What is the law regarding Open Carry?

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Dear Mr. Bravo_Sierra,

The Sheriff's office referred your e-mail to me, Sgt. XXXXXX, to
respond to your question.

The Las Vegas City Council and the Clark County Commissioners has not
enacted local ordinances regarding the "open carry" of handguns.
However, State law and City and County ordinances prohibits the carrying
firearms capable of being concealed (handguns) without a permit.
Respectively, the following state laws and City and County ordinances
prohibits such acts. NRS 202.350, County Code 12.04.180, and City Code
10.68.010.

How officers respond when a citizen reports a person with a gun is
confidential. This confidentiality protects the officer. If citizens
knew in advance how an officer responds to such situations would
compromise the officer's safety.

I hope that this information is helpful. If you need additional
information, you may contact me at XXX-XXX-XXXX.

Sgt Tom XXXXXX
Firearms Section

----

I removed the Sgt's name and number to protect him, but this is the exact email, verbatim. Trust me, You act/look like a thug, you'll be treated as one, you act like a civilised (armed) member of society, you'll will also be treated like one.

Carry you gun... and a first aid kit.

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Bravo_Sierra wrote:

I removed the Sgt's name and number to protect him, but this is the exact email, verbatim. Trust me, You act/look like a thug, you'll be treated as one, you act like a civilised (armed) member of society, you'll will also be treated like one.

Carry you gun... and a first aid kit.

Click to expand...

what in this letter would lead you to surmise how one will be treated based on appearance?

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It probably has more to do with the LEO and his views on Citizens and firearms.

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How officers respond when a citizen reports a person with a gun is
confidential. This confidentiality protects the officer. If citizens
knew in advance how an officer responds to such situations would
compromise the officer's safety.

Click to expand...

Bravo - can you post (or repost) your original e-mail so I can see exactly what question Sgt Tom is responding to above?

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Bravo_Sierra wrote:

The Las Vegas City Council and the Clark County Commissioners has not
enacted local ordinances regarding the "open carry" of handguns.
However, State law and City and County ordinances prohibits the carrying
firearms capable of being concealed (handguns) without a permit.
Respectively, the following state laws and City and County ordinances
prohibits such acts. NRS 202.350, County Code 12.04.180, and City Code
10.68.010.

Click to expand...

This person (Sgt Tom) simply misunderstood the open carry law, or lack thereof. NRS 202.350 referenced above does discuss concealed weapons.

You can find it here:

http://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/NRS-202.html#NRS202Sec350

1. ...shall not...
(d) Carry concealed upon his person any:
(1) Explosive substance, other than ammunition or any components thereof;
(2) Dirk, dagger or machete;
(3) Pistol, revolver or other firearm, or other dangerous or deadly weapon; or
(4) Knife which is made an integral part of a belt buckle.
8.(a) “Concealed weapon” means a weapon described in this section that is carried upon a person in such a manner as not to be discernible by ordinary observation.

Clearly, carrying a handgun openly in a holster on a belt is discernible by ordinary observation. Therefore 202.350 does not prohibit OC.

Next, the city...

Since we're not talking about concealed here, only OC, the correction to above City Municipal Code is 10.66 refers to Pistols, while 10.68 refers only to Concealed Carry.

Feel free to check yourself at

http://municipalcodes.lexisnexis.com/codes/lasvegas/

The only thing I found that even comes close to applying:
10.66.140 Registration of ownership required.
(A) Any person receiving title to a pistol, whether by purchase, gift or other transfer, and whether from a dealer or any other person, shall immediately upon such receipt personally appear, together with such pistol, and register the same with the Sheriff of the Metropolitan Police Department or his designee. It shall be unlawful to possess a pistol which is not so registered.
(B) No person who proves at trial that he received title to a pistol less than twenty-four hours prior to an arrest or the issuance of a citation based upon a violation of this Section, shall be convicted.

You have to register it....again BLUE CARD>

The last thing I looked up was the county code.

You can find it here:

http://municipalcodes.lexisnexis.com/codes/clarknv/

This could be misinterpreted, but if you read it carefully, I think you'll agree:
12.04.180 Concealed weapons prohibited without permit.
It is unlawful, within the unincorporated area of Clark County, for any person to carry upon his person a concealed weapon of any description, including a knife with a blade of three inches or more, a gun, pistol, revolver or other firearm, capable of being concealed, without first having received written permission therefor from the sheriff. (Ord. 242 § 18, 1965)

The law says "...unlawful...to carry upon his person a concealed weapon...". Stop there...that's what you're not allowed to do. The next part is what you're not allowed to do it with: "...knife with a blade of 3 inches or more, a gun, pistol, revolver or other firearm, capable of being concealed..." The fact that your weapon is merely capable of being concealed means they're trying to cover all weapons they might not otherwise have listed (read, shotgun you could hide in your pant leg) so long as that weapon COULD be concealed.

At first glance I misunderstood and read it to say that if it was capable of being concealed, it's prohibited just the same. But I was wrong. Apparently so was Sgt Tom if you read the quoted section above.

The next county law I read was:
12.04.200 Registration of firearms capable of being concealed.
It is unlawful for any person to own or have in his possession, within the unincorporated area of Clark County, a gun, pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed, unless the same has first been registered with the sheriff or with a police department of any of the incorporated cities of Clark County. (Ord. 242 § 20, 1965)

Again, that's just the BLUE CARD.

So the laws on the books that apply say nothing about OPEN CARRY and Sgt Tom was clearly incorrect in his observation of the laws. Citing incorrect Titles and Chapters was the first clue.

But think about it, Sgt Tom is with Metro's Firearms section. If he doesn't understand the law, we have some work to do to educate Metro.

Tim

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bayboy42 wrote:

How officers respond when a citizen reports a person with a gun is
confidential. This confidentiality protects the officer. If citizens
knew in advance how an officer responds to such situations would
compromise the officer's safety.

Click to expand...

Bravo - can you post (or repost) your original e-mail so I can see exactly what question Sgt Tom is responding to above?

Click to expand...

To whome it may concern,

I would like to request specific city ordinances regarding the 'open carry' of handguns, specifically: legality, etc. Since Nevada has no law banning the carry of loadedhandguns on one's person. (aside from North Las Vegas and Boulder City)

Thanks you

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update:



I just gave him and a call and he made it clear. We are all right.



In a holster on your hip, obviosuly a firearm, 100% legal. tucked in your pants with the handle exposed, not legal.

So now I can feel 100% safe OCing.