# Convenience Stores?



## xxxJakkxxx (Jan 6, 2010)

Ok, sorry about only asking questions and not contributing to any other discussions, but I'm just trying to stay safe while staying legal.

So, the other day I went in to a local 7-11 with my new XDm on my hip. The worker behind the counter noticed it, asked me if it was real and then told me that I needed to cover it up and then never bring it in again. She said that the reason was that police frequent this store and because convenience stores are regularly robbed, the police would have a problem with me carrying it in there.

I know that I cannot carry into a bar or liquor store, but do convenience store such as 7-11 count in the category that restrict carrying firearms? I don't plan on wearing it into that particular store since I go there a lot, like the employees and don't want to make them mad.



Thanks for any help you guys can give on this topic. I'm sure some others who do or will visit will be wondering about the same thing.


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## Todd (Jul 3, 2006)

xxxJakkxxx said:


> She said that the reason was that police frequent this store and because convenience stores are regularly robbed, the police would have a problem with me carrying it in there.


One of the guys from WA will have to chime in on the legalities, but to me, it sounds like the _employee_ is the one with the problem and not the LEOs. I'd call your local PD and see if in fact the employee is correct in speaking for them. I'd also find a new place to do business. But, that's just me.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

You can access the RCW (Revised Code of Washington) online at: http://www.leg.wa.gov/LawsAndAgencyRules/Pages/default.aspx
Try looking under Title 9 and Title 9A, for handguns, weapons, concealed carry, and so on.
I'm pretty sure that if you have a license to carry a concealed weapon, your pistol had better be concealed. Open carry is OK for hunting, I believe, but if you appear in urban or suburban public openly carrying a pistol, you should expect to be harassed. Were I a cop, I certainly would stop and interview you, just for my own safety.
Although the clerk who spoke to you may not have correctly expressed the law, she was giving you good advice, and she was also expressing a popular opinion: "Guns frighten me." Try thinking about it from her point of view: Convenience stores do indeed get robbed quite frequently, so she worries about being shot when she sees a gun.
Further, were that convenience store to be robbed while you were in it, and the BG had already seen your openly-carried pistol, I think you'd be the first person he'd shoot dead, from behind, even before the robbery began.
Open carry is bad tactics!


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## gunsite (Nov 20, 2008)

conceal carry means conceal... not shown, if the clerk noticed it, a bad can, your the first one who is a threat to their robbery/hold-up.

Keeping your weapon conceal is a advantage, advertising your weapon can get you killed/injured/targeted.


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## xxxJakkxxx (Jan 6, 2010)

I have tried concealed carrying, but I have yet to find a comfortable or practical method of concealed carrying. Open carry puts the firearm right at the hip, right by my hand so I can draw it if needed. An IWB holster is too uncomfortable to wear for my size and will be almost as noticeable. I am 5"11', 135lbs. A shoulder holster is impracticable and will show the firearm as much as open carrying, but it will draw more attention. I don't wear over shirts or jackets, just my T Shirts. A torso holster won't work because I wear T shirts and it won't allow for easy access to the firearm. A pocket holsters won't work because I always have my keys, cell phone and other things in my pockets, also I wear jeans that fit, not loose ones. My XDm is too large for an ankle holster, which is also too out of the way for any situation warranting the use of a firearm.

Really, my only option for carrying my XDm is to open carry. I'm happy with that. There are no laws stopping me from doing so in public, in my vehicle, in the grocery store, at my job or at just about any other place that I go to any day. The only down side is that I may become the target for a crime that was already going to happen, but to someone else.


Well, thank you guys for helping out, for those of you that did. Also, thank you all for lecturing me about how I was using my constitutional right wrong, for those of you who did that.
If I have any more questions in the future, I'll be back. Otherwise, I think I have gotten enough information from here.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

xxxJakkxxx said:


> ...Really, my only option for carrying my XDm is to open carry. I'm happy with that. There are no laws stopping me from doing so in public, in my vehicle, in the grocery store, at my job or at just about any other place that I go to any day. The only down side is that I may become the target for a crime that was already going to happen, but to someone else...


