when boondocking do you bring a weapon ?

[luberhill]

we will have our dog,,,who doesn't miss a trick and will cause a problem IF she needs to protect,,,but I was thinking of carrying a shotgun too,,,any problems doing that ?? I have a NY pistol license but cant cross state lines

[Can_t_Wait_Now]

People need to realize that folks grow drugs in the back country and cook meth We don't live in a fairytale world were cops are at every corner to protect us. Anymore we are on our own .

[toedtoes]

luberhill wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Not that anybody wants to, but if we return to the original theme of the thread there is another issue with weapons and boondocking. When you boondock, you have no more right to be there than anyone else. You don't have a defined area that is "yours". If you actually get into a confrontation and shoot someone that is going to be a legal tidbit that is going to cause you a whole lot of grief.
I no longer feel comfortable traveling the back country of Montana's great national parks. The law has been changed and now people are allowed to carry firearms in those parks. My concern is someone who has never been in the back country is going to hear a sound, automatically assume it is a grizzly and begin to fire randomly into the bushes. If that sound came from me and my horse walking a trail, that is a problem.
A weapon in a situation where you are unfamiliar and uncomfortable doesn't suddenly make you familiar and comfortable. It just adds fuel to a potential fire.

Ok MY use of the gun would be this: someone knocks on the door at night,,,,dog goes nuts,,,I ask what they what,,,they say open up,,,I say pls leave,,,I am armed and my dog will bite,,,they break the door open,,,,,I get to leave,,,they do not !

Sounds like you already decided to bring a gun - so why ask the question in the first place? If 10 people posted No and 1 posted Yes, would that have changed your mind?

Rather than start the pro-gun, neutral-gun, anti-gun argument, why not just do what you're going to do and be done with it?

If you want to carry a shotgun because it makes you feel safer, then carry a shotgun. As to whether the risk is there - well that depends on your definition of risk and your risk tolerance.

One thing to remember about boondocking is that you boondock to get away from people - the odds that your location is going to have some nut case hiding behind a tree just waiting for you to appear so he can come at you is pretty minimal. Most of these crimes are crimes of opportunities - to be an opportunity, the nut case has to be in your specific area at the exact time that you are there - with the size of our national forests, BLM and COE lands, those odds are really darn low.

[LLeopold]

So long as we stay on topic, I'm ok with it. No politics, no flaming, etc. Follow the Forum Rules and we're good.

'Nuff said.

[path1]

Hey Mod...thanks for keeping this open. Interesting points of view from all that contributed.

[malexander]

I carry. nuf said.

[2gypsies1]

We full-timed for 16 years and absolutely love boondocking in national forests and BLM lands. We've stayed way out in the boonies by ourselves. We've left the motorhome and took off siteseeing in our Jeep. We've never had anything stolen. Our many full-timing friends do the same.

We've never owned a gun and never plan to do so. There are too many paranoid folks looking over their shoulder at every turn. What fun is that?

We don't put ourselves in that kind of environment and criminals don't give a rip about the places we stay. It's too difficult for them. 🙂

[ksg5000]

Yep - don't see much downside in storing a weapon in an RV - maybe I am one of the "old guys" who remember seeing people walk into banks with sidearms without raising an alarm.

[Acdii]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
But if the guy is in your backyard, he is trespassing. You have the right to demand he leave. You can call the police and they will arrest them. If you are boondocking, they have as much right to that ground as you have. They aren't trespassing. The police can't arrest them or even make them leave. You can't call park management and have them deal with the issue. A firearm displayed in an aggressive manner by you in such a situation would almost certainly be illegal and probably worse than a misdemeanor.

This is the exact truth. It is what is drilled into your head in any CCW class. The one, and only time drawing a weapon would be considered legal is if, and only if, you or your family member is under direct threat of harm.

As for carrying while traveling, other than to keep the firearm locked up and safe, there is no reason to carry one on a trip, unless you plan to also hunt. My CCL isn't recognized in several states, so to have one, it has to be locked up, and stored so it is inaccessible in those states that don't permit my states CCL.

Now in my state, I don't know of other states, but in my state, the only firearm permitted with a CCL is a handgun. A rifle or shotgun must be treated like any firearm that a non CCL would do. That is, the weapon is broken down so that if it has a magazine, the magazine is empty, the bullets are in a separate container, and everything is in a locked case. In this manner, it would be illegal to have a loaded shotgun in my vehicle, even with a CCL.

Bottom line, if you plan to carry a shotgun for personal defense, you better know the laws of every state you travel in or through and abide by them.

[luberhill]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Not that anybody wants to, but if we return to the original theme of the thread there is another issue with weapons and boondocking. When you boondock, you have no more right to be there than anyone else. You don't have a defined area that is "yours". If you actually get into a confrontation and shoot someone that is going to be a legal tidbit that is going to cause you a whole lot of grief.
I no longer feel comfortable traveling the back country of Montana's great national parks. The law has been changed and now people are allowed to carry firearms in those parks. My concern is someone who has never been in the back country is going to hear a sound, automatically assume it is a grizzly and begin to fire randomly into the bushes. If that sound came from me and my horse walking a trail, that is a problem.
A weapon in a situation where you are unfamiliar and uncomfortable doesn't suddenly make you familiar and comfortable. It just adds fuel to a potential fire.

