Over 16,525,510 people are on fubar.
What are you waiting for?
This link is to an article I found regarding Kurk Kirby of Vancouver, Washington. Kirby was at a strip-mall and had the police called on him for "". This is for Case Number 91647 out of Clark County. Kirby has scheduled appearances on 9/28/10 and 10/01/10.
In Washington State we have an entire section of the RCW dedicated to weapons. RCW 9.41.050 is entirely regarding the carrying of firearms, and the only type of firearm it discusses is those which are concealed. In this case there is nothing that was done wrong that violates any section of this code as his weapon was out in the open.
The portion of code in question here is RCW 9.41.270 regarding "Weapons apparently capable of producing bodily harm - Unlawful carrying or handling - Penalty - Exceptions" and states that "(1) It shall be unlawful for any person to carry, exhibit, display, or draw any firearm, dagger, sword, knife or other cutting or stabbing instrument, club, or any other weapon apparently capable of producing bodily harm, in a manner, under circumstances, and at a time and place that either manifests an intent to intimidate another or that warrants alarm for the safety of other persons."
What warrants alarm for the safety of another person? In todays society we are tremendously lacking in both knowledge and experience with weaponry. For many people seeing a firearm out in the open brings about the same paranoia as discovering that you have a Hobo Spider living behind your toilet and their first instinct is to make a mad dash to any direction the spider is not -- and then to call somebody to exterminate the threat.
While the witnesses mentioned in this article who also hold a concealed weapons permit do at least have some crediblity when it comes to being around firearms, there is seemingly no evidence that on this day Kirby was breaking any laws or indicating any intent to intimidate or cause harm.
The article makes it seem that Kirby was exhibiting some off behavior; however, on FOX12 out of Oregon an article on the topic speaks to an employee of the tanning salon he was walking out just before being contacted by police and she felt he was no threat at all - indicating that Kirby was likely of sound mind [ http://www.kptv.com/news/2 2946917/detail.html].
Since I obviously am lacking any substantial information on this case, given what I have found, the prosecution would need to show beyond reasonable doubt that any alarm citizens had was warranted, and I do not feel in this circumstance it was.
