Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 23:13:41 -0700
From: jdm@ILLUSIONS.COM ("J.D. McKim")
Subject: Peoria weapon check and code
To: AZRKBA@asu.edu


I went to the main Peoria library on Wednesday.  After a brief discussion
about state law, one of the librarians directed me to the police station to
check my pistol.  She was polite as could be and mentioned, "They don't
make it easy on us gunowners, do they?"  The PD is in the same complex as
this library, about 500 yards away, so off I went.

Being a first, the PD wasn't sure what to do.  Huh...You want to "check" a
gun?  What's that?  I had to explain the law.  Eventually an officer came
out and had me unload my pistol in the lobby.  I asked where was best to
point it while clearing it, since I wasn't sure of the layout of the
building.  I did as he said and cleared it while pointing it "at that couch
over there."

He wanted my driver's license, and I gave it to him.  He handed my license
off to a clerk who xeroxed it.  I had to ask him for a receit.  He wrote
me one on a scrap piece of paper.  OK.  Back to the library to check out
the city code.

Peoria has an ordinance prohibiting weapons in its buildings; it also
requires the posting of signs on the entrance of each building, which
explains the "No Weapons" signs I saw in huge letters on every door.  The
code is out of date by requiring "that such weapons must be placed in the
custody of the police department while a person is in a building owned,
leased by or occupied by the city."  There is no mention of firearms or
other weapons in parks.

Sufficiently enlightened, I walked back to the PD and requested my pistol.
It took awhile, but the officer brought it out, all safe and secured taped
up in an old cardboard cell phone box.  By this time, he had written out
more proper paperwork, and I signed to get my gun back.

In this case, the library was only a few hundred yards from the police
station.  Peoria has another library up north.  I wonder what the procedure
is there.

I spent more time in the PD, and walking to and fro, than I did in the
library.

<rant on>

Why in the hell can't these *&^%$#@ idiots let me leave my pistol in my
holster?  How many gangbangers are stopped from carrying their illegally
concealed weapons by signs on doors or words written in books?  NONE.
Everyone would have been MUCH SAFER if I'd been left unmolested by the city.

Would my gun have been less likely to discharge if left untouched in my
holster, or handled while pointing at "that couch over there"?  Damn, this
nonsense really irritatesme.  I hope it irritates you enough to motivate
you to actually DO SOMETHING to rectify this situation.

</rant>

Jay