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Your going to the doctor and KNOW that while in the examining room you will without a doubt have to unconceal your weapon right in front on the doctor/nurse? And we're not talking about lifting your shirt and letting the gun stay in place while they look around, we're talking about dropping the britches. Now, personally, I wear the gun in a holster and I feel it is absolutley, 100% safe even while doing this. No more chance that thing is going to accedentially come out of there if it were on my hip or turned upside down. So, do you go ahead and carry and hope that they don't get freaked out when they see a weapon drop to the floor along with your pants or do you leave it in the car?

Gentlemen, and ladies, your thoughts please.

Wisewr wrote:Your going to the doctor and KNOW that while in the examining room you will without a doubt have to unconceal your weapon right in front on the doctor/nurse? And we're not talking about lifting your shirt and letting the gun stay in place while they look around, we're talking about dropping the britches. Now, personally, I wear the gun in a holster and I feel it is absolutley, 100% safe even while doing this. No more chance that thing is going to accedentially come out of there if it were on my hip or turned upside down. So, do you go ahead and carry and hope that they don't get freaked out when they see a weapon drop to the floor along with your pants or do you leave it in the car?

Gentlemen, and ladies, your thoughts please.

It is illegal to intentionally display your CCW, so doing so in front of the Doctor or nurse is a violation of the law. You should either leave the gun in the car, or, if possible, undress when they are not in the room, wrap up your CCW in your clothes and then when they leave to allow you to redress you can rearm and cover the weapon.

I was thinking along those lines, but I was unsure if the spirit of the law was to keep someone from pulling it out in a grocery store and showing a friend his new gun. Not so much when the doctor is undressing you. To me, I always try to see the spirit of the law instead of the letter. But, the judge my not give a hoot about spirit.

Either way, I think I'll just leave it in the car. Thanks.

Wisewr wrote:I think I'll just leave it in the car. Thanks.

Wisewr wrote:when the doctor is undressing you

First of all, why is the doctor undressing you?

Secondly, if the doc lifts up your shirt then, IMHO IANAL, YOU have not unconcealed your weapon, the doctor has. Same as if you pass out and the EMT's lift up your shirt.

All that said, best to undress yourself privately (for multiple reasons) and/or carry differently to the doctor's office (pocket carry, fanny pack/Maxpedition bag) etc.).

austinrealtor wrote:

Wisewr wrote:when the doctor is undressing you

First of all, why is the doctor undressing you?

Secondly, if the doc lifts up your shirt then, IMHO IANAL, YOU have not unconcealed your weapon, the doctor has. Same as if you pass out and the EMT's lift up your shirt.

All that said, best to undress yourself privately (for multiple reasons) and/or carry differently to the doctor's office (pocket carry, fanny pack/Maxpedition bag) etc.).

I disagree. If it was an emergency then yes, it would be beyond your control. However, if it is a planned visit, and you know the potential is there for them to expose your CCW, then you should take the necessary precautions and leave it in the car or cover it when undressing/redressing.

Pocket carry is the option I take when going to the doctor........if I know I will have to undress I would leave it in the car.

Keith B wrote:

austinrealtor wrote:

Wisewr wrote:when the doctor is undressing you

First of all, why is the doctor undressing you?

Secondly, if the doc lifts up your shirt then, IMHO IANAL, YOU have not unconcealed your weapon, the doctor has. Same as if you pass out and the EMT's lift up your shirt.

All that said, best to undress yourself privately (for multiple reasons) and/or carry differently to the doctor's office (pocket carry, fanny pack/Maxpedition bag) etc.).

I disagree. If it was an emergency then yes, it would be beyond your control. However, if it is a planned visit, and you know the potential is there for them to expose your CCW, then you should take the necessary precautions and leave it in the car or cover it when undressing/redressing.

Understand your point, and if the circumstances are exactly as you described (you KNOW the doc is going to need to lift your shirt), then I agree you could likely be culpable under strict interpretation of the law (of course, if it's just you and the doc, then the doc would have to call the cops and press charges, right? and perhaps there's even a HIPPA violation there? half-serious on that last part)

But I've often been to the doc for something fairly routine and been surprised when the doc (usually from an abundance of caution) wants to examine me more thoroughly than I figured he would (the scene from "Fletch" keeps playing in my head "mooOOOON river ..." ). So what then?

Of course, I strongly agree that the best practice as a CHLee is to prepare for unforseen "disrobing" at the doc's office and carry accordingly. I'd just disagree that you are necessarily breaking the law if the doc lifts your shirt because he wants to check something you didn't forsee him needing to check ... you walk in complaining of a routine sinus infection and he wants to check your abdomen to rule out some rare condition.

My primary doctor's office is in a building belonging to the major hospital in my area. It's posted with a valad 30.06 sign so my gun always stays in the viehicle when I go to visit. My doctor is a CHL himself so I don't think he'd freak out but, the law is the law.

austinrealtor wrote:First of all, why is the doctor undressing you?

See, there you go thinking naughty. You know what I meant.

Just a thought here, is it the assumption that the doctor is male that bothers you with the undressing part? What if the doctor were female, would it matter to you then who did the undressing?

My Doctor and i used to belong to the same Gun Club, so I think my main problem would be him wanting to look at it and maybe not giving it back until he had a chance to take it to the range and shoot it!!

Wisewr wrote:

austinrealtor wrote:First of all, why is the doctor undressing you?

See, there you go thinking naughty. You know what I meant.

Just a thought here, is it the assumption that the doctor is male that bothers you with the undressing part? What if the doctor were female, would it matter to you then who did the undressing?

Actually, I wasn't being "naughty" at all (though now I see how it could be interpreted that way). I just meant that I've never had a doctor undress me. They usually ask me to disrobe if that's required for the exam. If a doctor just started unbuttoning my shirt, that would be HIGHLY unusual and quite unsettling (and not in a "naughty" way - just in a personal space/privacy way)

And I did know what you meant, so there was obviously some sarcastic humor in my response too.

Anyway, I think we've covered the topic. Except to say that upon re-reading your OP I did notice that you specified that you KNOW you're going to be disrobing before going to doc's office. So in that case, I agree completely with what Keith B said ... you need to find a way to maintain concealment under those circumstances OR (and I think I've read another forum member describe this scenario elsewhere) discuss the situation with your doctor BEFORE the exam and have his permission to unconceal within the confines of the exam room (and only in front of the doc - not in front of some nurse or assistant who might freak out). IANAL but I'm fairly confident that if you have the doc's permission to unconceal and the doc owns or is in control of the premises, then you're no longer breaking the law.

But the easiest solution is alterntive carry or leave it in the car.

RedRaider wrote:Pocket carry is the option I take when going to the doctor........if I know I will have to undress I would leave it in the car.

+1

If your doc doesn't give you privacy to undress maybe it's time to get a new doc.

I have 4 regularly scheduled doctor appointments per year, all of which involve removal of at least some clothing, 2 of which are with a urologist... ...need I say more.... On those days, I simply carry my gun in either my Versipak "tactipurse," or a Safepacker (I have one of each), and I simply set it down on the chair with my clothing.