gogodawgs
Campaign Veteran
Nice job John, great job calling them out!
Whenever I go to Windjammer Park I open carry all the time. Never a problem. I have addressed the Island County Code violation with the county commissioners and they said, basically, they weren't going to spend the money on changing anything but that all the officials and LEO knew it was not enforceable. Perhaps a motion could be made to the appropriate court for a simple writ of mandamus ordering the city/county to obey state law?
Excellent letter and well thought out
It was a very good meeting with the Chief of Police. We don't want to post the specifics of what he said because what was posted in the newspaper was taken out of context and did not contain the other almost 1 hour of discussion that occurred that night. Here is the link to the video of the 12/18/2012 City Council Meeting:
http://www.oakharbor.org/video-view.cfm?series=30
It was a very good meeting with the Chief of Police. We don't want to post the specifics of what he said because what was posted in the newspaper was taken out of context and did not contain the other almost 1 hour of discussion that occurred that night. Here is the link to the video of the 12/18/2012 City Council Meeting:
http://www.oakharbor.org/video-view.cfm?series=30
We are going to run what we will post by the Chief of Police first to make sure we capture exactly how he feels. I can tell you this, I think we agreed on about 99.5% of everything. He is a very tactical thinker. He is very familiar with the firearms possession and carry laws in Washington, which is exactly why he sat behind us in the City Council meeting and never approached us or questioned us. In fact, when we first arrived at the city council meeting one or two council members approached him and said it was against the law for us to carry in a government building and he set them straight and told them carrying was prohibited in courthouses and we weren't in a courthouse.
In addition, at least one council member said, in his presence, that she felt intimidated by our firearms, and obviously, Mr. Hoffmire was so frightened by our firearms that he forgot what he was going to say, however the Chief of Police knows the difference between "warrants" alarm and "causes" alarm and didn't bother us about it. Rest assured that the city attorney, the prosecuting attorney, and the Oak Harbor police force knows and honors that the firearms ban violates state law.
1 thing I'd like to ask the board. During our conversation I had asked if the Oak Harbor PD had a training document regarding contacting people open carrying. They currently do not but the chief was open to issuing one. I offered to send him something patterned off one of the existing bulletins. I have read Spokane's and wasn't too impressed. Everett didn't seem too bad. What's the best bulletin out there? Scott
I would go for that. Also if you need a stand-in at a meeting, give me some notice and I will make the drive.If we want/need to have an open carry picnic in the park, I can almost guarantee there will be nothing more than the appropriate level of law enforcement "contact". I would suggest we plan it at least a couple weeks in advance and invite the city council to join us.
Thanks for the welcome and heads up on the rules, i'll keep it all handguns from here on out. I do have my cwp and carry both concealed and open. I don't plan on strapping one on, I sometimes use forums to think out loud because my first course of action is usually the wrong one. Not my fault, I was trained to survive in that meat grinder over the pond. But many of these forums are filled with very knowledgeable and level headed people and that's why I try and frequent them and learn as much as I can.