Wow, I didn't know I would get so much heat from some metal heads!! I went to the new guitar center in Fayetteville Friday and open carried in there for about a good hour. Then Saturday afternoon, me and a buddy went up there to appraise a few guitars. When we walked in, the guy at the door had to get all of the serial numbers off of the guitars we brought in the store. I didn't make it past the front counter and somebody said "do you have a license for that thing?" I said yes I do, and then this other gentleman walked up and asked me to step outside for a minute. To make a long story short, he told me he was an off-duty sheriff from somewhere, I don't remember, and that this was private property, and asked me if I would mind leaving my weapon in the car. The first thing I said was that there was no sign on the door that stated "No Firearms Allowed". He said they didn't need one because it was private property. Oh well, my thing is I was in there on Friday with the same people working and nobody said a word to me about it. The guy that walked me out was working Friday in the drum room and even made eye contact with me and said nothing. Comments...opinions....everybody has one (some)...let's here 'em folks.
Signs As GaGun said, they don't need a sign to ask you to leave. In fact, signs in GA are legally meaningless: either the place is already off limits (alcohol, school, etc.)...a sign does not make it more off limits, or it's not off limits in which case you may ignore the sign with impunity. Now, whether or not they have a sign, if they ask you to leave, you must or you may be charged with criminal trespassing. Of course, they can ask anyone to leave for any reason: carrying a gun, not carrying a gun, wearing a hat, not wearing a hat, no redheads, no shirt/shoes = no service, you get the idea. It is private property.
A letter to the manager and to Guitar Center corporate are appropriate. So is their loss of your business.
I would follow mzmtg's advice. Who knows if some off-duty sheriff deputy working in the drum room part time speaks for the owner of the business? More likely he was just wanting to exercise some authority over you and stress how important and well trained he is while you might shoot your eye out. That would have been my first question - let me speak to your manager! "Uh, I'm the assistant manager, sir. May I help you? Uh, we have vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry, uh."
Okay, I just e-mailed the Guitar Center Management and I will let ya'll know their response. Thanks for the comments.
My response to their request. I got kicked out of a Circuit City many years ago for openly carrying. My response to their request for me to remove my firearm from the property was to reach in my pocket and pull out a wad of cash and say "Oh well, I guess I'll be spending this elsewhere."
Country didn't make it clear if the off-duty deputy was an actual employee at the store, or just a patron in store who overheard the conversation and saw the gun. I would have politely asked if he was the owner or manager. It also irks me when cops are acting like cops when they're out of their jurisdiction.
I forgot to give kudos to Country. Open carry takes brass balls. I have yet to do it (although I do live near downtown Atlanta). With my luck I'd walk into a store with a uniformed cop that would arrest me.
Not so! In fact, I have not carried concealed in Georgia since I got my license and open carry all the time. The only time I do not is when I am going to a no carry place and then I leave it in the console of the truck. I have only had a few folks say anything and no negative encounters (knock on wood). In fact, I had a very positive encounter just the other night. My wife and I were out doing some shopping in a small store and were the only folks in there at the time. While we were browsing, a lady manager came up and asked if I was a LEO. I told her no and she said, "Do you have a gun on your hip?" with a concerned look on her face. I smiled and said yes and that I had a carry license and a look of relief came over her face and she said thanks and walked back up front to the cash registers and started talking to the only other employee there. When we were checking out the manager was standing there and out of the blue started talking about a lady that got carjacked in broad daylight in the same strip mall they were in and that she understood why I carry but that she was too afraid of guns to consider it. At that the other lady said she was afraid of guns being around the house where the kids could get them. I told them that being afraid of firearms is just because they don't have a good understanding of them and suggested they take a firearms class to learn about them etc etc etc. We stood there and talked for about ten minutes and by the end of the conversation they were asking for my phone number to arrange to get into one of my classes! So..... in at least this case open carry has served to help a couple of sheeple get out of the heard and open their eyes a bit.
Re: Well... No, he is just a part time low wage employee . . . What is his jurisdiction? If he is not an authorized agent of the owner (and it is not at all clear that he is) who properly identifies himself as such, he was stepping way over the boundaries of proper conduct as he has no power to act or enforce anything. By telling Country that he was an off-duty cop, he was also threatening him. I think that to be a blatant misuse of his badge. There is no other reason for even bringing it up on this part time job at the guitar store. While you are technically correct that Sheriff's deputies can act outside their own county, have you ever considered what that means? What, after all, is a "power of arrest?" What is the difference between this off duty sheriff making an arrest and you making one? Serving warrants. That is it. Did he have a warrant? If not, then there was no difference between this off duty sheriff deputy and any other long hair teenager employee working part time on Saturday at the guitar shop - or you. Traffic offenses - That is another difference but not relevant here. Immunity is another difference which may have been very relevant to this off duty deputy/guitar salesman had he chosen to push the issue any further. I have always started cracking up with laughter anytime I hear some new, young officer start prattling on about his "powers of arrest . . ."
Re: Well... Could you please expound on that? I was always under the impression they couldn't. Thanks.
I always thought that was only if there were more than 14 people . . . Isn't that what it says in 16-11-127?
Re: Well... Appellant asserts, citing OCGA §§ 17-4-25; 36-8-5, that there is no authority for a sheriff from one county to make a warrantless arrest in another county. However, neither statute prohibits on its face a warrantless arrest, based on the requisite probable cause and executed either with or without exigent circumstances, by a sheriff or his deputy in a county other than their own. [5] A deputy sheriff is an agent of the sheriff and in effecting the proper discharge of his duties is empowered with the same duties and powers as the sheriff. Veit v. State, 182 Ga.App. 753, 756(2), 357 S.E.2d 113; see also OCGA § 15-16-23. Thus, a deputy sheriff is vested with the same arrest powers as is the sheriff. [6] Ordinarily, as a matter of legal policy, a peace officer has power of arrest only in the territory of the governmental unit by which he was appointed, but there are exceptions to this rule. City of Winterville v. Strickland, 127 Ga.App. 716, 718(2), 194 S.E.2d 623. Several statutes of this state contemplate that the sheriff is empowered to exercise law enforcement powers reasonably beyond the territorial limits of his own county. Compare OCGA §§ 36-69-3(a)(1); 40-13-30; see, e.g., Bruce v. State, 183 Ga.App. 653, 359 S.E.2d 736. Watkins v. State, 207 Ga.App. 766, 430 S.E.2d 105 (1993) (overruled on other grounds).
A felony arrest may, of course, be lawfully effected by a private citizen acting without any official authority whatever, provided it is based on probable cause. See OCGA § 17-4-60. Thus, it would be anomalous to hold that the defendant's constitutional rights were violated merely because his arrest was effected by a law enforcement officer who purported to be acting as such but whose authority was technically defective [because not yet sworn and acting outside his county]. State v. Giangregorio, 181 Ga.App. 324, 352 S.E.2d 193 (1986).
I respect that, USMC, but I assume that's primarily around Leesburg. Up here in Atlanta it's a different culture and many are not fond of guns. It wouldn't shock me to have one of my liberal tree-hugging neighbors call in a "man with a gun" while I'm walking my dog and open carrying. And God knows with as many cops as there are in the area (Capitol Police, APD, Fulton County PD, Fulton Co. Sheriffs Dept, Dekalb Co. Sheriff), I'm bound to run into a few that wouldn't be pleased to see me with a firearm on my hip. MP - "disturbing the peace" comes to mind, only because I've heard it done before in other areas of the country.