compmanio365
Regular Member
imported post
Was riding the Sounder back to Tacoma this afternoon, decided to OC. Was mostly uneventful, until we pulled into Puyallup, and I had a gentleman come up behind me and discreetly whisper to me, "You need to cover up your weapon."
I turned around and told him, "Actually, open carry is legal in Washington, so it's perfectly legal to do what I'm doing. I have a pamphlet here I can go over with you if you want that explains it a bit better than I can, and shows you the applicable laws that says it is legal to do so." "Oh really, when did they change the RCW?" was his reply. I explained that there was no change to any RCW that I know of, but that there was preemption of all firearm laws in the Washington State Constitution, and that there is important case law that explains some of the ambiguous wording of the RCW laws that may have made him think it was illegal to OC.
I told him to go ahead and keep the pamphlet, and to check out our website if he was interested in learning more. He said he would do that and thanked me for the pamphlet, and went back to his seat. I thought it was a great encounter, and overall, I've been pretty glad I started OCing on the Sounder (was one of those weird "I don't know if I want to OC there" places)......
Was riding the Sounder back to Tacoma this afternoon, decided to OC. Was mostly uneventful, until we pulled into Puyallup, and I had a gentleman come up behind me and discreetly whisper to me, "You need to cover up your weapon."
I turned around and told him, "Actually, open carry is legal in Washington, so it's perfectly legal to do what I'm doing. I have a pamphlet here I can go over with you if you want that explains it a bit better than I can, and shows you the applicable laws that says it is legal to do so." "Oh really, when did they change the RCW?" was his reply. I explained that there was no change to any RCW that I know of, but that there was preemption of all firearm laws in the Washington State Constitution, and that there is important case law that explains some of the ambiguous wording of the RCW laws that may have made him think it was illegal to OC.
I told him to go ahead and keep the pamphlet, and to check out our website if he was interested in learning more. He said he would do that and thanked me for the pamphlet, and went back to his seat. I thought it was a great encounter, and overall, I've been pretty glad I started OCing on the Sounder (was one of those weird "I don't know if I want to OC there" places)......