Posted on 03/20/2010 11:45:22 AM PDT by ThisLittleLightofMine
A man who was seen in a Vancouver supermarket with a handgun visible in a holster — prompting a call to 911 on Friday — was ticketed and released with a court date, police said.
Shortly after 4 p.m., officers were sent to the Albertsons store at 5000 E. Fourth Plain Blvd., said Sgt. Greg Raquer with the Vancouver Police Department.
When officers approached the man who wore the gun he was cooperative. The loaded gun’s holster had two ammo magazines attached to it, said Officer Ilia Botvinnik.
Officers explained the law to the man, gave him a ticket for alleged unlawful carrying of a weapon and released him.
Under the law, Raquer said, a person can be ticketed if his display of a gun alarms people.
“I guess you could liken it to people yelling ‘Fire!’ in a movie theater,” Raquer said. “People get alarmed.”
He added, “Most responsible people don’t display their firearm in public.”
Had the man worn a coat, no one would have noticed the gun, Raquer said.
In that event, however, the gun would have been considered concealed, which is illegal unless the person had a concealed weapons permit, Botvinnik said.
The man in Albertsons did have a concealed weapons permit, although it doesn’t apply to open carrying, Botvinnik said.
Raquer declined to release the man’s name, saying the police report hadn’t been completed.
Vancouver police have had several such calls recently.
The state law that applies to the Albertsons case is RCW 9.41.270, Botvinnik said.
That law says: “It shall be unlawful for any person to carry, exhibit, display, or draw any firearm, dagger, sword, knife or other cutting or stabbing instrument, club, or any other weapon apparently capable of producing bodily harm, in a manner, under circumstances, and at a time and place that either manifests an intent to intimidate another or that warrants alarm for the safety of other persons.”
The text of the entire law, including exceptions such as carrying a firearm in your own home or place of business, can be read at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9.41.270
John Branton: 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.
let em waste time responding to themselves...
make sure to use a prepaid cell or phone booth...
When I read stuff like this it only reminds me how far we have to go.
ive seen many an off duty cop, or 'plainclothes' types with holstered pistols walkin around, do they scare the bejeebers out of every citizen on the street ???
my safety is put at risk more often by a line of traffic slammin on their brakes at a speed trap than it ever is by a holstered pistol...
The wording basically says I’ll get cited for displaying or drawing my weapon if I actually needed to protect myself. In that situation, somebody is bound to be intimidated or alarmed.
Or leaking...badly.
Jack
He will recover far more than attorney’s costs in a civil lawsuit. OC is legal and OC’ers that get harassed are winning judgements all over the country.
Well, the alarmed phase usually slightly precedes and the leaking phase, and can overlap with it as well.
When I lived in Everett, WA, this is what a local cop told me. I could openly carry a handgun in public, but if someone “got scared” I could be arrested. According to the statute quoted in post #20, that’s a bunch of bulloney. These cops need to get educated on the laws they are supposed to be enforcing.
If states want to require concealment, then they shouldn't make it illegal. They shouldn't make us beg them for permission to do so.
there will always be at least one person that gets all wee wee’d up irrationally over the sight of a firearm unless we start teaching firearms safety in elementary school. Kids learn these fears from the adults around them in lieu of any other inputs.
I tend to leave private property when asked to. I don't ever enter a property with a no firearms sign. No one needed Barney Fife to gum up the works unless this was a case of assault or defiant trespass. Most cops are only good for revenue collection or stretching a crime scene tape when they remember to do it. Listening to police testimony while serving on a jury was a revelation. What a bunch of dangerous simpletons.
I think the proper response would be to call 911 every time a citizen sees a cop with a gun, and complain that they felt threatened and intimidated because of this person carrying a gun in public for everyone to see.
Well, the alarmed phase usually slightly precedes and the leaking phase, and can overlap with it as well.
All equals a proper ending.
Jack
perhaps, but citizens complaining about government agents openly carrying firearms and looking intimidating and threatening to Law Abiding citizens will get the job done if everyone calls constantly. Personally I don’t believe Government deserve ANY SPECIAL RIGHTS, If I can’t do it neither should they, after all isn’t that true EQUAL PROTECTION?
I might add “It shall be unlawful for any person” this includes Peace Officers.
Welcome to the ninny state.
Sure. During and immediately following the Second American Revolution.
"I want that thug prosecuted for drawing his weapon for the purpose of intimidating me into ceasing my raping of his daughter!"
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