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Open Carry Voting

Thundar

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2007
Messages
4,946
Location
Newport News, Virginia, USA
I will be open carrying my Sig 229 while voting tomorrow 2 Nov 2010. It is a great feeling to open carry while voting.

My voting place is a private lodge, so no silly school laws apply.

Live Free or Die,
Thundar
 

paramedic70002

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2006
Messages
1,440
Location
Franklin, VA, Virginia, USA
I have to vote in a church. Am I good to OC there?
(I can't believe I don't know the answer to this.)

Hmmm...

Worst case scenario, you get arrested.

Making lemons from lemonade, you can eventually get the church law ruled unconstitutional for being overly vague, and maybe win a civil suit lottery.

Check back later and let us know how it went.
--------------------------------------------------------------
In other news, I vote at a Ruritan club so I'm good to go. Of course in my little hood we all know each other already so the most I expect is a little gossip after I depart.
 

t33j

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2009
Messages
1,384
Location
King George, VA
I have to vote in a church. Am I good to OC there?
(I can't believe I don't know the answer to this.)

The code says without sufficient reason but does not define it further. There is a picture on the internet somewhere of a list of shootings in churches over the last few decades. That's reason enough for me.

I know many who have carried in a church. Most of them chose to CC during services; there are stories of ministers CCing as well. Never heard of OC for voting. You could be the first. :)

There are different sorts of arguments including that the building isn't a church unless it's Sunday when all the people are there. I'll leave you to the OCDO search feature.
 
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USNA69

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2010
Messages
375
Location
Norfolk, Virginia, USA
Carry in Place of Worship

The code says without sufficient reason but does not define it further. There is a picture on the internet somewhere of a list of shootings in churches over the last few decades. That's reason enough for me.

I know many who have carried in a church. Most of them chose to CC during services; there are stories of ministers CCing as well. Never heard of OC for voting. You could be the first. :)

There are different sorts of arguments including that the building isn't a church unless it's Sunday when all the people are there. I'll leave you to the OCDO search feature.

More specifically, the Code says:

§ 18.2-283. Carrying dangerous weapon to place of religious worship.
If any person carry any gun, pistol, bowie knife, dagger or other dangerous weapon, without good and sufficient reason, to a place of worship while a meeting for religious purposes is being held at such place he shall be guilty of a Class 4 misdemeanor.

The key conditional phrase is "while a meeting for religious purposes is being held at such place". My civic league meets in a church on Monday evenings. I carry without violating the law. Even so, the church is still private property, and I could be asked to leave by someone in authority.

So, if your polling place is inside a place of worship, and no worship services are in progress, and no church official asks you to leave, you should be good to go.
 

wylde007

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Messages
3,035
Location
Va Beach, Occupied VA
my voting place is at a school.
Same.

Wasn't it interesting to see a uniformed NORFOLK police officer openly carrying his firearm while voting in VIRGINIA BEACH (I know it's allowed) while the rest of the serfs are required to trade one right for the exercise of another?

Deplorable state of affairs.
 

Grapeshot

Legendary Warrior
Joined
May 21, 2006
Messages
35,317
Location
Valhalla
I vote in an elementary school. I have before and will today OC an empty holster and two mag cases.

Following the suggestion of someone else, I will place my "I Voted" sticker on my holster. It may stay there for a long time.
icon7.png
 

Don Barnett

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
451
Location
, ,
I Voted Early at DMV

I open carried into the DMV Building to cast my vote early. The election officials did not even raise an eyebrow, but the Security Guard made came in and out of the room several times.

As I was leaving, he was watching me and stood near the exit door. It appeared that he wanted to confront me, but I kept walking in a normal manner, looked at him and said: "How are you doing?", as I would anybody and walked on out the door.

I did not look back to see if he was watching me.
 

Curmudgeon

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Messages
307
Location
York, Pennsylvania, USA
I vote in an elementary school. I have before and will today OC an empty holster and two mag cases.

Following the suggestion of someone else, I will place my "I Voted" sticker on my holster. It may stay there for a long time.
icon7.png


LOL... +1. All my voting places were always in schools until I moved to PA. :monkey

I was going to post the pic I took of my "I Voted" stuck to the side of my Serpa-holstered 1911, but the file is "too large"... bleh.

The wife and I were spotted outside by a guy handing out stuff. He liked it, he was CCing while there. We had a very nice conversation!

Otherwise uneventful. This is (IIRC) my 3rd election OCing, all uneventful.

Got it...

VotePic1.jpg
 
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jmelvin

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2008
Messages
2,195
Location
Lynchburg, Virginia, USA
My voting place was in a school that had been dismissed for the day due to voting activities. This is the normal turn of events. Sad I must give up one supposedly constitutionally protected right to exercise another.

Regarding church carry I've OCed at my own church during clean up days or when dropping by to visit during non-meeting times. No one said a negative word and those who mentioned it had no problem with it at all. I would be curious how a LEO who swears to uphold the constitution as a duty of employment could rightfully justify an arrest of someone merely carrying a firearm during a church service under Virginia Legislative Code 18.3-283. On the surface the law seems to interfere with the free exercise of ones religion, and appears to make a law that respects the self defense rights of those whose religious convitctions lead them to chose to avoid religious meetings, while requiring those who practice their religion by meeting together for worship to give up access to their means of self defense.
 
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ocholsteroc

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2010
Messages
1,317
Location
Virginia, Hampton Roads, NC 9 miles away
Same.

Wasn't it interesting to see a uniformed NORFOLK police officer openly carrying his firearm while voting in VIRGINIA BEACH (I know it's allowed) while the rest of the serfs are required to trade one right for the exercise of another?

Deplorable state of affairs.

I only hope it changes, with this GMU lawsuit, I hope it we win it and they rule public schools also.

November 1, 2010: Oral arguments for this case was heard.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.virginia1774.org/GMULawsuit.html
 
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nova

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2007
Messages
3,149
Location
US
mine's K-12 also. But at least now we can leave it secured in a container in our vehicles on school property while we vote. They really need to get rid of the K-12 ban...or move polling places to new locations where one's rights are not abridged.
 
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