County Park via School Grounds

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Not far from my home is a nice little Kitsap county park (http://www.kitsapgov.com/parks/communityparks/carpenter_lake.htm). To access this county park, I have to enter school grounds and parking is part of their parking lot (so far as I can tell).

How does one go about visiting a park while armed in this situation? I'm not picking up or dropping off a student, but this is public property...

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Unfortunately it sounds like you are out of luck. You are not allowed to carry on school grounds unless picking up or dropping off a student. The RCW is very explicit.

The school is not considered public property in this instance it is considered school property.

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Joerocket is unfortunately correct. RCW 9.41 makes no provision for legal transportation of a weapon across school property in our state, although under the Gun Free Schools Act, the state could allow transporation of an unloaded long gun to or from hunting grounds or allow a CPL holder to possess on school grounds.

Currently, a violation of 9.41 is a gross misdemeanor. SHB 3131, which passed the house yesterday, will up the penalty to a class c felony. Hopefully it will be blocked in the senate again this year (as it has the past two years as 2268), but I fear a knee-jerk response to the NIU incident.

I sent proposed language to Senators Roach and Carrell that would provide an affirmative defense for a person otherwise in legal possession of a firearm on school grounds, and which would maintain a violation of 9.41 on school grounds as a gross misdemeanor. As the law reads now, a violation causes a CPL holder to lose their license for three years -- but if 3131 passes and the penalty is raised to a class c felony, the result is complete loss of firearm rights.

There is still time to tell your legislators you oppose SHB 3131, and suggest that it be ammended or blocked. Should possession in the school parking lot be a greater crime than possession in a courthouse? Stupid.

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But never fear, if you can't legally transport a gun across the school property neither will any BG. Therefore, using government logic (another oxymoron), you will be perfectly safe and not need a gun. Just like in any school in this country.:what:



It is becomming more and more apparent that a prerequisite for public office is having the major part of your brain either missing or inoperative.



(PS: for anyone in Rio Linda that reads this and thinks my first statement is serious, I was only kidding.)

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Maybe it's just me, but if there really is absolutely no way to access this park other than through school grounds, then I believe it should be on the parks department to provide law-abiding citizens a way to legally access it, since our taxes go towards maintaining it. Also, there's no law restricting access to lawful firearms carriers in the park, so they should be allowed to use it without being forced to break the law, otherwise, that's descrimination against them for being a law-abiding gun-carrier.

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I have a similair issue. The park I bring my dog to is on the same block as a high school.. see picture below. I don't have to walk through the school to get to the park but the school and the park are only seperated by a small parking lot (where the red line is). Where do school grounds start and stop? Any words of wisdom.

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It appears from the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun-Free_School_Zones_Act that if you want to carry into the park, you must have your CPL and unload the gun prior to entry into the school zone.

So, from how I read it, they expect us to stop 1000 feet from the school, pull our guns out of the holster, remove the magazine, eject the chambered round, pass through the school zone, then reload and replace in the holster. All this in an area that is more than likely highly populated residential zones.

Do you think sending the above two sentences to a federal legislator will get them to change the law to allow CPL holders to carry if the intent is to "pass through" the school zone? *smirk*

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just_a_car wrote:

It appears from the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun-Free_School_Zones_Act that if you want to carry into the park, you must have your CPL and unload the gun prior to entry into the school zone.

So, from how I read it, they expect us to stop 1000 feet from the school, pull our guns out of the holster, remove the magazine, eject the chambered round, pass through the school zone, then reload and replace in the holster. All this in an area that is more than likely highly populated residential zones.

Click to expand...

That's not the case. The 1000' restriction does not apply if you have a state license issued upon background check (i.e. verification by law enforcement authorities). If you have a Washington CPL you can carry within 1000' of a school, but still not on the school grounds. Read the first part of the Exceptions paragraph on that page, up to the first semicolon. The wikipedia page is poorly formatted.

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John is absolutely correct with his statement.



Drewgunner if you are parked off school grounds, usually marked by a fence or roadway then you are safe. If the parking lot is off the grounds then you have all the right to drive onto school gorunds with your gun, loaded with a permit or unloaded without, you just cannot exit the vehicle while carrying. The roadway inbetween the two looks like a private roadway of sorts. I would call the city/county and ask them if they maintain it. If they do then it is not school property and if they don't then it would be school property more than likely.