I'm thinking about riding up to Ellijay and taking in the Georgia Apple Festival. http://www.georgiaapplefestival.org/ Does anyone know if this is an OC-friendly event and/or county? I'll probably just keep it under an untucked shirt just to be safe, but I'm not working hard to prevent any printing.
shamalama, from other posters on here they are open carry friendly up there. Not sure about the Festival. I do know that it is extremely popular, as 515 had major problems with traffic north of Jasper this past weekend. If you choose to go and you make it past Jasper and then are able to get past GA-136, most roads to the left off 515 will lead you to old GA-5. Keep in mind that this road may not be traffic free, but most folks don't realize it's there.
Thanks for the info, sir. I saw somewhere that "extra" parking would be at Gilmer High School, which is on Old GA 5.
Forget the high school. You want to park in the southern most lot on old 5 when you reach the festival grounds. My daughter's girl scout troop will be manning that lot and taking donations!! As Jeff said, Gilmer is pretty gun-friendly, although you don't see anyone OC'ing a whole lot (if ever). I live here and have only seen it once in the Captian Ds during the sunday lunch rush. Biker with Ruger P-auto variant in shoulder holster. No one batted an eye. The rule of thumb up here is "act like a fool, get treated like one"
I was up there last weekend. OC'd my 92F without a second look from anyone. I did her a few mumbled comments, and a few misinterpretations of the GA carry laws. My Springfield Armory t-shirt got more attention than my Beretta.
I went to school with both the Sheriff and the Chief of Police. They are both sensible, reasonable peace officers as are their subordinates. You won't have any suprises. As long as you behave, you should be good to go. Have fun!
Not sure about the Apple Festival, but two years ago went up to Helen with the wife where I opened carried Did not have a single issue at all. The North Georgia area is more understanding of open carry and carry in general than the suburbs and city area I have found
Spent more than a few hours in Ellijay today. Had a great time as usual. Noticed a couple of people carrying, both CCing. One younger (than me) guy showed the bottom of his holster under his untucked shirt when he reached down to pick up his kid. The other, an older guy, was wearing a GCO t-shirt and printing a large revolver pretty badly. Also had my ten year-old explain the differences between a Glock and a Springfield XD to my wife during a gap in the parade. This occurred after my wife noticed the sidearm (XD)of an officer standing near us. The explanation seemed to amuse the officer, but I think it forever emotionally scarred the trophy wife touron beside us who happened to overhear it, judging from the looks I got. A. McClure, Hope your daughter's scout troop went home with full buckets. We parked in their area and it seemed to stay packed throughout the day.
A little over 1400 in donations today, that's awesome. They are on track for their best year ever, mostly thanks to the perfect weather. Thanks for helping them out (and for the record, I was holding down the fort with the 4 year old, so it wasn't me you saw carrying- )
How is one to interpret this? Only carry where LEOs are sensible and reasonable? I don't get it, sorry.
I meant that in some areas of this state, there are LE agencies who are either mis-informed or un-informed about our carry laws, and as such, they can be prone to give you a hard time about your legally carried firearm. This is not news. Most people wish to avoid such problems and seek to not actively engage members of these agencies just for the sake of proving a point. My earlier comments were meant to convey the fact that up here in 'God's Country', the chances of you being detained, harrassed, or otherwise bothered by our fine officers simply because you are observed legally carrying a weapon is next to nill. If I painted my comments with too broad of a brush, I apologize.