Monday, February 25, 2008

staying out of jail


this mukluk contains many weapons. it makes a great arrow holder....


i had to go to the post office today. i went down pretty much directly from my morning hike with mutt. since i hike alot lately, pretty much anywhere i go is directly from the woods.

my neighbor and good friend works at the post office. she laughed when i asked her how much a stamp was, she thinks i'm from another century as it is. she says "if it's too high, are ya gonna shoot me?". that's when i remember that i've got a gun in my boot, tucked nicely between the moosehide and the felt liner. which is, like, a federal offense to have one in a post office.

now, i'm not worried about cindy, she's not about to freak, but i don't know about all the folks doodling around the lobby. the gun is tucked down snug, but the minute i turn from the wall, it is gonna be clear that it is a revolver sticking up there. this is not no little pocket gun, no sir. and come to think of it, i don't know how legal all the sharp things are that i'm sporting on my body. i may use them to peel my apples, but they don't know that.

so i say to cindy "cindy, i've got a gun in my boot, what should i do?"

she snickers and says "well, don't pull it out, for god's sake, you can have the stamps for free" which gets both of us a little hysterical , laughing. so if i had any hopes of not attracting attention, they were long gone.

ultimately, i dawdled by the counter while she waited on the other customers, until i could safely leave the building unobserved. we had a good laugh over the whole thing in our little country post-office, but it was sobering to think what trouble i could get into if i'm not more careful about disarming in civilization.

now, i normally wouldn't be sporting a gun in my boot, but i ordered a holster from Simply Rugged in Wasilla, Alaska. Rob Leahy makes the best leather stuff for guns on the planet. my holster came on saturday, but it was for a 5 shot, and mines a 7, so he shipped me out the right one today. so soon, i will have a georgeous sourdough pancake holster that will enable me to concealed carry in the proper manner.

but that doesn't change the fact that i have to actually think about my weapons before going into civilization. so i put the little sign that you see above in the picture, right where i'll see it when i exit the drivers door. i also made one for by the slider in the back. that will remind me to both disarm when the circumstances call for it, or get armed if i'm in a hinkey area. that oughta keep me out of trouble.

my other option is to stay in the woods permanently, which gets more attractive all the time.....
____________
post-script: tara, who always has my back, pointed out that the sign could attract unwelcome attention from police officers. i'll have to think of something better. thank-you, tara love....

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:17 PM

    Ohmygoddess, what's gonna happen when you get pulled over and the cop looks down and sees that? They don't like it when you're armed!

    ReplyDelete
  2. shit, yeah. never thought of that. i'll have to change it to "check your boot" !

    ReplyDelete
  3. depends on what state you're in, some places, like here, they don't really care.... i carry a loaded revolver most of the time, and in this state (outside of city limits) it's not a problem.But don't keep it in your boot, put it on the seat so the cop can see it (assuming you're allowed to have handguns and it's ok for the cop to see it LOL)

    I have had this same problem, although the postmaster didn't notice, and when I realized what I was doing, I just kind of slunk out the door.

    Got to be careful about the knives too, so many laws about shiny sharp things in cities and some states.

    I'll write back soon, Kate, my work computer crashed and I'm in the process of trying to get the info and emails off of it (that's what I get for updating, sheesh).

    ReplyDelete
  4. hey- i already checked your state, they do not honor pennsylvania's concealed carry permit. i'll have to double check their open carry statutes for out of staters.

    it is a hassle when all states have different laws, traveling can be difficult....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous2:39 AM

    For those who don't know this little gem.

    http://rvbookstore.com/shop/detail.aspx?m=2&p=367

    Take care.

    Neil

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well You can save buying the book, just go here.

    http://www.nraila.org/GunLaws/Default.aspx#?st=OH

    Nice little map of the 50 states, Puerto Rico and Guam provided by those nice gun happy folks at the NRA.
    Click a state and you have a pdf. of all the gun laws for said state.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ok Kate,
    I have a few new stickers you could put on your door. Your pick.

