Arizona CCW/open carry issue

[Outlaws]

So I have had my CCW for 6 months now. I finally really want to carry a full sized 1911, but I noticed once in a while the end of the holster wants to show itself when I bendover and neal down. Since AZ is open carry, and is something like 1/2 the holster is visible, its still considered open carry, there seems to be some grey area that I don't understand.

Ex. 1
Say you have a jacket on and your pistol concealed, but you need to take off your jacket. Can you then "transition" to to open carry, or is that considered brandishing?

Ex. 2
You have a pistol on your hip, but under a baggy shirt. You need to bend down. While doing so the tip of your holster is displayed as your shirt lifts up a little. Is that brandishing or just consider open carry?

Ex. 3 (this is dumb just to show I know the obvious)
You are yelling at someone and you lift your shirt to display your piece. This is brandishing.

Ex. 4
You are in a parking lot selling a firearm (rifle or handgun) and you take it out of its case to show someone and someone else in the parking lot notices. This is also brandishing. (so said the CCW instructor)

 

[Sistema1927]

I don't know about Phoenix ("Valley of the Sun"?) since it is a different kind of place, but I have had no problem while travelling in other parts of Arizona (White Mountains, Flagstaff, Winslow, Williams, Tucson, Sierra Vista, Tombstone, etc.) with open carry, "semi-open" carry, or concealed carry. I don't think that 1, 2, or 4 would be considered "brandishing" in any of those locales. YMMV.

 

[salvador31c]

Ex. 2
You have a pistol on your hip, but under a baggy shirt. You need to bend down. While doing so the tip of your holster is displayed as your shirt lifts up a little. Is that brandishing or just consider open carry?

seeing if its just a little showing for an instint and a person just happens to see it would it matter, you have a CCW and Open Carry is OK i would think you would be in the clear if that said person were to painick and scream gun

You are in a parking lot selling a firearm (rifle or handgun) and you take it out of its case to show someone and someone else in the parking lot notices. This is also brandishing. (so said the CCW instructor)

whoa, really i dint think that was considerd brandishing, uhoh i think i may have broken a frew laws

 

[Old Fuff]

Arizona is a pretty-much gun friendly place...

For open carry you don't have to have 1/2 of the holster showing - only enough so that a person (police officer in particular) would know that it was a holster.

A person that doesn't have a CCW must open carry. A person who does can carry either way - open or concealed - and switch back and forth at will.

In Arizona if you are 18 or older you can open carry. At 21 you can get a CCW.

You're good to go...

 

[Outlaws]

A person that doesn't have a CCW must open carry. A person who does can carry either way - open or concealed - and switch back and forth at will.

I was just wondering if the switching back in forth in public was considered brandishing.

I know my instructor said in Texas if it even pops for a second you can get in trouble becuase they don't have open carry, but then I could have sworn he said something about it being called brandishing here. Maybe not then....

 

[Old Fuff]

Not likely. To brandish you have draw the handgun from the holster, and then point or wave it around in a threatening manner. Or you have to expose or draw it while having some sort of verbal or physical confrontation with someone.

Arizona laws are entirely different then Texas.

 

[History Prof]

I was just wondering if the switching back in forth in public was considered brandishing.

I know my instructor said in Texas if it even pops for a second you can get in trouble becuase they don't have open carry, but then I could have sworn he said something about it being called brandishing here. Maybe not then....

I just finished the AZ CCW last week. According to my instructor, only your example #3 would be brandishing. Any other "transition" from CCW to Open Carry is perfectly legal. In fact, he used your example #1 as his example. BUT, he did say any transition could be troublesome if someone took your transition as a threat. Most cops that he knows, however, would have a chat with the person making the call if it were any of your other examples. (The instructor was himself a police Sgt.).

Note, I am in rural AZ, and just about every cop within 100 miles of my home is pro-RKBA. YMMV in Pima, Maricopa and especially Coconino County.