You are preaching to the choir in that regard.
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Open carry in Massachusetts, is it Legal?
- Thread starter BigMoby
- Start date
You are preaching to the choir in that regard.
While I support OC, it's not something I normally do. To me, it's like flashing a big roll of bills at a bar. You may attract attention, if that's your goal. That attention may be favorable, like from the cougar sitting two stools away, or it may be negative, and result in one or two guys waiting outside the bar to relieve you of that roll of bills. ![[wink]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/002.gif "Wink [wink]")
People OC'ing doesn't bother me in the least, it's just an activity that I choose not to participate in.
People OC'ing doesn't bother me in the least, it's just an activity that I choose not to participate in.
Yes, it is legal. You may hear a bunch of conjecture on whether or not to do it. Maybe 1-3 people have actually been in trouble for doing this in the last 10 years. With the new laws about discretion now here, I do not know if we'll see many people bothered by this sort of thing going forward. It is best to use your own discretion.
Edit to add:
Put those two together, and you have:
One is not responsible for alarm caused to others by his mere carrying of concealed weapons pursuant to a license permitting him to do exactly that nor is the mere observation that someone is carrying a gun, absent some other indicator of criminal activity, does not give police reason to believe that a crime is being committed or to stop/detain/search such a person.
Pretty powerful language here, and on top of the new limitations on discretion, makes open carrying even easier than before, if that is your thing.
Edit to add:
Put those two together, and you have:
One is not responsible for alarm caused to others by his mere carrying of concealed weapons pursuant to a license permitting him to do exactly that nor is the mere observation that someone is carrying a gun, absent some other indicator of criminal activity, does not give police reason to believe that a crime is being committed or to stop/detain/search such a person.
Pretty powerful language here, and on top of the new limitations on discretion, makes open carrying even easier than before, if that is your thing.
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Wow, your one of those people who popped out knowing everything! Congratulations, met a few tools like you in my life. What questions can I ask, oh yah and what books are ok to read. Anything else YOU don't tolerate. I try searching the forums for my answers but sometimes you can't muddle through it all. Sorry, if I offended you in some way.
StevieP
NES Member
BigMoby - You'll need to learn to have a VERY thick skin around here. This *IS* a frequently asked question. It really does come up a lot, and has been asked and answered much as this thread has, at least once a month. Some people get tired of repetitive questions and answers. There are entire bands of "dupe cops" who wait, hawk-like, for someone to commit the offense of posting something that was already posted, just so they can be a board police and call them out for it.
Oh. Go Green! Membership has its privileges.
StevieP
NES Member
I thought, in MA, if LEO asks to see your LTC, you must show it. I could foresee a situation where an open carrier is confronted by a (e.g.) street cop. Cop sees gun. Asks for ID/LTC. Carrier must produce LTC. But according to everything else here, there's no other reason for the officer to detain or otherwise report him, correct?
MisterHappy
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Not to come across as a wise-ass, but why did you think that? Gun store scuttlebutt? Wrong info from a cop? Massachusetts osmosis?
This is an interesting question. I'm far from an expert on MA laws, besides IANAL.
Taking a strictly constitional approach, even if a LEO sees you carrying, that doesn't provide adequate "probable cause" to believe that you are carrying illegally. In a strictly constitional sense he would not be allowed to demand to see "your papers" simply because you are carrying a weapon.
That probably isn't the easiest way to manage the situation, but (excluding MA specific laws) should be technically legal.
MA is NOT part of America. If an officer demands to see your LTC, you MUST hand it over, it is part of the conditions of having the "privilege" of having a LTC (or FID) in MA>
I expected that to be the case, but I'm not familiar enough with the MA laws to look it up.
Sad, really.
Quiet
Banned
The law doesn't say you have to stay after you produce your license.
But I bet a court would say the intent is to identify you, so you have to stay detained for whatever amount of time is necessary for the officer to be assured of your identity.
But I bet a court would say the intent is to identify you, so you have to stay detained for whatever amount of time is necessary for the officer to be assured of your identity.
That would certainly deem carrying a privilege and not a right. Can the cops even ask a driver for their license without probable cause or any violation?
While it is the law to show an LTC when asked, can one plead the 5th if asked if one is armed? Are you required to allow the police to inspect/ remove the gun from your person?
I hear this crap all the time from otherwise sensible gun owners. I challenge them to identify the MGL that says open carry is not legal. I also remind them that, in a free society, everything is legal unless it is specifically illegal.
Funny you mention BPD because the only time i had a LEO tell me they had to be creative (eg, with a generic "man with a gun" encounter") when asking for an LTC was with a guy from BPD... Basically he said that absent other indicators, if they wanted someone to produce an LTC they had to socially engineer people into presenting it voluntarily instead of just demanding it.
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True, but there is also case law that says the cop has no reason to ask for an LTC unless there is a reason beyond your carrying the gun.
Cops will generally say something like "show me your LTC" rather than "do you have an LTC" as the later is asking for a potentially incriminating statement without a Miranda warning.
Really? You couldn't have searched too hard. I just entered OC in the search box and got 500 (the maximum) threads on OCing.
I see that you're new here, believe me, within a year, you too will be tired of all the rehashed OC threads. It has been discussed to death.
hillman
NES Member
Yet a search of couture and simkin only returned 2 threads in a search, this being one of them, so every one in a while, asking the question again may get you a better answer.
Where in the OP's original post does it mention anything regarding couture or simkin?
hillman
NES Member
No, it doesn't. My point was in all the other open carry threads that a search turned up, none but this and one other mentioned those two cases that are important to know in regards to open carry. So in asking this question for the millionth time, this thread seemed to give slightly more info than the others. So, sometimes it's worth it to ask again.
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Quiet
Banned
Sorry, open transport is clearly illegal, I just looked it up
Open transport is illegal, MAGL malegislature.gov
(That's about booze. Handguns are fine. Long guns are not.)
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