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Originally posted by jbondo
PA is a big hunting state with a very large rural population. I do however think there are places that guns are better off left in the car.
This however does not excuse the officers rambo mentality. I think when all is said and done the law will back up the police. I think if the cops would have quietly walked up and asked for ID, run the names for priors and then just requested that the people put their guns in the car while in the restaurant this may have been avoided.
Once called to a scene they do have the right to act, it's how they act that matters though, which should be as professionals.
Originally posted by BmanInMifCo
FACTS ABOUT OPEN CARRY
Yes, open carry IS legal in Pennsylvania.
In Pennsylvania, persons who are not prohibited by law from owning firearms may openly carry a handgun in plain sight with no license except in vehicles, cities of the first class (Philadelphia), and where prohibited specifically by statute. Ref: 18 PACS §6106, §6107, §6108
There are also two cases that specifically state that a person may carry a firearm openly:
Commonwealth v. Ortiz: www.tinyurl.com/2wtovz
Commonwealth v. Hawkins: www.tinyurl.com/346wwr
Originally posted by Headcaseinpa
The law, in Pa. allows open carry of a firearm without a permit. You can not just walk in and ask for ID without reasonable belief that an illegal activity is taking place. You are not allowed to run names for priors without reasonable cause. While you can certainly ask someone to put their weapon in their vehicle, the response of," No, I don't believe I will.", ends the interaction. The officers involved in this incident, illegally seized weapons, illegally detained citizens for no other reason than they felt like it, illegally arrested a citizen for attempting to inform them that their actions were illegal, and committed multiple crimes themselves. In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, nothing at all done by these citizens was illegal. The police violated the rights of multiple citizens and are going to be held accountable.
And while you are entitled to believe that there are places where it is better to just leave your gun in the car, where exactly, would those places be? The restaurant these law abiding citizens were attempting to enjoy a meal at, with their spouses and children? How great would it have been, had a violent criminal, or group of criminals, entered the restaurant and began randomly shooting people, including women and children, while two dozen otherwise armed citizens cowered under a table because their weapons were locked in their cars so as not to offend some silly anti gun fanatic? Slim chance of that happening, right. I am sure the unarmed victim's in the malls, churches and schools that were very recently assaulted in exactly this way, thought the same.....
Originally posted by AlBeMet
Wow just wow Pennsylvania seems to be better than Texas in referance to gun laws.
AlBeMeT
Originally posted by jbondo
Regarding the right to carry in a restaurant in rural PA, yea fine, you have that right but give me a break! What are the odds of there being trouble and if there was, how do we know you wont make it worse with your gun? I grew up in rural PA in heavy hunting country. I spent many years in the woods hunting and fishing and at no time did I feel the need to walk into Perkins carrying a gun! That's just paranoia or gunslinger complex in either case I wouldn't want to be around either. For goodness sake, some of you act like it's South Chicago or Detroit.
I wasn't there and maybe the police did act irrationally but better safe than sorry. The law will prove if needed that these cops did have the right to at least temporarily disarm and ask for ID, no matter how you want to twist the way the law was written.
Contacted by The Times-Tribune, Lackawanna County District Attorney Andy Jarbola declined to comment on this specific case, but said people have a right to openly carry a weapon without having to show identification or a permit.
“Police can ask, but if they don’t want to give it, they don’t have to,” he said. “It’s going to be surprising to the public, but that’s the current state of law.”