Regardless of the law, I've always gone under the premise that as a LEO, a private property owner can deny me the right to be on their premise unless I'm on duty and have probable cause that a crime has or may have been committed at said location. I can't enter a private residence just because I'm in uniform and a commercial property owner could deny the same.
Where my heartburn lies is in the fact that both of these venues have been supported with tax dollars. I don't believe it's within the rights of a management company to deny LEO's the right to carry there based on the true public nature of the venues. Who exactly holds the deed to these properties?
However, I don't have legal citations and case law to back this up at the moment. I don't intend to be a test case because I have no time for that and it could hurt me professionally. I can however vote with my feet and my hard earned dollar. I can also let my friends (which includes my OSA brethren) know of my displeasure.
I hope you'll all join me in condemning this policy, regardless of whether you wear the badge and/or consider yourself a civilian, as I first and foremost consider myself to be.
This is being worked on.
First, property owners rights as to concealed carry are outlined specifically in title 21.
However there is no property owner's right to preempt title 21 if they do business with the public unlike a private residence. The property owners rights refer to the Oklahoma Self Defense Act, not to the lawful carry by a peace officer.
There is nothing in state law that allows a private business owner to prohibit lawful carry by a peace officer. The prohibitions on peace officers are outlined in title 21 and private business owners' property rights is not among them.
Also HR 218 specifically exempts a qualified active or retired officer from the carry laws of a given jurisdiction so if the property owners' prohibition is based upon a state law, then it will not matter anyway.
Thus I think Dan Brown is going to fall flat on his hypocritical face on this.
Michael Brown
