Gun free zone and printing

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Yo Mama

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I'm conflicted on a response to seeing someone printing while in a gun free zone such as a school. I don't agree with gun free zones, but saw another parent printing hard the other day. (I know for a fact they are not law enforcement).

So if I said something, the guy is not hurting anyone and just another parent that loves and wants to keep their kids safe. Then I have created an unnecessary problem for nothing.

Or......what if I'm wrong. I dont know the guy. If I had known he was carrying and if he did trigger a horrible event, what would my responsibility have been to prevent this from happening?

Hard one for me as again I hate gun free zones, and believe teachers need to be armed, but life is as it is, they exist and are the law. What do you do in this situation?
 
1. Mind your own business unless it is directly affecting you.

2. Obey the law - report if required or if your gut tells you to. If someone’s mad about being jammed up for breaking the law, well, who’s really to blame?

Sometimes I feel the need to not mind my own business in the interest of public safety - drunk drivers, the guy at the range who mag dumped over the berm toward a housing area, etc.

A guy hard printing in a school? I’d quietly tell him to do a better job not printing without actually saying I know he’s breaking the law.

“Things aren’t always as hidden as we think.” If that doesn’t work, well, he’s an idiot and deserves someone else to report him.
 
Let me preface this with I'm a retired LEO, so my thoughts may be a little skewed.

OP says he doesn't know the guy. Why should anyone assume he's even a parent? Not likely, but someone in a school where everyone knows you're not to be with a firearm could be there with evil intent.

So my thought is at the very least you're dealing with an idiot, because he's risking his freedom, his livelihood, and his gun rights. Since he can't even do a good job of hiding it, you're dealing with an even bigger idiot.
 
(I know for a fact they are not law enforcement).
Are you absolutely certain? Let me explain....around here, you can sign up as a State Constable. You go through a mini law enforcement training process and get sworn in as a LEO. Most people going through this process (based on their personal admission to me one-on-one) do this so they can 1) Legally carry wherever they want, 2) Get into college football games for free (they act as additional security) and 3) To have a badge visible in their wallet to get out of speeding tickets. Many constables here don't talk about being a constable. If they have similar positions where you are this person could be part-time LEO.

If you are close enough friends with this person to absolutely know they aren't LEO then you should be close enough to discreetly inform them they are printing.

If they are a stranger then it's on them to follow the law or suffer the consequences. If they are a stranger, keep an eye on them and be prepared to take cover or fight. Or you could leave the area if you are uncomfortable. A friend of mine had a code phrase with his wife, when they were out in public if one of them saw something that made them uncomfortable they would ask the other person if they wanted to step out for a smoke, neither of them smoke so that was the signal to get up and leave the area.
 
Let me preface this with I'm a retired LEO, so my thoughts may be a little skewed.

OP says he doesn't know the guy. Why should anyone assume he's even a parent? Not likely, but someone in a school where everyone knows you're not to be with a firearm could be there with evil intent.

So my thought is at the very least you're dealing with an idiot, because he's risking his freedom, his livelihood, and his gun rights. Since he can't even do a good job of hiding it, you're dealing with an even bigger idiot.

So if you were still active duty, and if you knew this guy was stand-up and a parent, and if you saw him printing while on school property, what would you have done?
 
Let me preface this with I'm a retired LEO, so my thoughts may be a little skewed.

OP says he doesn't know the guy. Why should anyone assume he's even a parent? Not likely, but someone in a school where everyone knows you're not to be with a firearm could be there with evil intent.

So my thought is at the very least you're dealing with an idiot, because he's risking his freedom, his livelihood, and his gun rights. Since he can't even do a good job of hiding it, you're dealing with an even bigger idiot.
My thinking was similar. I'm pro 2A, but when someone carries in the face of laws against, I gotta wonder why.
He might be hurried with a bunch of things to do but he has to pick up junior.
He might be a LEO, although the OP says he doesn't know the guy but knows he's not a LEO, which I find confusing.
Even if he's a super-pro 2A guy and militant about it I have to wonder if he's there to cause an issue.
Or, he might be a shooter waiting for junior's teacher who failed junior last year to get out of work.

Go back 45 years to my high school parking lot. Probably 1/3 of the male students had a long gun in their vehicle this time of year.
What a bunch of “Molon maybe’s”.
Yeah, maybe, but those high schoolers could buy cigarettes legally, drive without seatbelts and have a fistfight without getting expelled. Different times, for good or ill.
 
So if you were still active duty, and if you knew this guy was stand-up and a parent, and if you saw him printing while on school property, what would you have done?
As an ex-LEO I'd have told him to put the gun in his trunk while he was in the GFZ.
In today's world of hyper-sensativity to situations he could cause someone else who noticed to panic.
 
Most of these types of laws usually have an "any other lawful purpose" section somewhere in the cite, usually somewhere, out of the way or buried at the bottom or last section. The Post Office cite has the same thing (at least for the lobby/public portion cite).

Im assuming that if Im not doing anything "unlawful", and I have business there, then it must be allowed.

If you think about it, most of these type of laws are in fact, unlawful anyway, as far as violating your rights, so a section at the end that states "any other lawful purpose", sort of keeps things "legal", but they dont tell you that and of course, dont point it out or want to discuss it.