The olny "sound" that I would react to with a shot is the sound of my door being kicked in in the middle o the night,,,bear or man,,,he is going down ! I am NOT going on the next episode of Criminal Minds 🙂

[luberhill]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Not that anybody wants to, but if we return to the original theme of the thread there is another issue with weapons and boondocking. When you boondock, you have no more right to be there than anyone else. You don't have a defined area that is "yours". If you actually get into a confrontation and shoot someone that is going to be a legal tidbit that is going to cause you a whole lot of grief.
I no longer feel comfortable traveling the back country of Montana's great national parks. The law has been changed and now people are allowed to carry firearms in those parks. My concern is someone who has never been in the back country is going to hear a sound, automatically assume it is a grizzly and begin to fire randomly into the bushes. If that sound came from me and my horse walking a trail, that is a problem.
A weapon in a situation where you are unfamiliar and uncomfortable doesn't suddenly make you familiar and comfortable. It just adds fuel to a potential fire.

Ok MY use of the gun would be this: someone knocks on the door at night,,,,dog goes nuts,,,I ask what they what,,,they say open up,,,I say pls leave,,,I am armed and my dog will bite,,,they break the door open,,,,,I get to leave,,,they do not !

[luberhill]

Jayco-noslide wrote:
We don't own a gun for a lot of reasons. Don't hunt anymore so it would only be to shoot a person. We think that the risk of misusing the gun and shooting someone by accident is greater than risk of being attacked. Also, in most situations things would probably happen so fast and we would be so hesitant to fire that it wouldn't help. Shooting someone and going to prison is a fear. I don't think the risk of being attacked is any higher RVing than it would be about anywhere. We do carry bear spray (for bears) and would have it close if danger anticipated.

I know many people that don't hunt but still own guns,,,not to shot people with either,,,,,they target shoot, trap and skeet shoot etc

[Jayco-noslide]

We don't own a gun for a lot of reasons. Don't hunt anymore so it would only be to shoot a person. We think that the risk of misusing the gun and shooting someone by accident is greater than risk of being attacked. Also, in most situations things would probably happen so fast and we would be so hesitant to fire that it wouldn't help. Shooting someone and going to prison is a fear. I don't think the risk of being attacked is any higher RVing than it would be about anywhere. We do carry bear spray (for bears) and would have it close if danger anticipated.

[toedtoes]

Roy&Lynne wrote:
Mention guns and your going to get 20 pages and then the admins locked it. I must be lucky, the only encounter that I've ever had was with a chipmunk coming to visit. I don't even havw a dog. Guess we are lucky out here in the west, lots of nice people, and few of the not so nice dont bother to come way out into the wilderness to cause disruption. We do carry bear spray if we are going to bear country.

That's my experience - although I do have 2 dogs and Bat-dog was absolutely positive that raccoon was carrying a bomb last November. Good thing I don't let her carry - she would have shot an innocent raccoon who was just taking a stroll around the campground. 🙂

[Opie431]

We have bear spray, oven spray cleaner and an aluminum bat. Never had to use any of them.
Had the bear spray pulled out and ready to use once in the Canadian Rockies. The bear decided to leave.

[toedtoes]

westernrvparkowner wrote:

Muddydogs wrote:

toedtoes wrote:
I think WRPO's point is that with a home, you have a defined area that belongs to you surrounding that home, with a developed campground, you have a defined area that "belongs" to you surrounding your RV - but when boondocking, there is no defined area. The only defined space is the actual RV. So, if someone decides to hang out 5 feet from your RV, it is much more subjective as to whether it can be reasonably perceived as a threat.

Thats were not understand the law poses a problem. Someone could be standing on my lawn 5 feet from my house, sure he is trespassing but if he is just standing there he probably is not a threat or at least he hasn't posed enough threat for the use of deadly force. Heck in Utah I could catch a guy in my back yard stealing my ATV but as long as he doesn't endanger my life I couldn't legally shoot him and even drawing a firearm on the individual could cause me problems. So basically the whole campground, home or boon docking site has no bearing on anything as it comes down to the threat level and fearing for your life.

But if the guy is in your backyard, he is trespassing. You have the right to demand he leave. You can call the police and they will arrest them. If you are boondocking, they have as much right to that ground as you have. They aren't trespassing. The police can't arrest them or even make them leave. You can't call park management and have them deal with the issue. A firearm displayed in an aggressive manner by you in such a situation would almost certainly be illegal and probably worse than a misdemeanor.

Right. And if that guy is standing 5 feet from your house with a gun in his hands, you have fairly good chance that a jury would consider that a threat - if he's standing 5 feet from your boondock location, that chance goes down.