Georgia Carry Organization Member Sues Paulding County Deputies

GCO member Luke Woodard has filed a federal lawsuit against two Paulding County sheriff’s deputies that arrested him for carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct while he was openly carrying at a convenience store. Remarkably, Woodard was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon when a “man with a gun” call was placed to 911 from witnesses who saw his sidearm from across the street. The deputies were unable to articulate any conduct in their report that was disorderly. The Paulding County District Attorney dismissed the charges without presenting them to a grand jury or filing an accusation.

Open carry is now concealed carry? My limited grey-matter is having a difficult time processing that.

On a related note, do not 911 operators ask any clarifying questions, such as "Does the person have the weapon in his hand?", "What is the person doing with the weapon?". It seems that the Mr./Ms. Helpers of the nation are very willing to report lawful activities to the police.

Possibly I will start calling 911 and reporting unusual looking legal activities: "Hello, police? There is a person driving around my streets with wheels that seem to be standing still while the tires are revolving!" or "There is a fat man in a speedo jogging on the sidewalk in front of my neighbor's house."

I hope this gentleman is awarded dump-truck loads of high-denomination currency.

How does open carry qualify as carrying a "concealed weapon"?

Cannot argue with that.

An example of where 'open carry' is 'concealed carry':

In Mississippi, 'open carry' is technically legal, but due to a state supreme court decision, a weapon in a holster is considered to be partially concealed as some portion of the weapon is being hidden by the holster itself, and is therefore, for all practical purposes, 'concealed carry'. And no, I'm not kidding...

I lived in MS for 2 years and never decided to get a permit to carry, as it is legal to carry in any manner you want in your home (of course), as well as in your car, as it is considered to be an extension of your home.

Obviously, this is completely ridiculous, but it doesn't make it any less true. And it does directly answer your question now, doesn't it...

No, it doesn't answer my question. But it does make me want to avoid living in Mississippi. On the other hand, there are probably similarly bizarre statutes in the 49 other states.

There is a guy who walks through my neighborhood everyday looking in everyone's mailbox.

My son, when he was a teenager and out riding around with several of his buddies, stopped at a friend’s house to see if the friend was home. One of the guys went up to the door, rang the bell, and when nobody answered he got back in the car and they left. They were soon surrounded by 4 Apple Valley police cars. Someone had called this into 911. When the police showed up at my house, because the car my son was driving was mine, I had to ask when ringing a door bell became illegal? I don’t think much is asked when a call comes in sometimes and if the police are having a slow day they jump all over the call.

That's because you never know... it MIGHT be something illegal.

Which is fine with me, as long as the guys in the pretty uniforms back off when they discover it's not illegal.

Yes, and no. Regardless of how much information is available, a person with a gun call, particularly in a major metro area like MPLS (not sure where the GA incident occurred), is going to get entered. Yes, more details will be asked for, but the bottom line is a person with a gun is still a person with a gun, regardless of where said gun is or what said person is doing with said gun. Typically the questioning will go with as detailed a description as possible, and where the gun is as specifically as possible. Often the caller has a crappy description of the person because they were mesmerized by seeing the gun. This is where the "no" figures in; we enter the call regardless of specifics initially, and add the specifics as/if they come.

Yup. And that's really where things ought to change. Since I'm not into throwing sand in the gears just to show how bad the system is and get myself in trouble, imagine what would happen if, every time just the folks on TCCarry saw a guy with a gun openly carrying it in public, they called 911 and reported it, with very limited information, leaving out that, say, the guy who was openly carrying the gun was wearing some sort of metal thingy on the left side of his chest, and had on a blue uniform. Should that be called in, entered and investigated? Of course not.

Neither should the well-behaved (well, in person, anyways), middle-aged web developer calmly shopping at Target with his kids.

Now that scary guy might have me runnin to dial 9-1-1

That IS a federal offense. Call the postal inspectors on him.

"There is a guy who walks through my neighborhood everyday looking in everyone's mailbox."
I think DeanC was talking about their mailman, I could be wrong, but I think he was being sarcastic.

I got it, and it was DAMN funny!!