Full Timing With Weapons
As a fulltime RV’er traveling from State to State what is your general understanding of carrying weapons from one State to another? I do not have a concealed carry permit but I do keep a .45 cal in...
Forum Discussion
musicman54 wrote:
he basicly did the same by telling the ranger i think i know i was state officer in ca for 25 years
He basically did the same what? He did not communicate a threat to me by telling the park ranger. What kind of state officer were you? The issue here is that the laws in a state park are different than the laws outside of the state park.
Law enforcement is suppose to enforce laws, they file charges based on how they see the law and the district attorney either supports those charges or dismisses those charges; so the police do not have the final say. It is the prosecutors and ultimately the courts that determine the legality or illegality of something.
I have been in court many times as an expert witness in substance abuse cases, child custody cases, and mental health cases. Of course those days are gone now and today I do not consider myself an expert at anything. But when I was working I was sometimes called into court to testify for defendants and other times called by prosecutors. If I could not support a case I usually refused to appear, that is unless I received a court order to appear.
The bottom-line is that I could have pleaded not guilty in this case which I described in my OP, and shared with the court how I learned this was a training exercise for the park police, or how I misinterpreted the law, or did not see a sign prohibiting weapons when entering that park, etc. But ignorance is no excuse and so I just plead guilty to save myself some time and money.
As a retired person a misdemeanor has no effect on me unless I get busted again, and fortunately California revised its’ 3-strikes law to not include misdemeanors as part of the 3rd strike. In the past a person got 25-years to life in prison because they had 3-misdemeanor convictions. I have no prior arrests, and I do have to be very careful because I could lose all of my Veterans’ Benefits, which I depend on, if I am convicted of just one felony. That gives me an added incentive to walk the straight and narrow; besides the fact that I would hate to go to prison.
