A secret law? And the only people that knew the secret were those that had CHLs. Perfect! That would cut down on the number of places putting up 30.06 signs. Sarcasm off.G.A. Heath wrote:You know folks, your right, we should never correct misinformation because it could be used against us. We should not carry a gun because of the remote chance we might occidentally break concealment and cause someone who sees it might put a 30.06 sign up at their church, business, home, hospital, ect. In fact we should scrub every reference to the 30.60 requirements on the internet so that people will not be able to find it as easy as they can now. Next legislative session I will contact my representative to ask them about filing a bill to make 30.06 a secret law so that it won't even appear in law books or on the state's website! maybe we can get the DPS to start scrubbing it off their website right now.
In all seriousness, where do we draw the line on paranoia about people learning about proper signage? I agree that we should not contact a business and tell them that their signage is invalid/non-compliant. I don't think that a statement along the lines of "TPC 46.035(i) requires a church to provide notice that complies with TPC 30.06 in order for concealed carry to be illegal" is going to cause businesses to go out and start posting 30.06 signs. Statements in the media like I quoted in the original post can lead to legislators thinking that 46.035(i) is a loophole that needs to be closed. While we don't have to worry about that right now, what about in 4 years when even more people have moved in from California are registered voters and there are suddenly more anti-gun rights folks in the legislature? If we take the opportunity to educate the public that it is not illegal, and that it is perfectly normal then we head off a problem before it becomes one.
I'm not sure where to draw the line. I was typing a response to the paper's error and then I thought about the potential audience. My intent was to inform the news paper of their error. Then I thought of the bigger audience. We are always talking about not correcting a business that only posts a gun buster sign or a sign that says no guns, even those with CHLs. Why tell them how they are doing it wrong only to have them turn around and do it correctly?
