Marble Falls MayFest Illegally Posted

[locke_n_load]

What attorney costs would you incur if the DA never charged you?

Billable hours by your attorney to convince the DA to not charge you!

No, you would actually want them to continue to try and charge you so you can be the test case! So no attorney hours there!

[RicoTX]

Update... Tonight I went by and the sign was down. So I thought I would go spend some money. When I got to the other side of the park I could see the back of the sign for a different entrance. I never got to see the front because I saw an officer so I asked him if he would let them know this sign was still up. He imformed me that he wasn't going to and it could be posted. I informed him he was wrong...he said take it up with city council. I said I would leave then and started walking to the other entrance where I came in.

Along the way he pulls up next to me and said it was posted because it was a private event. I told him that didn't matter...the city owned it. He then said well it was posted because 51% of the sales were alcohol. I said I highly doubt that considering most of the people were kids and teenagers....it is a carnival after all. I said even if it was, the signs were incorrect.

He said he wasnt going to argue about it. I said it was in the Texas Govt code... He said he knew the code and I was wrong. I told him with all due respect he was wrong...but that I would be on my way.

I got his full name and will follow up with the chief sometime next week...and the Mayor and the City Council because apparently that is what it is going to take.

Im real close to creating a website to call the folks out on all this...and show that they are not friendly to law abiding gun owners. Funny I could have swore almost everyone in office around here was a Republican....

[RicoTX]

You know what's disappointing? The fact that even other LTC holders (not on this forum) assume it's legal to post because the city says so. Maybe I should just ignore the signs and not worry about it...but I won't...because unless somebody makes them obey the law....where does it stop? Obviously some of the LEOs here don't think you or I really need a gun... or they would do their job and enforce the law.

That goes for any Mayor, City Manager, City Attorney, etc... they are either law abiding or they aren't. The same goes for the AG...he either enforces the law and files a civil suit as the law prescribes ... or the law means nothing.

Sad.

[chasfm11]

You know what's disappointing? The fact that even other LTC holders (not on this forum) assume it's legal to post because the city says so. Maybe I should just ignore the signs and not worry about it...but I won't...because unless somebody makes them obey the law....where does it stop? Obviously some of the LEOs here don't think you or I really need a gun... or they would do their job and enforce the law.

That goes for any Mayor, City Manager, City Attorney, etc... they are either law abiding or they aren't. The same goes for the AG...he either enforces the law and files a civil suit as the law prescribes ... or the law means nothing.

Sad.

Here's the problem, at least for me. Lewisville has tried these same things as Marble Falls so I have first hand experience
1. Arguing with individual officers is not something I want to do. I respect the fact that their job is tough enough and that in cases like this, they are mostly likely just following orders. I stopped to question a Denton County deputy that had been placed at the county's tax office about the reason for his being there. He said that it was, and I'm paraphrasing, to keep OCers in line. I believe that he had a personal attitude on the subject, too but I took that all up with the Sheriff, not the deputy. I recognize that not everyone is willing to challenge authority that way. LTC or not.
2. I start off with the premise that many (I won't go to "most") of the elected officials are NOT law abiding. They get elected on an agenda and believe that the end justifies the means. When they can hide behind things like the blatantly incorrect wrong 51% sign, it is because the administrative loophole exists. I believe that both TABC and Child Protective Services, particularly Child Care Licensing (who oversees day care), have too much power to indirectly regulate LTC by punishing the licensed organizations where the Legislature did not intend such punishment. I'm convinced that some (many?) of the 30.07 signs on places that sell alcohol are there because the license holders fear (rightly or wrongly) the oversight backlash against them if an incident does happen. The politicians would not be able use such means if we could get the administrative code tightened up.

I fully understand that there can only be so many Legislative priorities and the we have to deal with whatever the result is. A few extra 30.07s is no big deal. But for 51% or 30.06, the problem is much graver. Lewisville has way more crime problems than any of the other cities that surround it. Going there unarmed is not something I'm willing to do and leaving the gun in a car for the Western Days event is a bad idea, at least to me. While the long term fix would be un-elect the anti-gun pols, that is hard to do when they don't own up to that until after they take office.

[ralewis]

We have a lot of threads here on improperly/inaccurately posted signs. For the public properties, I think it's a good thing this is discussed, and I hope there is enough inertia/energy at some point to deal specifically with the posting of public property. It's probably going to take the law being changed to have a more efficient way to file a complaint and get a result. Perhaps require a notification to the public entity involved that a complaint has been filed and have the penalty retroactively assessed to the date of the notification rather than waiting for the AG to rule.

The above being said, I think as we go about our daily lives what's most important is we understand the law and not allow improperly posted signs to influence our decisions on carrying(at least concealed). I've carried for about 12 years now, and I've lost interest in calling TABC about incorrect 51% signs specifically. I was at a place today that I know for a fact is not a 51% place, and have in the past called TABC which had them take the sign down. It's back now (they have both the Unlicensed and 51% sign), and I'm just not going to worry about it anymore. There is one other place I go often that has the same situation (both the Unlicensed sign AND a 51% sign). After verifying they aren't a 51% location, I just don't worry about it.

I have a similar philosophy with improperly posted signs on public property. Unless they have metal detectors (like the Cedar Park center), I'm just not going to worry about it.

I didn't go to the MayFest this year, but I have been in the past. Don't recall any signs. But I'd probably just ignore them but send a note after the fact to the city manager. This obviously impacts one's ability to open carry and will for these kinds of situations until there is some teeth in the new law about signs on public property.