Open Carrying to DIA?

I have to pick up some family at DIA, is it a bad idea to open carry?

I just do not want to get out at the drive through area to help load the luggage and get in trouble.

Also there is a chance of stopping at the park meadows mall.

I am not used to carrying in the Denver area and I know they have crazy laws up there.

Should I just leave my sidearm at home?

Dont do it!!

According to the map, DIA is part of Denver City and County so open carry would be illegal.

Jonz said:

I have to pick up some family at DIA, is it a bad idea to open carry?

I just do not want to get out at the drive through area to help load the luggage and get in trouble.

Also there is a chance of stopping at the park meadows mall.

I am not used to carrying in the Denver area and I know they have crazy laws up there.

Should I just leave my sidearm at home?

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Don't leave your firearm at home. Never leave it at home. In CO, your car is considered an extension of your private property. You can carry your firearm openly or concealed in your car as you like anywhere in Colorado, including Denver City. Notice I said in your car. If you step out of the car, you may have some issues, but the city law actually has a grey area where there is an exception for residents traveling from outside Denver but do not live in Denver. Essentially, if you are driving through and you stop for gas, you can OC as long as you don't live in Denver. It's a grey area and the airport is probably not the smartest place to test that.

Park Meadows is a hunting preserve for criminals. OR you may know it as a gun free zone. I would not OC there. But I do CC there regardless of the rule. Signs have no force of law in CO, so the worst they can do is ask me to leave. I have CC'd there every time I go. So if you have the permit, CC.

Hope that helps.

mobiushky said:

Don't leave your firearm at home. Never leave it at home. In CO, your car is considered an extension of your private property. You can carry your firearm openly or concealed in your car as you like anywhere in Colorado, including Denver City. Notice I said in your car. If you step out of the car, you may have some issues, but the city law actually has a grey area where there is an exception for residents traveling from outside Denver but do not live in Denver. Essentially, if you are driving through and you stop for gas, you can OC as long as you don't live in Denver. It's a grey area and the airport is probably not the smartest place to test that.

Park Meadows is a hunting preserve for criminals. OR you may know it as a gun free zone. I would not OC there. But I do CC there regardless of the rule. Signs have no force of law in CO, so the worst they can do is ask me to leave. I have CC'd there every time I go. So if you have the permit, CC.

Hope that helps.

Click to expand...

+1! I agree.

One of the concerns *I* have when CCing in a place that is or may be anti-gun (if signs are posted or not) is if there ever is a psycho-shooter event while *I* am there -- and I respond -- I will (of course) then be "outed" as a carrier and may be in who knows what legal trouble.

As I said, however, it's only a concern: It certainly won't stop me from carrying and I'd rather be able to TRY to stop the shooter than simply be another of his victims.

Really though, I doubt the OTHER UNarmed people there (or even those parents/relatives of those killed in Newtown, CT, for additional example) when the event happens would AT ALL CARE if the gun that stopped the carnage was "illegally present" or not -- just that the shooter was STOPPED...which is how it SHOULD be.

Still, a mall employee (or teacher or staff member at Newtown school) pulling out a gun and stopping the shooter, despite doing the RIGHT THING, would be in a whole lot of legal trouble and probably even fired as per the "Zero Tolerance" policies -- like all those store clerks and the pizza delivery guys who also resist with a gun. They're fired. "The law" -- or Corporate Policy -- seems to be more important than people's lives.

Goes to show you how STUPID and INANE these no-guns policies and laws are.

After all -- and correct me if I am way out in Left Field on this -- but TMK, laws aren't supposed to HURT people (or even put them in harm's way)...they're supposed to PROTECT them. Laws that get people hurt (or even killed) are BAD laws that need to be repealed. Or at the very least, the people responsible for making them should be held personally liable EVERY time someone DOES get hurt/killed because of them.