Concealed means concealed, and plain sight means plain sight. They are opposites, but "the definition of "plain sight" is not "not concealed" and vice versa, at least not legally. In other words, there's a spectrum of grey area that could either be "plain sight" or "concealed", or neither, depending on case specifics, the statute that applies, and the judge/jury.
I think the difference lies in two major thresholds; at what point a stored or carried handgun becomes noticeable to observation, and at what point there can be no question that the object is a handgun. If no-one sees it, it's concealed and not in plain sight, pure and simple. If someone sees it, it's no longer concealed (we won't get into printing; whether someone thinks it MAY be a gun or something else doesn't matter) but not yet in plain sight. Plain sight requires, once the object is noticed, that a reasonable person could not come to any other conclusion than it is a handgun.
This definition still poses grey area. Suppose you have a triangular gun case. Such a shape is virtually never used for anything else with the possible and rare exception of lunch. If there is a gun in that case, is it in plain sight if the case is left on the front seat? Another situation is when a gun is not in plain sight only because of the person's body position. A gun kept at 4:00, or under a person's leg, or in the door of the vehicle, is not in plain sight when the person is in the seat and the door is closed, but becomes so very quickly when a person steps out of the car, and depending on the circumstances there may be no way to move the gun without it becoming plainly visible. I think you may be safe on that second count; the law cannot compel the performance of an impossibility, so you cannot be required to move the gun under an officer's watchful eye while it remains out of plain sight. In addition, prosecuting an individual for breaking a law by unlawfully carrying, when the person only came into violation of the law in the first place by obeying the commands of an officer, sounds suspiciously like entrapment.
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Return to “I was made by a total stranger - and it went OK”
- Thu May 29, 2008 12:18 am
- Forum: Never Again!!
- Topic: I was made by a total stranger - and it went OK
- Replies: 9
- Views: 2459
Re: I was made by a total stranger - and it went OK
It's a grey area, but you have to intentionally fail to conceal.