While the state of Indiana doesn't particularly care if you have a bazooka slung over your back while you vote, my polling place is in a school, which is one of the few hard-and-fast No-Totin' zones in the Hoosier state.
It's complications like this I don't need, and that have kept me from trading the Glock 19 for a second M&P 9. On a day like this, the easy-off/easy-on RCS Vanguard 2 has the Glock off the bench and pinch-hitting for the Smith.
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In a sane society, you would be required to open carry in order TO vote.
We should work towards such legislation.
( so ... CCW is unlawful, but stacking a polling place with unarmed but hostile people is lawful? )
Forcibly denying you one constitutionally protected fundamental right in order to exercise another constitutionally protected fundamental right...
Funny that...
Well, that's one of the reasons I like to use the Absentee Ballot. I don't have to give up one Constitutional Right to exercise another. It was nice to know that as I Voted at the Kitchen Table, my RKBA was intact on my hip.
Plus, I get to play Background Theme Music. "Flight of the Valkyries" was my choice this cycle. : )
Here in Utah you can carry in a public school. My election place is in a church (Baptist, not LDS), however, and that is NOT allowed without special permission of the church.
MA is the same way re: schools. Fortunately, we vote in the town hall...
Err, not that I'm tipping my hand or anything...
My polling place shares its premises with the USPO, another no-go zone, and while they have separate entrances, I'd just as soon avoid that argument...
I decided I'm going to vote in person, it's at a church, and totin' is verboten.
But I'd rather my vote gets stolen by the folk who upload the data from the machine rather than merely get lost in the mail.
I'm either too cynical or my Reynolds Wrap headwear is too tight again...maybe a mix of both.
I used my carry license as ID one year. The elections geezer informed me in a hushed tone That I was not allowed to carry in the polling place. I told her that it was OK because I left my gun in my truck. Unattended. On a busy city street like the law required.
She didn't seem comforted.
In Michigan you cannot CC in a school (also my polling place) but you can OC, IF you have a carry permit. OC in a school without a carry permit is still verboten.
On the other hand, iirc, interfering with a voter on the way to or from voting is a felony and the traveling voter may not be arrested.
I understand the theory behind prohibiting weapons at a polling place (other than those carried by state-paid and approved head thumpers), given the long history of "subtle" voter intimidation and discouraging "those people" (whoever "those people" happened to be in a particular locale and era) from voting.
However, I like Kristophr's suggestion to rehabilitate the militia.
Suggestion -- you have to bring _A_ militarily useful firearm to the registrar's office to register to vote at the same time you register that gun (to avoid fraud by having a dozen or so people all use the same gun), present proof by a medical doctor you cannot safely and reasonably bear militarily useful arms, or swear an affidavit that bearing arms or using force violates your conscience. All other mandatory government registration of private firearms would be prohibited.
Your voter's registration would indicate "Armed Voter" (includes people who would bear arms, if their physical condition permitted) or "Conscientious Objector" and an Armed Voter card would qualify as your nationally valid CCW, purchase permit, and unlimited NFA possession document.
In jury selection hearings, possession of a CO status would be an unlimited challenge (and automatic cause to strike) for either side to invoke in a case involving a question of lawful use of force. (I'm not going to ask a Muslim to judge a bacon contest, nor a Mormon to rate coffee -- how can a conscientious objector be a legitimate "peer" to judge someone who is claiming lawful use of force?)
Non-citizens who are lawful residents could follow the same procedure to get an "Armed Resident" card that does everything the Armed Voter card does except allow voting.
Require presentation of the voter ID to vote, with a provision for a provisional ballot unpon presentation of some other government ID that will only be opened if the voter's eligibility is verified in the records after the polls close.
Since we're updating voting laws:
All voters must present Voter Registration Card (VRC) and Photo ID at poling station.
VRC issued to citizen only if they pass the same test given immigrants seeking citizenship.
Upon voting the VRC is time/date stamped and voter dips finger into indelible ink. This will result in a lot of 9 fingered voters in Chicago.
If anyone complains about politics or politicians anyone in earshot can "card" the speaker. Speaker must produce VRC. If card doesn't have the most recent election date stamped on it everyone in earshot gets one free punch. You don't vote you don't bitch.
This was my first election since I got my carry permit, and here in Oklahoma we just got open carry as of last Thursday. I did double and triple checks on our carry laws before going to vote today (at a church).
My gun and holster were only half covered by my coat (because I was cold this morning). I don't think anyone in line even noticed my G19 + X300.
This was my first election since I got my carry permit, and here in Oklahoma we just got open carry as of last Thursday. I did double and triple checks on our carry laws before going to vote today (at a church).
My gun and holster were only half covered by my coat (because I was cold this morning). I don't think anyone in line even noticed my G19 + X300.
Stretch,
Everyone has the right to bitch. Vote, no vote, doesn't matter. Punching people who didn't vote, simply for expressing an opinion, only serves to silence decent from anyone who finds BOTH parties to be odious, thus helping to maintain our current crappy two party system.
s
voting place: town hall in Ct, no statement one way or the other about CCW. Not that I pushed the issue, duly presenting my driver's licence and not my CCW permit. I suppose, if I live in the other half other town (voting in a school) it might be a problem.
I believe rural Swiss still vote under arms. The boys carry their Stgw 90's or 57's to work with them, then stand in line with slung weapons waiting their turn at the machine.
Officers have the option of strapping their pistol on over their civvy suit or wearing their commisioning sword.
When I lived in Brattleboro VT in the mid-70's, the local National Guard commander wanted to get together a decent rifle team, so he released an M-16 and an M-14 to any Guardsman who wanted to practice, along with enough ammo to fight a mid-sized war.
I used to shoot at the free public range out at People's Park in West B, and the boys had a daily shooting match for about two weeks before the rifle team tryouts. If I wasn't there before the rush of dungaree clad lumberjacks and millworkers from Cersosimo Lumber, I had to get squadded along with everybody else.
I'm wondering what the typical New York or Boston tourist hiking by thought when he saw all those Good Ol' Boys hauling "machineguns" out of their pickups?
Yeah well; one of our public schools nearby in Potlatch, Idaho hosts a gun show in the gym every year. You can waltz into the school brouse an arsenal of weaponry, and sachet out with a new, evil, black "assault weapon" and a pallet of ammo, so stick that in your Hoosier pipe and smoke it ; ) -- Lyle
Lyle,
I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of my awesome lifetime carry permit.
P.S.: You'd better tell your Attorney General that his website is wrong...
FWIW, Mrs. Drang and I both voted while packing, WA having gone 100% vote-by-mail.
I still remember the sign at the hospital about no weapons. I half expected, given the neighborhood, to have to go through screening.
"Gun? No, it's is a medical device."
"Yes."
"It's my adrenalin pump."
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