    1) You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun.
    ---Al Capone

    2)He who lives by the sword, will eventually be wiped out by some bastard with a sawn off shotgun
    ---Steady Eddy

    3)The problem isn't easy access to guns, but easy access to oxygen. Certain people shouldn't be breathing.
    ---Don Feder

    4)Always run from a knife and rush a gun.
    ---Jimmy Hoffa

    I dunno, I'm kind of parial to the Al Capone one.

    ReplyDelete
  8. johnny, you are the king of quotes!
    i vote for the capone one, too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous1:16 PM

    Hello Katie, I'm James, I had a similiar incident years ago. I hotshotted and had been out shooting the day before, on call its 24/7. I always carry and on that day I was called on a emergency run to Fl, with a big water pump,for a nuclear power plant,all was well so far, then the surprise, they asked if I had any guns. I thought a second knowing that I was going into a controlled area, so I said yes, no problem said the guard just bring all weapons inside and you can retreive them on the way out. My 1st trip in with my 45 & 9mm with clips 2nd trip sawed off 12 guage shotgun he counted every shell on a form. 3rd trip I brouht the AK-47 in, that was still in the truck from the previous day of target shooting that I normally didn't carry and the extra clips as well, had 8 40 round, 6 30 round and then a large capacity 75 round barrel clip, thats not legal now. He asked then if thats all of it, I got a little embarrased at that point, now keep in mind that I had been out shooting the day before and didn't have time to unload my truck, a supervisor was there and 2 relief guards, they asked if I needed any help, so one of the guards went to the truck, I did tell him about going target shooting the day before and had not unloaded my truck yet, I dug out the 8 military ammo cans with 400 rounds each in them and a opened partially used cardboard case of ammo, back then at the gun shows a case of 1000 rounds were $75 for hollow points and $70 for regular. I thought it was a good deal and even got a extra 10% discount for buying 10 cases. at least the rest were left at home. By this time my girlfriend had returned from walkin my Lab, he traveled with us, Well back inside the guard shack the guard was finishing up the second inventory sheet, ran out of room on the first one. He said is that all now, there are not anymore weapons in your truck. I said no that pretty much covers it, trying to be kind of low keyed and easy going, he then asked what I was skerd of to carry that much fire power, just a little embarrased still when One of the other guards answered him and said with all that he don't need to be skerd of anything. I just told him in a reasonable tone that sometimes we carried high dollar loads and being out on the road there was always the chance for theft or any number of things that could happen, trying to hurry and get unloaded, I hadn't slept for a day and a half at that point and was ready to get a motel room for some much needed rest, of coarse the guards were joking around at that point and asked if I had any knives or sharp objects in my truck that they needed to hold for me. Now I was tired by this point and just told the guard, I did, the supervisor said to the guard not to worry about it, I was thinking thank you, with mechettes, knives, axes, hatchets and other tools we would have needed a wheelbarrow now. One of the other guards ask me do you always carry that around with you, I just told him I took the "be prepared" part of the boy scout motto serious and that was just the way I rolled, of coarse they were back laughing at this point. After spending over a hour unloading and all before I could enter the facility, they finally let me inside, and told me where to go to get unloaded, it took about 10 minutes to get unloaded with a small crane, signed my paper work and told me, we really didn't expect you to get here this quick, you must have drove all night to get here this quick, I told him I thought it was a emergency to get it here, he said well not that bad, but we were down to our last extra pump and like to keep a backup at all times. They used the pumps for cooling something, not really sure what, and really didn't care, I was just was ready to get out of there. I get back to the guard shack, get reloaded and finally get to a motel and got my sleep finally. I ended up going back there a bunch more times after that trip and they became a regular customer and always asked for me each time after that trip.

    James in da GRAYDAWG

    ReplyDelete
  10. good stories, Katie and James! FYI, android apps for gun laws in states: CCW, and Legal Heat.

    ReplyDelete