Staying in CO tomorrow night, I have a few questions.

I'll be riding through CO tomorrow and staying near Denver overnight before I travel through to Sturgis SD. I have a CC that's from VA and CO doesn't recognize it.

What's the deal with OC in CO? Legal illegal, loaded, unloaded, off-limits areas et. Please post references if possible too. Thanks much guys.

http://rmgo.org/faq/#OpenCarry is a good resource.

Open carry is legal in all of Colorado, except Denver City/County. You can't carry within 1000 feet of a school, according to federal law (enforcement doesn't seem widespread, if at all). You can carry on your motorcycle any way you like -- concealed if you choose. You just can't get off your bike with it concealed. You can carry loaded.

You can carry in places that serve alcohol. You can't carry while intoxicated.

That's about it -- public places have to be posted against open carry, and private property owners can ask you to leave.

Edit: You can't carry loaded on public transportation.

Where do you think you'll be staying? It's really important to be super careful around Denver as it is quite liberal and they really seem to hate guns. There's a map on here (I'll see if I can find it) that is pretty exact about where the county lines are.

Thanks CRCowboy, once again, for posting this link.


http://www.denvergov.org/DenverMaps/downloads/maps/citywide/Neighborhoods.pdf

One more thing -- I'd be very reluctant to open carry on a motorcycle going through Denver. I think you'd be legal, but you might get an argument about it, and there are always Denver cops on I-25, if that's how you're going.

I live in Denver and I'm in the process of putting together a Neighborhood Watch group. Last night at our first meeting, the Denver police officer who was there to help us get set up was also giving us some safety tips. "When walking alone at night," she stated "if you carry a gun, it must be visible unless you have a permit to carry concealed". I immediately asked her to confirm that open carry is legal in Denver city/county, which she did emphatically. When I asked if this was recent change, she said no.

While she may certainly be wrong about it, this is one area of law that I would expect all Denver police officers to be on top of.

Maybe it's something that DPD just doesn't enforce, but that's not what she said.

Anyway, I'm not convinced that she's right but I find it interesting. I will be in contact with her, so maybe I'll ask her more about it if the opportunity presents itself.

Siedkick - Welcome to the forums, first off. Next this officer was extremely wrong and you should inform everyone in who was there that it is, in fact, against the law to openly carry a firearm within Denver's county lines. This even includes the mountain parks that are owned by Denver. You are right though, police officers should know the law and shouldn't be offering misinformation to people who may or may not check the laws themselves. Now, this is just for Denver city, county and mountain parks, not the entirety of the metro area.

ZackL said:

Siedkick - Welcome to the forums, first off. Next this officer was extremely wrong and you should inform everyone in who was there that it is, in fact, against the law to openly carry a firearm within Denver's county lines. This even includes the mountain parks that are owned by Denver. You are right though, police officers should know the law and shouldn't be offering misinformation to people who may or may not check the laws themselves. Now, this is just for Denver city, county and mountain parks, not the entirety of the metro area.

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True. But I wouldn't be surprised if there was selective enforcement of this law in Denver, just as happened recently in Chicago with the older man who defended himself in his home with a handgun.by killing the intruder with no charges brought against him. Denver is bad, but not like Chicago.