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Drawing circles in Google Earth

K

kittyhawk63

Guest
Any of you use Google Earth? I know, silly question. Of course you do. Well, I was wondering if any of you have found an EASY way to draw circles that can be used to show the 1,000 foot Gun Free School Zone (GFSZ) borders around schools. I would like to do this with Redding, CA and all its schools. If the circles can be made to stick like place markers then once they are all drawn, I can easily see where I can drive around Redding without entering a school zone.

Hope you can help or know of a website that can offer suggestions on how to do this.

Thank you.
kh63
P.S. My hawk has finished eating the cat. Do you know where he can get another one?
 
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ConditionThree

State Pioneer
Joined
May 22, 2006
Messages
2,231
Location
Shasta County, California, USA
Circles are a nice symetrical shape, but they are very unlike property lines which tend to be angular, jagged, and haphazard- following topographical, political, and arbitrary boundaries. So if you start drawing circles all around the map around the center point of where some amateur cartographer has stuck an alleged school, your 1000 foot circle is not really representative of the actual gun free school zone. In fact, in most cases, it would be well short of the schools actual gun free zone or not correctly placed, depicting a gun free school zone hundreds of feet from where it should be.

The alternative then is to examine each school in the area and carefully plot 1000 feet from the boundary of the school grounds property line and make a map depicting the school zones taking into account that schools are all over the place and sometimes are not mentioned on commercial maps.

In either event, if you create, manage, and carry such a resource with you- you are establishing that you are aware of 626.9 and are aware of all the schools you have identified by encircling them and create for the authorities the evidence that they could use to charge and prosecute you under the pretense that you knew better when you happen to stray from your appointed path or happen to base your map on incorrect information.

It is easier for me, with my knowledge of my town, neighborhood and street to memorize locales that are 'gun safe' zones. This way I can transport in a locked secure case, then when I am at my destination, I would holster up and carry on foot. Once we can get a judge to recognize the private property exemption in 626.9, our options will open up and the only time we would be concerned about the school zone issue would be while driving or walking on public property and streets. (Which is ironic, because property that is owned by the people should be permissive of the Constitution...)

ETA:

I forgot to mention 626.9(l)

(l) This section does not apply to a duly appointed peace officer as defined in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2, a full-time paid peace officer of another state or the federal government who is carrying out official duties while in California, any person summoned by any of these officers to assist in making arrests or preserving the peace while he or she is actuallyengaged in assisting the officer, a member of the military forces of this state or of the United States who is engaged in the performance of his or her duties, a person holding a valid license to carry the firearm pursuant to Article 3 (commencing with Section 12050) of Chapter 1 of Title 2of Part 4 , or an armored vehicle guard, engaged in the performance of his or her duties, as defined in subdivision (e) of Section 7521 of the Business and Professions Code.

With a license to carry, you can disregard the gun free school zones altogether.
 
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K

kittyhawk63

Guest

Well, that was interesting. However, it didn't even get close to showing all the schools in Redding. It didn't show some of our largest high schools.

The worse part of this is that it works from a "center point" and not from boundary lines, which is what ConditionThree is referring to. I want to draw a circle that is at least 1400 feet around each school from center point and that should take care of most of the GFSZ boundary problems. There would be exceptions. The way I see it, with as many schools as there are in the Redding area, one would have a difficult time driving around in it OCing.

I would not keep a map of Redding with the circles in my car. I would look at the map, remember the route in my mind, leave map at home, and make my way to my destination.

Thanks for the link.
 
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