Please do me a large favor, and e-mail a PM to me, telling me your route and schedule for the day.
That way, I'll be able to avoid trouble by avoiding wherever it is that you're going to be a target for trouble.
Thanks...


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## Growler67 (Sep 8, 2008)

Your Constitutional Right is on insignificant ground here on the Leftist Coast. What IS legal and what WILL get you in trouble are two different things.

If the store didn't post, the second the employee noticed it and asked you to leave, YOU had NO legal right to do anything but leave in a peaceful manner. Don't like it, take it up with your legislature or Sherrif. Just the way it is, it has NOTHING to do with your Constitutional Rights. Walk into a Walmart the same way and scream about your Constitution then. See what that'll get you.


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## YFZsandrider (Feb 28, 2009)

Steve M1911A1 said:


> ...Further, were that convenience store to be robbed while you were in it, and the BG had already seen your openly-carried pistol, I think you'd be the first person he'd shoot dead, from behind, even before the robbery began.
> Open carry is bad tactics!


I support the right to open carry... but this is the exact reason why I never would! Why would you ever want to give anyone a heads up that you are carrying?! Just doesn't make any sense... bad tactics for sure!!


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## MenaceUser (Feb 3, 2010)

xxxJakkxxx said:


> I have tried concealed carrying, but I have yet to find a comfortable or practical method of concealed carrying. Open carry puts the firearm right at the hip, right by my hand so I can draw it if needed. An IWB holster is too uncomfortable to wear for my size and will be almost as noticeable. I am 5"11', 135lbs. A shoulder holster is impracticable and will show the firearm as much as open carrying, but it will draw more attention. I don't wear over shirts or jackets, just my T Shirts. A torso holster won't work because I wear T shirts and it won't allow for easy access to the firearm. A pocket holsters won't work because I always have my keys, cell phone and other things in my pockets, also I wear jeans that fit, not loose ones. My XDm is too large for an ankle holster, which is also too out of the way for any situation warranting the use of a firearm.
> 
> Really, my only option for carrying my XDm is to open carry. I'm happy with that. There are no laws stopping me from doing so in public, in my vehicle, in the grocery store, at my job or at just about any other place that I go to any day. The only down side is that I may become the target for a crime that was already going to happen, but to someone else.
> 
> ...


Try carrying it more towards your back where your back bends inward. Its a comfortable place. and with the right holster wont be to uncomfortable when u sit. that way u can tuck it under ur shirt


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## Todd (Jul 3, 2006)

To recap:

1) You buy a full-size gun to carry that was made by Springfield for range use.
2) You give a list if excuses as to why open carry is your only option for carrying said gun.
3) You decide to carry in the most conspicuous, attention-grabbing way any gun owner can, even though practically any handgun can be carried concealed comfortably with the proper holster and some wardrobe modifications. 
4) You call "foul" when the store employee tells you not to bring the gun in the store.
5) The long-standing, experienced members of the forum (many who have been carrying and shooting longer than you have been on this Earth) that reside in your state tell you the laws there and give you some very sound advice.
6) You start the ol' "My rights" crap



xxxJakkxxx said:


> If I have any more questions in the future, I'll be back. Otherwise, I think I have gotten enough information from here.


I'm sure with the gracious attitude you've displayed, the server is going to be overloaded with people tryiing to respond to your future posts.


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## Tucker (Sep 23, 2009)

Is it just a store clerk who told you that or the owner? If it is the latter, go to another store because obviously they don't like your business...

Conceal carry...that is what CCW is all about.
:numbchuck:<< I really like this little fella...


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## cougartex (Jan 2, 2010)

I support open carry, but would rather carry concealed.


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

I also support open carry and do so part of the time. What part of "Legal to do so" is so hard to understand.

