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by srothstein
Sun Jul 18, 2010 11:25 pm
Forum: General Texas CHL Discussion
Topic: Newbie with a question
Replies: 19
Views: 2556

Re: Newbie with a question

I agree with TXlaw1 only up to a point (even though he is obviously better trained on the law than I am - he is a lawyer and I am not). There is another section of the law where the word "of" is used the same way and does not require ownership (as currently interpreted). That is in the definition of a police vehicle (a unit of a police agency). With so many Constable units requiring officers to supply their own cars, and so many departments where officers supply their own bikes, I would say of is going to be interpreted to mean recognized as operated under the authority of the district. This clarifies some situations and muddies other.

For example, Durham School Services is popular in our part of the state for supplying school buses to districts. They operate them during the year for the school district. If it is controlled by the district then I would say the law applied. In this case, did the district authorize the use by the city? That would indicate to me that they were school buses and illegal. If Durham authorized the lease, then they were not school buses for that trip and you would have been okay. If the bus was actually owned by the district, even if leased to the city for the show, I would say the law still applied.

For the tubing part, I would recommend checking carefully. Many of the outfitters buy old used buses. They may look like or even have old wording claiming to be a school bus (which should have been painted over) but they are really just private buses. In that case, obviously you could carry unless there was a 30.06 sign on the bus door.

My second point of disagreement is in who will make the call. It is a minor technical point, but the beat cop will make the call first not the DA. If the beat cop agrees with you or decides to handle the case by getting you off the bus and out of the area, the DA will never know. The way it works is that a beat cop always makes the first decision, the supervisor may overrule it but cannot make the decision unless on the scene. The DA gets a chance to overrule the beat cop, then the grand jury gets their chance to overrule the DA. The judge and petit jury get their chance to overrule the grand jury and the appeals court can overrule the trial court. You can see the pattern I am sure, but the only time anyone gets to overrule the beat cop is if he decides to arrest or write the report to file charges. No one that is not on the scene can overturn his decision to let you go and trash the case. My personal opinion is that this is why we see so little case law on things like 30.06 violations - cops handle them without arrests.

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