So what do I do? I’m a law abiding citizen, right? I’m supposed to obey the law, even when I don’t agree with it. Anything else could see me getting fined, at a minimum and may cause me to lose my license to carry.

But… and again, but… sometimes it just doesn’t feel right. Sometimes it feels like going into those places, without my gun, would be the wrong thing to do, even while being the right thing, legally speaking.

Let’s just say that there are a couple of loopholes in the law and leave it at that. First of all, most states which allow business owners to post signs denying our right to carry have specific requirements for those signs. In my state, not only is specific wording required, but the size and style of the letters, as well as the location of the sign. If the business doesn’t do all those things correctly, it’s as if they hadn’t posted it at all.

I’ve got a perfect example of this; a bank I used to do business with “posted” their bank as a gun free zone. The symbol of the gun with a line through it was right on the door. But that’s not the legal notice. I can legally ignore it. The legal notice was posted on the wall of the bank lobby, nowhere near the entryway. Since the business I was doing with them required me to talk to the bankers, and not go to the tellers, it was two months of visits before I even saw the sign; then it turned out the sign was printed with letters that were too small.

The upshot of that is that I didn’t have to obey the sign, because it was improperly posted. In a way, that was a lot like a municipal event center in the area. They posted the sign on the inside of the lobby, right between the doors. So the only way you could see it, was when you were leaving. Once again, I didn’t have to obey the sign.

Probably the best example I have had just happened recently. My wife works for the city, with her office in City Hall. There’s also a clinic there for employees and their families. While there are guards at the door and you have to go through a metal detector, they never give me a problem. I show my license and they pass me through.

Here’s the rub though; I just got a personal phone call from the benefits supervisor in Human Resources. She told me that guns weren’t allowed in the clinic. Obviously, she thought that would be enough; until I read her the applicable passage from the law. Looks like they’ll be buying some signs soon.

Where am I going with all this? Do what your conscience tells you to do. If you feel that you’ve got to carry somewhere, even though you’re told that you can’t, then you’ve got to decide if it’s important enough to you, that you’re willing to risk losing your license. If so and if your gun is concealed anywhere, who is going to know?

Personally, I’d rather be prepared. So, in addition to keeping my powder dry and my survival gear close at hand, I’ll keep my gun with me, wherever I can.