Wednesday, November 08, 2017

Responding to Comments

In the post about carrying in church,  Jonathon asks:
I read the whole statute and U(5) appears to me to require additional yearly training to carry in a church, even if authorized by the pastor. How do you read that section?
I read it about like you do.  Evidently, it requires eight hours a year.  The follow-up question might be who is going to enforce it?  That's one of those things that they write into legislation to make legislators feel better about passing it..  We can talk all we want to about the particulars of a piece of legislation, but in the end the question is enforcement.  Who is going to enforce it and how will it be enforced?  Beats me.

I'm fairly certain that if a goblin comes into a church and starts shooting the place up, the LEOs who respond will not look at the church records to make sure that the heroes who stopped him were properly certified.  Some things are better left unasked.

Now, moving on to more interesting things,  In the post on the Friday night shoot, Retired Spook notices that I'm left-handed.
Never realized you shot southpaw!
Well, yes and no.  I'm naturally left-handed, but when I started shotgunning as a youth, my Dad tested me for eye dominance and found that I am right-eye dominant.  As such, he taught me to shotgun and rifle shoot from my right side.  When I began police work in the early '80s, I strapped my handgun on my right side.  So, for several decades I shot right-handed.

When I began fast draw, my wife asked why I did't shoot it left-handed, because I do everything else (wrenching, hammering, writing, eating) from the left side.  I found a left-hand holster to humor her, and found that I am several hundredths faster from my left side than my right.

So, yeah, when I put on my duty rig for police work, the pistol is on the right.  When I strap up for Cowboy competition, the revolver is on the left. 

I hope I answered you guys' questions.

3 comments:

Jonathan H said...

Thanks for your response. I have figured something similar; if you stop a shooting, LE is unlikely to press hard on whether you have the right training and unlikely to cite you for carrying in a no-carry zone. After the recruiting center shooting 2 years ago, the military tried to charge the recruiter who fired back for having a weapon where it wasn't allowed and the public outcry led them to drop it.

Interesting commentary on left hand/ right hand differences.

Ryan said...

My non LEO/ Lawyer question would be "what is the penalty or enforcement mechanism of people don't have said 8 hours training?" Also unless there is a specific criteria for said training one could argue a day doing fast draw at Paw Paws would count.

Lastly as a short time resident of the state I wouldn't hold my breath on a law abiding citizen not involved in a crime carrying a handgun getting charged, let alone tried or convicted.

Old NFO said...

So you're ambidextrous... :-) NOT a bad way to be!