Punishment for Carrying a Pistol Inside a Store?

Miscellaneous General
41

Given that a gun-carrier enters private property where the owner’s intent has been posted that no carrying is allowed:

The property owner can ask the gun-carrier to either leave the gun outside or stay off his property.

This is a resolution that does not require punishment.

What happens AFTER the property owner asks a gun-carrier to leave would determine whether punishment or restitution is just.

Trespass -

Does carrying concealed on prohibited property constitute trespass? Some considerations -

  • The gun or weapon remains on the property of the carrier (concealed on his person).

  • The carrier does not reveal the gun or weapon as a threat to other property owners

  • Awareness of the presence of a weapon carrier does not constitute a threat

  • Whether one is concerned or not about the presence of a weapon does not constitute a threat

  • Mere possession does not declare intent and therefore does not constitute a threat

Missouri law allows, but does not necessarily permit, that a concealed-carrier may enter and leave posted private property so long as others remain unaware of the weapon while on the prohibited property. The simple act of carrying is not an actionable offense unless and until the posted property owner asks the weapon carrier to leave AND the weapon carrier does not comply with the request. (a personal summation, not the actual wording of the law).

42

“If everyone demands it nice and loud and proud…it won’t be radical…it will be the norm. The politicians who don’t dish out freedom will be the radicals.”

Yeah, but if just you and me demand it, we get marginalized as crazies. Not that I don’t demand it frequently. Heck, I got a letter back from my state representative, responding to a letter I sent her regarding the campus carry bill… her response? Paraphrasing (I don’t have the letter with me): I don’t see any reason to introduce guns to campuses, so I’ll vote against it, if it comes to a vote.

How do you like that? The fact that there are no actual measures in place to keep guns off campus is irrelevant to her. That licensed individuals are less likely to commit violent crimes by a factor of four or five compared to the general population is irrelevant. The notion that she shouldn’t try to control what I do when it neither picks a person’s pocket nor bloodies his nose is irrelevant. Crime on campus is a function of how thoroughly they can surveil us and how close they can get our campus to a pocket-sized example of the police state for which they salivate.

But this is the kind of thing that happens when you have popular rule without respect for individual rights. So we need to convince people to stand with us, and we need to voice our demands to those who have been elected.