• We are now running on a new, and hopefully much-improved, server. In addition we are also on new forum software. Any move entails a lot of technical details and I suspect we will encounter a few issues as the new server goes live. Please be patient with us. It will be worth it! :) Please help by posting all issues here.
  • The forum will be down for about an hour this weekend for maintenance. I apologize for the inconvenience.
  • If you are having trouble seeing the forum then you may need to clear your browser's DNS cache. Click here for instructions on how to do that
  • Please review the Forum Rules frequently as we are constantly trying to improve the forum for our members and visitors.

OC at a street festival, no alcohol

brutus1776

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2010
Messages
71
Location
, ,
i've read and re-read all known prohibitions on carry and was wondering if im missing something. i plan on going to the downtown waynesville festival this weekend. there is no admission charge and no alcohol. and no town ordinances against firearms except where posted. im just wanting to avoid anything obvious that i missed and make sure im on solid footing incase of any encounters with LE or hysterical florida half backs, etc.

thanks for any insights
 

chiefjason

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
1,025
Location
Hickory, NC, ,

Dreamer

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2009
Messages
5,360
Location
Grennsboro NC
YOu may want to carry some OC flyers, and possibly print out this statute.

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bysection/chapter_14/gs_14-277.2.html

In various places I have seen this statute mentioned as "public places". However, that is nowhere in the actual statute. If you do it let us know how it goes. I love Waynesvegas. A buddy of mine owns a business up there. We go up to see him and shop around occasionally.


The "public places" provision of this statute is NOT a general prohibition on carry in such places--it is ONLY applicable to PROTESTS or DEMONSTRATIONS held on such property. You need to keep that whole phrase--delineated by the commas--together to understand it in it's true meaning:
...or demonstration upon any private health care facility or upon any public place owned or under the control of the State or any of its political subdivisions...
If this were a general prohibition against merely carrying in "public places" owned or under control of the State, that would mean you couldn't carry on highways or sidewalks in NC. But the wording CLEARLY states that it is only in effect during a "demonstration". Like a demonstration on the Capital, or on City Hall...

Which, BTW, is a DIRECT violation of the 1st and 2nd Amendments of the US Constitution...

A street festival doesn't even fall in the same ballpark...

The OP should be good to go...

Unless they do like they did last October here in Greenville for the big Halloween Street Party downtown, and publish in the newspapers that there would be blockades controlling access to the area (not an admission fee-just a checkpoint for warrantless searches without RAS or PC), and ALL attendees would be searched and wanded for weapons and NONE would be allowed--even if you had a valid CHP... (Which, BTW was flat-out illegal under NC law...) Anyone caught trying to get in to the area with a weapon would be disarmed and arrested, the article in the local paper stated.

When I contacted the City Attorney of Greenville about this, he told me, and I quote, "If you want to be a test case to prove your point, we'll be happy to oblige you..."

Needless to say, I stayed home... Unfortunately, my "grad school budget" does not lend itself well to volunteering to be a "Test case".
 
Last edited:

chiefjason

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
1,025
Location
Hickory, NC, ,
Dreamer, my point was that I have seen the law interpreted in a very broad manner. I can't track it down right now. I understand that it does not apply. My suggestion was to have a copy of it if someone tried to make such a broad application of that statute.
 

brutus1776

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2010
Messages
71
Location
, ,
thanks fellas... looks like everything is still a go on my end and will report if i do indeed make it to the event. i've open carried nearly every day in the area for a few weeks mostly without a second look. only people that have given a second look or mentioned 'gun' in their conversations were vacationers. i talked to a sheriffs deputy about a month before i routinely started open carrying and he basically said its legal, but the sad part is if you get some of these people from out of town we might get a call in which case we are obliged to respond even if its just for a mere contact. then he went on recommending CCW and told me all about his personal CCW practices, etc.

thanks again!
 
Top