Most, if not all public (city run) bus lines have no firearms policies and most of us have probably never thought about this and just accepted it and moved on with our day. Not long before open carry went into effect last year, I caught a news story from Metro Transit, the Oklahoma City metro bus service. They indicated they would have to allow open carry on the buses because there was no law against it. This got me to wondering why they would allow open carry, but not concealed carry.
Here's a little bit of information that is not part of the SDA class. Title 21, section 1903 no person accept law enforcement from , "...shall board a bus with a dangerous or deadly weapon concealed upon or about his person." Thus making concealed carry illegal on any bus in the state, even private buses. However the law is silent about open carry because no one looked at the Bus Passenger Safety Act when rewriting the Oklahoma Firearms laws. Since there is no law against open carry on a bus and municipalities can not make their own laws regarding the carrying of firearms, open carry on public buses is legal.
The problem arises because we have had "no firearms on buses" for so long, it is just assumed to flow over to open carry as well....something that Metro Transit pointed out to me in the news when they tried to bring it to every ones attention, cause a big stir, and get it changed in the legislature. The plan backfired on them and instead there was proposed legislation to change the law to allow license holders to carry open or concealed on public buses. The legislation did not pass this year as the house and senate could not agree on the language they wanted to use, however as I understand it, the bill was held over and will be finished in the next legislative session.
Now to take this information and go a step farther. The city of Edmond operates a public bus line called CityLink. As I work in Edmond I decided to have a conversation with the CityLink folks about this.
Here is the email I sent to CityLink:
And this is the response I got from them:
Not real big on the having to show an ID and license to ride the bus, but at least they acknowledge the legality of it.
Feel free to use part or all of the text from my original email to CityLink a public bus line in your area to force them to at least acknowledge that open carry is legal on the bus.
Here's a little bit of information that is not part of the SDA class. Title 21, section 1903 no person accept law enforcement from , "...shall board a bus with a dangerous or deadly weapon concealed upon or about his person." Thus making concealed carry illegal on any bus in the state, even private buses. However the law is silent about open carry because no one looked at the Bus Passenger Safety Act when rewriting the Oklahoma Firearms laws. Since there is no law against open carry on a bus and municipalities can not make their own laws regarding the carrying of firearms, open carry on public buses is legal.
The problem arises because we have had "no firearms on buses" for so long, it is just assumed to flow over to open carry as well....something that Metro Transit pointed out to me in the news when they tried to bring it to every ones attention, cause a big stir, and get it changed in the legislature. The plan backfired on them and instead there was proposed legislation to change the law to allow license holders to carry open or concealed on public buses. The legislation did not pass this year as the house and senate could not agree on the language they wanted to use, however as I understand it, the bill was held over and will be finished in the next legislative session.
Now to take this information and go a step farther. The city of Edmond operates a public bus line called CityLink. As I work in Edmond I decided to have a conversation with the CityLink folks about this.
Here is the email I sent to CityLink:
And this is the response I got from them:
Not real big on the having to show an ID and license to ride the bus, but at least they acknowledge the legality of it.
Feel free to use part or all of the text from my original email to CityLink a public bus line in your area to force them to at least acknowledge that open carry is legal on the bus.