200-yard rule
So from the 1905 buggy-with-bottle-parked-near-church case we get the rule that when the law bans you from taking something to a certain area, you can't just leave it on the other side of the line and still have it available to you, even you don't actually have it on your person. Fair enough-- modern law would call that the doctrine of "constructive possession." Caselaw says that you possess the things you leave behind in your car or at your home.
But what if you're not a patrol or customer or visitor to the forbidden place? What if, instead of leaving your gun in the parking lot of Applebees and going inside the place for a drink, you just park near Applebees and go to the Kinko's copy center in the same shopping center? You may still "possess" your gun, but you're not going to, or inside, a gun-free zone. Other people are going to the restaurant, but they're not associated with you in any way, and they don't have access to your gun.
So from the 1905 buggy-with-bottle-parked-near-church case we get the rule that when the law bans you from taking something to a certain area, you can't just leave it on the other side of the line and still have it available to you, even you don't actually have it on your person. Fair enough-- modern law would call that the doctrine of "constructive possession." Caselaw says that you possess the things you leave behind in your car or at your home.
But what if you're not a patrol or customer or visitor to the forbidden place? What if, instead of leaving your gun in the parking lot of Applebees and going inside the place for a drink, you just park near Applebees and go to the Kinko's copy center in the same shopping center? You may still "possess" your gun, but you're not going to, or inside, a gun-free zone. Other people are going to the restaurant, but they're not associated with you in any way, and they don't have access to your gun.
