Al - while I don't disagree, remember we advocate lawful carry. If he parks in the lot of a strip mall that one of the lease holders had a liquor license he "could be" in trouble while open carrying until he gets his CPL. I have personally had an officer attempt to strong arm the manager of a restaurant into saying they didn't want OCers. Fortunately the manager on duty said "he and his family eat here all the time and he is no threat to anyone, besides it's our policy to follow state law". With that the officer left red faced. You are from the rough and tumble streets of Mason (nice town); and I am sure most LE there attempt to follow the law. Mike runs in WAYNE Co. which has more than it's fair share of anti-OC LE officers in my experience there. Hell, I personally know of one police chief in the downriver area that sent officers to local businesses just to tell them that they did not have to allow OCers in their stores. This was after the President & VP of MOC had met with the chief and the cities command officers.
Here is a prime example of the mentality of some of the officers in Wayne Co.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2xOpF4z_v0&feature=channel&list=UL
My point: let's take the conservative path with Mike on what we advise him to do until he gets his CPL; considering the areas he frequents.
As I recall, the question was with regards to parking his car in the strip mall lot, and leaving his weapon secured in his vehicle while he's in an establishment that sells alcohol. Not OCing into said establishment. Not having been to that particular place, I don't know for certain how it's setup, but in general, who's to say where he parks at? As has been pointed out, without a CPL he couldn't even park in the lot of a business that sold alcohol. But, being in a strip mall, unless there are signs delineating a specific area as being for said establishment, he would not be parking in a lot for the restaurant. Therefore, it should be legal for him to leave his weapon locked in his vehicle, should it not? That, is what I was referencing.
Unless the restaurant has parking spaces in the mall lot marked with visible signs for patrons of their establishment only, the spaces can and would be used by customers for all the stores in the strip mall. I don't think this is a giant leap. I also don't think it's encouraging any illegal activity.
And while I live in Mason now, I used to live AND work in Chicago. I had many "good nights" in Chi town that make bad nights in Detroit look like a picnic. I used to work security and private investigations in the area where Cabrini Green and Robert Taylor homes used to exist. And there were more than a few Chicago cops who thought I must be crazy for working down there. Truth be told, I wasn't crazy, I was just damn stupid.
