imported post
J.Gleason wrote:
This needs to be appealed and the arguments heard.
not necessarily - to some extent we win just by bringing civil litigation - and civil litigation is not easy - note how the judge interposed the doctrine of qualified immunity as an alternative ground to dismiss the suit -an appeal would have to overcome2 trial court rulings - and further, when bringing the litigtion in a federal court, which must look at state law, federal courts appear to not want to consture state law for the state - I realize this seems unfair, but this is our justice system - and we win by simply engaging it to bring scrutiny on the state officials.
PS. One of things I noted was the allegation in the opinion that Plaintiff became upset when asked to leave a store - this is one theme that keeps coming up when open carriers get into legal trouble -
when asked to leave private properly, you need to immediately leave, and leave with a smile on your face. Do open carriers understand the public-private distinction in our law? They need to ASAP.
You are carrying a gun - anything you say or do will be used against you in the worst light - and the words twisted to indicate a refusal to leave or loitering or that you were causing a disturbance or worse - one man in Ohio protested leaving a fast food restaurant and claimed to be trying to give out a pamphlet to the manager - she turned around and said he swore at her and put his hand on his gun - apparently his criminal charge is lingering - had he just nicely said, "Oh, OK, I'm leaving, have a nice day" things might have turned out differently.
And this touching the gun thing is another theme now recurring in the Washington scary carry case ongoing - it has been said here many times that
discreet open carry is the goal - you should arrange yourself to never touch your gun, and keep your pocket and wallet items accesible such that you do not have to appear to touch your gun when reaching for these items - and carry somthing in your carry hand, keys, newspaper, cup of coffee - then its much more difficult to be accused of touching your gun while in public - the security cameras will show as much and possible witnesses accusing you will be confronted with the reality that you had somthing else in your carry hand so its likley they are mistaken.