My Visit to the Capitol

imported post

I had a very productive and enjoyable day at the Capitol! They are accepting of carry in the capitol building. Liberty4ever CC'd there. They have metal detectors, however if you disclose that you have a weapon, they'll let check your CDWL and let you pass. I haven't tried to OC--I'll probably try next time I go. By law, you can't CC in the Supreme Court, or the House/Senate chambers. I kind of doubt OC would be respected in those places.

I met with Representative Hoffman (D) in the morning. He was aware of the State Sovereignty Act (sponsored by Rep. Lee) and seemed to support the bill. Rep. Hoffman seemed to be unaware of the Firearms Freedom Act.

I met with Senator Thayer (R) in the afternoon. He seemed to support both bills. He also seemed pessimistic as to Hoffman's support of the 2nd amendment.

Now on to Nature Preserve Carry! I had a very positive meeting with Dave Nicholas of the LRC. He was very frank on the situation. He mentioned that Don Dott (Director of the KYSNPC) seemed to be dragging their feet on the issue of carry in nature preserves. As the situation stands, it's not up to Dott as it is unconstitutional.

Nicholas went on to say that because I brought this issue to light, that they are investigating all the other hokey KARs pertaining to firearms. So what apparently started as a simple letter turned into much more! These hokey regulations were passed back in the day when not much attention was paid to them. Now, the KAR process is much more involved. Nicholas also brought up that eventually the hokey KAR preventing carry on fairgrounds would probably be overturned because of this.

Lastly, I was able to see both the House & Senate in session, I snapped a picture of the Supreme Court, and briefly met the Lt. Governor. All in all a good day!

imported post

Always good to hearabout close encounters of the positive kind.:dude:

imported post

Can you quote the KRS that authorizes CC in the Supreme Court or the Legislative Chambers?

imported post

Oh my--what a slip up--I meant you CAN'T CC in the SC, or the legislative chambers. Wow, thank you for catching that, I'll try to edit it.

imported post

No problem. I knew you were mistaken, but it is always better to let someone discover their own mistake

imported post

I came to OCDO to start a thread about carrying in the Capitol yesterday, and saw that langzaiguy beat me to it, so I'll just glom on to his thread.

When we arrived in the morning, there were 40-50 of us. I was pleasantly surprised to see langzaiguy. We were directed around the metal detectors and simply walked in to the Capitol. I almost always carry concealed, but I had seen the metal detectors on a previous trip to the Capitol, so I left my pistol and pocket knife in the truck. A couple of hours later, I overheard the end of a discussion where someone had asked one of the security personnel about firearms in the capitol, so I approached the officer (KSP?) and asked. I was told that concealed carry with a permit and open carry were allowed, but the weapons must be declared at the front desk, and no weapons are allowed in the Kentucky Supreme Court, the House, the Senate, or any committees when any of these bodies are in session. CDW are allowed in all other areas.

I had to make a trip to my truck at lunch, so I decided to learn about carrying in the capitol, and the best way to learn is by doing. I retrieved my knife and pistol. I checked with the KSP officer at the front desk and she acknowledged that it was legal to carry firearms in the Capitol. She seemed to personally believe it was a bad idea. She rolled her eyes and said, "You guys always want to do that." and from her tone it seemed that she thought it was silly or impractical or unneccessary. She asked to see my CDW license. That's the first time anyone has asked to see it. She called someone and read the information to them and provided a description of me and my clothing. She didn't seem to have a needed form, so she wrote my information on the back of a piece of paper. She made another call to verify some rules and make sure she was doing all that needed to be done. She mentioned the need to inform "executive security".

I then placed my pistol, knife, keys and change in the baskets and passed through the metal detector that we had ignored that morning. It beeped. I walked back through and placed my cell phone and camera into the baskets and then the metal detector liked me.

The officer measured my folded knife (Sog Aegis) and told me that it was "almost too long". I made a brief inquiry and she said something about five inches. It's 4.85" long when folded, with a 3.5" blade. I wasn't aware of any such law in Kentucky, but it passed and I was more interested in the pistol than the knife, so I didn't follow up on that issue.

I told her that I was under the impression that I was not allowed to carry the pistol in the Supreme Court, House, Senate or committees when any was in session and asked if that was correct and if there were any other places it was prohibited. She confirmed my understanding of the restrictions.

She told me twice during our brief encounter that Kentucky is one of the few states that allows firearms to be carried in the Capitol, and she didn't seem to think that was a particularly good thing. It made me kinda proud to be a Kentuckian. :dude:

Overall, this experience seemed like another case where people who make the rules are uncomfortable with firearms and feel compelled to put some sort of procedure into place to "feel safer", even though there is no increase in actual safety, the measures probably aren't completely legal, and it creates a difficult situation for those enforcing such policies.

I had fairly unrestricted access while carrying concealed, including visits with several legislators.

Here are a few pictures and comments from my trip to the Capitol Building yesterday. I was mostly there to prepare for a future trip where I will be a citizen advocate for the Kentucky Firearms Freedom Act.

http://ronpaul.meetup.com/146/photos/802403

Big thanks to langzaiguy for his work on Nature Preserve Carry!