Victory: Michigan Open Carry & Arts, Beats & Eats Festival

[bigalexe]

Well Michigan Open Carry and the currently Royal Oak based festival known as Arts, Beats & Eats had a short little go around regarding policy that got a ton of media attention.

The festival is a closed outdoor street festival (temporary fence barriers) that takes place on otherwise public streets. The festival organizers had stated initially they were going to ban OC and CC at the event because there were large numbers of people in close proximity and also alcohol would be available.

Result: The City of Royal Oak ruled that the organizers could not ban legal carrying of firearms at their venue. Also of note is this bit from the article on WDIV the local NBC Affiliate.

Gilliam said Royal Oak's agreement with festival organizers conflicts with Michigan Complied Law, 123. 1102, which states that a "local unit of government" shall not regulate possession of firearms."

Here is a link to the full text of the article from WDIV.
http://www.clickondetroit.com/community/24570609/detail.html

 

[HOWARD J]

I will bet that plainclothes cops will be everywhere trying to see if
they can catch one of these carrying folks taking a drink.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Good to hear Freedom still rings.

 

[DocCasualty]

Now the City of Royal Oak City Council voted to appeal to the State to allow them to prohibit firearms in public buildings as they have a "chilling effect". This was a direct upshot of the many OC'ers present over these weeks for the Public Meetings. Doubt they'll be successful as other municipalities attempts to over-ride the State's pre-emption laws have failed, however, one more thing to keep an eye on.

 

[TexasBill]

They probably won't get very far: Governor Granholm, a Democrat, has already said there is "little appetite" for new gun control laws in the Michigan legislature.

All of the usual straw man arguments have been raised; Old West, gun-totin' drunks, etc. Michigan has very strict laws on brandishing a firearm and you can get arrested for having a gun and a BAC of .02 (less than two 12-ounce beers for a 200-pound man) and you can bet the cops will be watching the concessions stands.

Furthermore, I would imagine the Michigan Open Carry group has told its members and anyone else planning to carry at the Arts, Beats and Eats Festival to be on their very best behavior: don't pull the gun, don't touch the gun, don't make a big deal about the gun, etc.

One columnist for the Detroit Free Press has announced he will carry a banana at the festival. He says he plans to challenge each open carrier by saying "Mine's longer than yours." Maybe he'll run into someone with an S&W .500 or a Ruger Super Redhawk.

Another columnist, Rochelle Riley, in a column entitled "Royal Oak's choice: Guns or families" closed her piece by challenging the Royal Oak City Commission, saying, "I can make it easy for them where one participant and her family are concerned. Guns. Or us." (I do hope she has a movie or something picked out for this weekend.)

Riley's column was a hoot: She invoked Old Tombstone, Arizona, in the days of Wyatt Earp, when the cowboys had to surrender their guns while they were in town. I guess nobody to her that, in modern-day Tombstone, it's perfectly legal to carry a sidearm, openly or concealed, without a permit. Just as it is in the rest of Arizona. And Alaska and Vermont.

Here's a link to her column: http://www.freep.com/article/20100815/COL10/8150491/1164/Col10/Royal-Oaks-choice-Guns-or-families-at-festival#ixzz0x83cQGlO

 

[Jumping Frog]

One columnist for the Detroit Free Press has announced he will carry a banana at the festival. He says he plans to challenge each open carrier by saying "Mine's longer than yours." Maybe he'll run into someone with an S&W .500 or a Ruger Super Redhawk.

Hmmmm, if I felt like driving up there, maybe I should open carry my Mosin-Nagant and see what the little man thinks of his banana now.

 

[LAK]

Someone tell Mr Detroit Free Press to practice his draw and keep his banana at the ready. If some punk tries to rob, carjack or otherwise do him harm, his life could depend on it.

----------------------------------------

http://gtr5.com

 

[bigalexe]

**UPDATE**

The results are in, the festival had DOUBLE the attendance of last year and no one got shot.

 

[zoom6zoom]

"Mine's longer than yours."

Hopefully someone asked him what he's compensating for.