Man arrested for Glock under seat

I will store in a holster and in the console or glove box.

Click to expand...

As do I but it's more to protect the gun than to protect my lack of incarceration.

There are times to pick up someone with their thumb out. I live in Wyoming and people can die out in the cold when they become stranded. I have given numerous people rides in the past years, but generally there is a requirement. You had better look decent and your vehicle needs to look respectable. Even then, they will generally quickly notice that I am armed.

whoops.... I totally forgot about this issue until now when I just got back home. Too bad, I left early too and could have been looking this up right now.

I'll have to wait until Monday to check. If anybody else has a Westlaw access that wouldn't be less-than-kosher to use during off-time, maybe they can check up on this and any case law on the matter - post the results. I'm curious.

I might be mistaken. If I am, and it's technically legal to have a holstered gun anywhere in your car, including plain view, I think we all can agree that if nothing else, it's unwise to do anything that is not 100% clearly legal, reasonable, and would appeal to common sense. With that in mind, with my CCW permit, it's either on me and concealed, or concealed in my vehicle in a practical yet accessible way. If I didn't have a CCW permit, I'd put it in a holster, and in the glove-box (somehow with the holster held in place so that access would be opening the glove-box and drawing. I would imagine that is about as kosher legally as it gets yet quickly accessible and practical.

From a LEO's perspective (operating under the same lack of real facts that the rest of us are) I see a couple problems for the lad:
1)

a 20-year-old Navarre man

Click to expand...

need to be 21 for handguns, right?

2)

who told him (the Sheriff's Deputy) he had a Glock under his driver's seat.

Click to expand...

this eliminates suppression based on search violations. Defendant admits to possession of something he is inherently not allowed to possess, thereby giving the Deputy the right to secure the weapon even though it's not in plain view.

3)

The deputy could also see the gun

Click to expand...

Plain view observation of something the defendant is not allowed to have.

4)

he'd had the gun in his glovebox...he moved the weapon

Click to expand...

eliminates any defense that he was unaware that the weapon was in the vehicle

The "competing harms" doctrine would probably not apply since the defendant voluntarily picked up the passenger KNOWING that he had a gun in the vehicle AND that he was unable to store the gun safely and legally with that passenger present AND there was no exigent circumstance forcing him to pick up that passenger. (ie: while you might be arrested and charged with DWI, you can bring a defense in Court that you were in imminent danger at the bar/house etc you were at, had no other alternative--no phone, cab service, etc-- and HAD to drive to remove yourself from imminent bodily injury )

Also, reading the statute you provided (and without access to other caselaw sources that may expand on this statute) I would say the LEO telling you that

a gun had to be in a glove box AND in a snapped holster with the holster in a locked case

Click to expand...

was incorrect. The semi-colon does nothing but separate distinct elements in a list or series. The critical element is the qualifier in the last element:

...; OR in a closed box or container

Click to expand...

(emphasis mine). If this was AND then your friend would be correct, but by using the word OR the statute says that you need to fulfil only one of these restrictions.
To meet your friend's interpretation, the law should read:
" 'Securely encased' means in a glove compartment, whether or not locked, AND ;snapped in a holster; in a gun case, whether or not locked; in a zippered gun case; OR in a closed box or container which requires a lid or cover to be opened for access."

If the Glock was under the seat, but not in a holster, (apart from being dangerous to your third point of contact) it is a violation of this statute.

this eliminates suppression based on search violations. Defendant admits to possession of something he is inherently not allowed to possess, thereby giving the Deputy the right to secure the weapon even though it's not in plain view.

Click to expand...

IANAL, but IMO: Not necessarily. The link doesn't work for me so I can't read the full story, but it could be suppressed a number of ways.

1) Was the call an anonymous tip? If so, was it corroborated by independent police work that led to reasonable suspicion? If not - that's one way.

2)) What caused the officer to single out this guy? Was it a traffic stop during the course of responding to the call? Was it a bad traffic stop, as in, the officer really didn't have a good reason to make a stop? If so, there's another way.

3) .... well, IANAL so frankly I'm out of ideas.... but I'd think some lawyer here on the board can think of something creative.

need to be 21 for handguns, right?

Click to expand...

My understanding of the handgun age thing is that you have to be 21 to purchase a handgun from an FFL, but not necessarily 21 to own a handgun. I think you only have to be 18 to own a handgun and I think you can buy one through a private sale if you're 18. Of course, again I could be wrong, so don't quote me on that.

I think some of the laws about how to transport a weapon in a car are silly. You are usually at a disadvantage if you don't have a CPL. I have one so I always carry it on my person. Otherwise I carry it in the glovebox and legally I think I have to empty it and keep all ammo and magazines in a separate compartment.

Again, I don't know the exact laws in my state because the safest bet for me is to keep it on my person. I also think an arrest rather than a fine or confiscation of the weapon was a little excessive. Bummer.

For those of you who say, "Never pick up hitch-hikers," let me emphasize that in the particular cases I mentioned above, I think most of you would have done the same.

Click to expand...

(much snipped)

Sorry Yoda, but i've read your stories and they've solidified my thinking that one should NEVER, EVER pick up hitchhikers under any circumstances.