traveling through out the state

Ken56 said:

Wife and I will be RVing through out the state and I have been reading up on AZ carry law. I am puzzled a little bit by the many native American reservations. Does AZ state laws apply to them? Now I know Indian lands are their own nations in themselves and have their own laws too. Some states reservations follow the state laws they are located in but am I reading AZ reservations can prohibit carry in any and all forms correct? If so, how do you keep track of all of them and where they begin and end? Any help and insight here is greatly appreciated.

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davesnothere said:

Special rules on the Indian Nation Lands made OC this past weekend a bit of a pain in the ass.

Further, it seems small town Arizona is stepping backward. I had to remove my gun several times this weekend just to make it through the State.

So, here goes the play-by-play....

My wife and I went looking for new camping sites this weekend, for the upcoming long, holiday weekend. We decided to also take a long drive on the Devil's Highway (formerly numbered 666) in eastern Arizona. Our route took us through the San Carlos and White Mountain Apache Reservations.

Now, I've read the tribal rules, and it seems most comfortable to me to go ahead and follow safe-passage rules as closely as I could, so I unloaded and stowed my gun in the cargo area of my Subaru while crossing the Indian lands. That's difficulty number one. There are a lot of points where you're crossing reservation land. So on both Saturday and Sunday there was a lot of putting on and taking off of my holster and gun. Several roadside stops, which I felt only increased the opportunity for problems.

Next, for stops along the way, there seemed to be "No Firearms" signs everywhere I went. We stopped at a café in Morenci - posted. We stopped at a gas station in Morenci - posted (I pay with cash, so I always go inside - my wife went in so I wouldn't have to unholster). We made the drive all the way to Alpine without incident, but once we got to Springerville just about everywhere we went was posted. My gun belt and holster saw more action than they usually see in a month of carrying. SNIP...

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Sec. 6-130. Possession of Firearms or Explosive Weapons.
(b) Permit for single shot or semiautomatic firearms, inoperable firearms.
The department of public safety may issue a permit authorizing the possession by persons within the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community of single shot and semiautomatic firearms and firearms and weapons for which a certificate of inoperability has been issued.
(e) Possession without a permit. Any person who shall possess within the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community any firearm or weapon for which a permit has not been issued shall be deemed guilty of an offense, unless such firearm or weapon is being transported through the community and is unloaded and not readily accessible.
(f) Unauthorized weapons declared contraband. Any firearm or weapon, the possession of which is an offense, shall be contraband and subject to the provisions of Chapter 14, Article III of this Code of Ordinances.

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davesnothere said:

Thanks for the cross-post Rusty!

Okay, so on Tribal law I need to be more clear than I was before. I think I was a little muddled and I've brushed up quite a bit about it since my last post.

Every tribe has their own laws governing firearms carry, and some of the tribes (Apache) are quite welcoming of carriers, while some are not (Dineh "Navajo"). The safest rule to follow when you're crossing tribal land is to follow the Navajo rule, just so you're not caught out and in violation of their laws.

The Navajo rule is the same as the Federal safe-passage rule, which states that "persons traveling from one place to another cannot be incarcerated for a firearms offense in a state that has strict gun control laws if the traveler is just passing through (short stops for food and gas), provided that the firearms and ammunition are not immediately accessible, that the firearms are unloaded and, in the case of a vehicle without a compartment separate from the driver’s compartment, the firearms are located in a locked container." -stolen from the Cornell law site.

You can stop for food or gas, but you shouldn't be stopping for vacation on tribal lands if you want to not be in violation of this rule. Also, what that bit doesn't cover is that you can't have the firearm locked in the glove box, or a locked center console. Those areas are still considered immediately accessible.

In the Phoenix/Scottsdale/Mesa area I've crossed the Salt River reservation on McKellips a few times open carry in the past(before I was aware of the tribal law differences, and discovered that McKellips being part of my commute doesn't protect me), but the SRPMIC is likely going to come down a lot harder on non-tribal-members crossing the reservation after some recent officer-involved shootings during traffic stops. Nowadays, when I'm making my morning commute, I just stay on the 202 and the 101 to avoid the reservation.

If you are crossing this reservation (and it's easy to do without realizing you are - SR-87 crosses a big chunk of reservation land), then you might want to study up on these parts of the tribal law:



The full text of the tribal law for the SRPMIC can be found here: http://www.srpmic-nsn.gov/government/ordinances/files/Chapter6.pdf

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davesnothere said:

I'm trying to find that out. I've been calling local reservations, but all I'm getting so far is runaround.


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