What you described is definately a loaded gun in a vehicle, no denying that.However the fact that this guy as not in uniform and did not provide any official identification is a little suspicious.Call the CO office give his name (if you have it)and explain what happened, dont try getting out of the ticket pay the fine you broke the law.If this guy is a fraud i think they should be interested in your info, and do what they can to find him.
I'm just here to provide moral support......Hey nice (insert animal here)congrats.
In memory of you dad..."you always leave a campsite cleaner then when you found it"
There's only one thing in life that constitutes insanity..... continuing to do the same thing you have been doing but expecting different results.
Suck it up, cause your busted...
You did ask for the advice from the peanut gallery this afternoon and hopefully someone will learn from your mistake.Sorry for the tough love , but the regs are pretty straight forward on definition of loaded firearms.
At what time did you guys figure out he was the boogey man anyways, cause I certainly wouldnt let anyone approach my guns or my truck in such a forward a manner as described without challenging him/her .
Again, sorry to hear you got pinched.
Rob
If you have a copy of the ticket ( which you should ) you can find the officer's name in the form of his signature which may or may not be totally legible near the bottom of the ticket. Also included will be his personal identification number whether badge number ( for those who demand ) or whatever his agency uses to personally identify their officers. Its all part of the legal "fine print" that must go on the ticket or it will not be valid.
As far as your own admission about the magazine attached to the rifle ( in the truck ) you know the answer to that one and you should know better.
Mike
Last edited by ultramafic; 10-05-2008 at 02:43 PM. Reason: clarification
Same as you can be tagged for shooting over the hood or mirror.
I've heard of it happening before, exactly as he says. Same with an ATV. If the gun is loaded and touches the vehicle, they consider it to be a loaded firearm in a vehicle.
Someone should really challenge it to get it restricted back to its original intent of keeping people from driving around with a loaded gun and shooting from in the vehicle, rather than their broad interpretation that since it is loaded and touching the vehicle its the same as being inside. I'm not volunteering, but the next person pinched for a gun leaning against a tire should strongly consider it.
The way you describe the situation the gun was loaded in the eye of the law. (Probably even if you would glue the magazine to the side of the gun. Lol.) I know it's silly, but politicians are not known for common sense and logic. That leaves you, and all of us, to deal with the BS.
What I am more concerned about is that supposed CO. If it were me, I would have asked the guy for identification. Any yahoo can walk up to you and say he is a CO and write a fine out on a form that he has downloaded from the Internet. Prove it!
There was a story not so long ago of a fake traffic warden in America. He wrote out parking violation thickets and made thousands of dollars before they caught him. NEVER trust somebody just because he wears a uniform, or as in your case says he is a CO. That doesn’t mean anything until he can prove it.
"Wouldn’t it be wise for us to be more tolerant of each other and pick our battles with the ones that really threaten our way of life?"
That right there is the problem and reason why it is so easy for the government to restrict our rights and freedoms. NOBODY wants to do anything. NOBODY wants to get actively involved in organizations that could stop such lunacy if they only had enough volunteers.
Years ago when I still lived in Illinois I tried to rally muzzlelader shooters to stop a law that would outlaw hunting with traditional muzzleloaders in favor of in-line muzzleloaders. It took me a year to lobby ten people. Most of the folks declined with the usual excuses. “No time”, “I have to consider my family.”, “I am not a traditional muzzleloader hunter so what should I care about.” And so forth.
Then the law passed and this very same people who had not time started bitching and asked why nobody did anything about it. The problem is that we always expect somebody else to protect our rights. At one time in the past there has been a law that said that all black people had to sit in the back of the bus. But at least they got up a fought hard, unlike today were we just shrug our shoulders and say, “It’s the law.”
I am not aiming at you personally here. Just saying how it is generally in society these days. We have become sheep that go bah if we get prodded with the stick but we do generally not turn around and head putt the ones doing the prodding.
Last edited by huntwriter; 10-05-2008 at 06:40 PM.
"Wouldn’t it be wise for us to be more tolerant of each other and pick our battles with the ones that really threaten our way of life?"