I haven't heard of any OC carrier in Arizona being attacked this year just because they were open carrying. There must be something wrong with our crooks.

tumbleweed


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## Palmettokat (Nov 11, 2009)

TOF said:


> I also support open carry and do so part of the time. What part of "Legal to do so" is so hard to understand.
> 
> I haven't heard of any OC carrier in Arizona being attacked this year just because they were open carrying. There must be something wrong with our crooks.
> 
> tumbleweed


I realize this is a few months old but your state impresses me with the action it has taken. I understand our state is considering the copying your law.


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## recoilguy (Apr 30, 2009)

My pet peeve is when someone asks advice...,...gets good advice ......realizes it is not what they had hoped for.....complains and talks about their rights when they clearly did not ask 
"do I have that right". they asked what do you think.

I am a firm believer in 
*A*lways
*C*arry
*N*ever 
*T*ell..........

RCG


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## Frank45 (Feb 21, 2010)

If one learns but does not think, one will be bewildered. If one thinks but does not learn from others, one will be imperilled.....Confucous:watching:


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## robertmb67 (Mar 8, 2013)

I just finished the Firearms Academy of Seattle coarse on firearms safety. I am NOT a lawyer, so anything I say is the way I understand the law. WA is an open carry state, BUT owners of private property can declare that property as a no gun area. So, if the owner of the convenience says no guns, that's the way it is.


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## shouldazagged (Feb 7, 2013)

Kentucky is historically a pretty gun-friendly state. Remember, at the beginning of the 19th century we were on the western frontier. Lots of folks here and in my original home state, Tennessee, value the old frontier heritage.

The right to open carry is on the books here.

The only people I see doing it these days, other than LEO's and LGS employees, or folks in rural areas hunting, fishing or working on their own land, seem to be people wanting to make an impression and/or a statement. Usually the former. I'm not impressed. I think doing it to show people that "By God, I can, so I will!" reflects immature judgment at a time when the national climate isn't that friendly to our interpretation of the Second Amendment.

As a 75-year-old man with a full white beard, I wouldn't be breaking the law, as far as I know, to go out on the street in drag, or dressed as an armadillo. It would, however, attract various kinds of attention I definitely don't want. Same with open carry. I could hang my fine old Model 10 on my belt and go all kinds of places. Law enforcement types would probably have rather pointed questions about why the old geezer is doing that, nervous civilians who are afraid of guns would shy away and maybe call 911 (back to the LEO's), and small children would want to see the weapon.

I have had a concealed carry license (I don't like the term "permit", it sounds servile) since it became legal in Kentucky. I've carried legally every day since I got it. But *concealed,* as the law stipulates.

Let the flaming begin...


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## markroyal (Jul 25, 2013)

walgreens told me I am not aloud to open carry in there store. So last night I went to Walgreens to pick up my prescriptions. As I walked pass the Front Counter I said how are you tonight ? The employee immediately told me I was not aloud in the store with my gun !I told her I was a U.S. Marine and she looked at me with these devil like eyes
and said loader I said you are not aloud To have a gun in the store ! I guess I know how the Vietnam Veterans felt when they came back now. I felt like a criminal and very embarrassed. This was the Walgreens on 115 W Little Creek Rd, Norfolk, VA ‎ (757) 489-5291


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

markroyal said:


> ...I felt like a criminal and very embarrassed...


You were acting like a criminal, so you should feel embarrassed.
(You were not on duty under arms, or you would've told her-and us-that ameliorating fact.)

If you were told by an employee that you should not openly display your pistol in that store, the morally-and maybe also legally-correct thing to have done would have been to leave, and then to return with the gun concealed...or left behind.

Generally speaking, the store's employees speak for the store's owner. Thus, their words carry the force of law.
I don't know anything about Virginia's laws, but I can confidently assume that there is a provision that permits a property owner to forbid you to be armed on his or her property.


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## dgwatson45 (Nov 16, 2014)

Please let me know if you play Poker with your cards hidden, or do you show everyone your hand? If you do, please let me invite you to ply some Texas Hold'em here in Texas.


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