Unusual question about California Open Carry

J

John Nedrob

Inactive
California allows unloaded open carry, so if I ever had to draw my revolver on someone they'd be able to see that it was unloaded. What would the law say about using dummy cartridges to make it look like the gun is loaded? (I can just make my own by seating bullets in resized empty cases - no powder, no primer.)

Of course I would only draw an empty gun if there was no time for a speed-load and I absolutely positively had no other choice!:eek: I'm just wondering where I would stand in the sight of the law by carrying it that way.
 
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Interesting Question

Aside from the inadvisability of doing so, you'd have to carefully research CA law on what constitutes a "loaded" firearm. Even if it was technically legal, though, it's likely that most LEO's would reflexively arrest you. (See the threads about open carry in Madison and Milwaukee, WI.)

You might also find that it is illegal to carry a handgun "loaded" with dummy ammo. You might use snap caps and paint the bullets black to simulate the appearance of LRN bullets from the front of the cylinder, but even this is legally iffy and tactically indadvisable.
 
Besides possible legal issues, I can not see too many people actually looking at the cylinder to see if a gun is loaded when one is drawn on them, second, having to unload before loading the gun with ammo is going to slow you down. You are all ready at a disadvantage having to have an unloaded gun, loading it with dummy rounds just makes it worse.
 
No way I'd carry an unloaded gun. If you pull it and the other guy pulls his, you're in a bind. Nope, no way.

But legally, if you are willing to prove that it's unloaded, IANAL but it would seem that its ok.
 
I was at a community event last month and a group of open carry advocates showed up. They had told the city and police they were coming, and did some work to show them that it was legal and they wanted to do it legally.

All carried semi autos, with loaded mags on their person, and some had empty mags in the weapon, so at a glance you couldn't know if in fact the weapon was loaded or not.

The attention they got was pretty much positive, to the extent anyone said anything. An older lady got her panties in a wad, but otherwise it worked out well. The beat cops were very supportive, while the politicians weren't.
 
It was my understanding the OC guys in cali do have to defend themselves they draw, load, chamber, and then fire if required. Sorta an extended Israeli Draw if you will.

I don't think a revolver is the best choice for this type of carry though.

It's just simply slower to reload, and if your laws require you to carry in a manner that forces a reload to make you weapon usable, it's just not a good idea to carry a revolver.

As for carrying dummy rounds it the weapon, good luck convincing the cop on the street that does a stop and check, it's not loaded.

So my advise is to carry a semi-auto pistol, but since that really isn't what you're asking here I'll say, I wouldn't carry dummy rounds if I was in your position.
 
silvercorvette posted:

I will never be as fast so I would never carry an unloaded gun.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with you, except that out here in California you may not have a choice. Open carry must be unloaded (although you can carry magazines or speed loaders on your belt), and in Los Angeles county where I live it's impossible for ordinary people to get a ccw permit. In my opinion an unloaded (but quickly loadable) gun is far better than nothing.

Pretty amazing video! I wonder how many hours of practice it took for him to get that good.
 
John Nedrob said:
...In my opinion an unloaded (but quickly loadable) gun is far better than nothing...
Click to expand...
I'm afraid I have to disagree.

First, you have the problem of always staying at least 1,000 feet from any school. In most communities, that would be quite a trick. And second, you may well spend a lot of time showing any LEO responding to a "man with gun" call that your gun is unloaded as required by law.

But also, you are now walking around openly displaying a gun that pretty much every thug in town knows is unloaded (most crooks are fairly savvy about the gun laws). So you have made yourself a target for every hood in the neighborhood who would like a gun, and since those hoods know it's probably unloaded, they will have a pretty good idea of how hard it will be to get it from you.

So good luck.
 
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