Now, who determines what the definition of a lawful purpose is, is anyones guess, and Im sure, its whatever they want it to be, as necessary.
 
So if you were still active duty, and if you knew this guy was stand-up and a parent, and if you saw him printing while on school property, what would you have done?
Tough question! lol

If I was on duty, I wouldn't have much latitude, I would leave it to a judge to decide what to do with him.

Off duty, I'd quietly take him outside, disarm him, then tear him a new one.

This may seem harsh, but we don't know what people's intents are. He may be just an idiot, he may be there to do damage. I would not want to be the one who decided to let it slip, and then something serious happened. Sometimes seemingly good people do very bad things.

If someone pointed it out to me, knowing I was a LEO and I took no action, what do you think the consequences for me would be? Would I be willing to risk my career for an idiot? No way, Andre. He made his choices, he'll have to deal with them.
 
If they are a stranger, keep an eye on them and be prepared to take cover or fight.

I am curious as to what you are going to fight with. Since the best weapon is most likely a firearm then are you going to use the firearm you have with you (that means you are also violating the Gun Free Zone Law)?
 
I'm conflicted on a response to seeing someone printing while in a gun free zone such as a school. I don't agree with gun free zones, but saw another parent printing hard the other day. (I know for a fact they are not law enforcement).

So if I said something, the guy is not hurting anyone and just another parent that loves and wants to keep their kids safe. Then I have created an unnecessary problem for nothing.

Or......what if I'm wrong. I dont know the guy. If I had known he was carrying and if he did trigger a horrible event, what would my responsibility have been to prevent this from happening?

Hard one for me as again I hate gun free zones, and believe teachers need to be armed, but life is as it is, they exist and are the law. What do you do in this situation?

What makes you so certain he was packing heat? Other things can “print.”

Second you do not describe where he was at. Was he on a public street or actually on school property? If he was on a public street is he breaking the law? If so how many hundreds, maybe thousands, of armed citizens are breaking the law by merely driving on the road that is by the school.

Assuming he is packing heat is there any reason for you not to be believe he is a parent that is concerned about the safety of his child(ren) and other children at the school and is taking the steps he believes is necessary to do so?

LEO’s can NOT be trusted to protect your children. The Coward in Broward proved that. You trust the Police. Many of us do not.

THR policy does not condone illegal activity so I will just say I am not a rat.
 
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I am curious as to what you are going to fight with.
Someone once told me "when your only tool is a hammer everything looks like a nail". Another quote that comes to mind is "two is one, one is none". If you really feel like you have to have a gun to go up against someone with a gun, especially at close distances, perhaps you should consider some additional training.
 
What makes you so certain he was packing heat? Other things can “print.”

Second you do not describe where he was at. Was he on a public street or actually on school property? If he was on a public street is he breaking the law? If so how many hundreds, maybe thousands, of armed citizens are breaking the law by merely driving on the road that is by the school.

Assuming he as packing heat is there any reason for you not to be believe he is a parent that is concerned about the safety of his child(ern) and other children at the school and is taking the steps he believes is necessary to do so?

LEO’s can NOT be trusted to protect your children. The Coward in Broward proved that. You trust the Police. Many of us do not.

THR policy does not condone illegal activity so I will just say I am not a rat.

Great questions. Printing on one side was clearly a phone but the other side I could clearly see a magazine. This was inside the school.
 
Are you absolutely certain? Let me explain....around here, you can sign up as a State Constable. You go through a mini law enforcement training process and get sworn in as a LEO. Most people going through this process (based on their personal admission to me one-on-one) do this so they can 1) Legally carry wherever they want, 2) Get into college football games for free (they act as additional security) and 3) To have a badge visible in their wallet to get out of speeding tickets. Many constables here don't talk about being a constable. If they have similar positions where you are this person could be part-time LEO.

If you are close enough friends with this person to absolutely know they aren't LEO then you should be close enough to discreetly inform them they are printing.

If they are a stranger then it's on them to follow the law or suffer the consequences. If they are a stranger, keep an eye on them and be prepared to take cover or fight. Or you could leave the area if you are uncomfortable. A friend of mine had a code phrase with his wife, when they were out in public if one of them saw something that made them uncomfortable they would ask the other person if they wanted to step out for a smoke, neither of them smoke so that was the signal to get up and leave the area.

I have met this individual before. Their career is not in law enforcement. However you make a really good point in terms of other certifications or processes that might have happened on the state constable end, very good point that I would not know.
 
I put the brakes on this question after "I dont know the guy" but "I know for sure he wasn't LE".


This sounds more like a hypothetical than an actual question.

He's no friend of mine, but seen him around school enough to know he's a parent. License plate says he's a gunsmith. Even asked him before and he gave me his card. That's as much as I know about him, which is still little to nothing. Not hypothetical, it did occur.
 
He's no friend of mine, but seen him around school enough to know he's a parent. License plate says he's a gunsmith. Even asked him before and he gave me his card. That's as much as I know about him, which is still little to nothing. Not hypothetical, it did occur.


So you know he's a parent, "license plate says he's a gunsmith", oookay, that's as much as you know about him according to your words.

What about that is definitive that he's not LE?

What several folks have mentioned about minding ones own business is probably pertinent here.
 
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