Merenbach Law

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Dennis: Hi, I’m live KTMS 1250, your news authority and we’re going to have a great day today and have a very interesting discussion about you and guns.

Now this is not going to be about the 2nd Amendment, that there should be guns in our society or there shouldn’t be guns, we’re going to accept life the way it is, there are guns in our society, there are private citizens who have guns in our society. And what we’re going to discuss today and probably next week is what laws are going to affect you so that you the citizen knows what’s going to happen to you if you do posses firearm.

Now, we’re going to talk about a number of things, like what is a firearm, we’re talking about handguns, we’re talking about rifles and shotguns. We’re going to talk about what laws limit your possession of these firearms. What laws limit your use of the firearms? What about in your home? Shotguns? Rifles? Those are the long guns. In your home, sports, assault type rifles, collector items, antiques. What about long guns outside of the home? What about the hunter? What about the man going to and from the range? Then we want to talk about handguns. What about handguns in your home, in your place of business, a revolver, a semi-automatic pistol.

Then we’re going to talk about the laws that apply to you out of the home, when you’re carrying a loaded gun either in a vehicle or on your person or in your car. What about if you’re driving a Motor-home, does that make any difference? These are the types of questions that we’re going to discuss. These are the type of question that we have a panel of experts who are going to be calling in and assisting me in answering your questions.

But what I want you to do right now is to take a moment and get yourself a pen or pencil and write down my phone number, write down 962-8731, repeating 962-8731 or 966-1750 and if you happen to be on a mobile phone give it a star 1250, obviously 1250, KTMS, that’s easy for you people in the mobile, right! Well, it’s important for us to get your calls because we’re going to present some situations for you, we’re going to discuss some things, every citizen out there who has made a decision that they are going to possess and own a firearm it’s going to be important to listen to what we are going to say.

Let me just tell you a little bit though about the federal firearm laws. Now the federal laws primarily deal with interstate transportation. Now states have many governing laws about cities and localities, and we’re going to talk about those today. The federal laws have a lot to do with interstate travel and it’s very important that you have to know what’s going to happen. If you have a firearm, it should be unloaded in the trunk, in a vehicle without a trunk an unloaded firearm shall be in a locked container other than the glove box or a console. Of course you can have necessary stops as to gasoline or rest. We’re going to be talking about this all of course but first we’re going to take a very short commercial break and then we’ll be right back.

Dennis live back here in Santa Barbara KTMS 1250, if you didn’t catch our phone number the first time, write it down. 962-8731, 962-8731 star 1250 if you’re mobile. Now what I want to talk about is what happens in our society today and why people are carrying guns, we know why. It used to be that you were concerned if you were a store owner or if you had a convenience store or if you had liquor store. These places were notorious for getting ripped off by bandits and bad guys with guns and there were shootings and a lot of these people would maintain weapons and keep them under the counter, we read about this.

And then there were the muggings going on where people were accosted on the street and then we’ve had the latest thing, which is known as car jacking, and we all know what happens with that. That’s when someone’s driving along and some of the bad guys decide they want your car and it’s very very dangerous and it makes everybody very very frightened. Then we’ve had the riots in various locations, because of these riots, we can remember seeing on television various people handling handguns, standing in the streets, firing them. Was this legal? Was this the correct thing to do? Could you do that today? What are the rules?

You have to be very careful and you of course always have to think. That’s what we’re going to talk about. Anybody who’s been out there and had an experience, anybody who’s listening to this program who’s experienced some awful situation which you were in immediate danger of death, call us, tell us your experience and let’s put that into the context of real life, let’s tell you how the laws would apply to you.

Because, you yourself could be the victim of an arrest if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ve had these experiences, that’s what we’re here for, we’re gonna talk. Now I’ve got somebody on the line, who’s going to be a big help to us, his name is Bill Tanner, he’s a private investigator, he’s a fire arms dealer, he’s a certified fire arms instructor, and we’re gonna talk about some of these rules, are you there Bill?

Bill: I’m here Dennis, good morning.

Dennis: Are you there Bill?

Bill: Yes, I am.

Dennis: Oh, welcome to the show.

Bill: Thank you.

Dennis: Well, you probably heard my preamble to all of this.

Bill: Yes, I did.

Dennis: And I think we should talk about these things sort of in this type of an order, tell me a little bit about your background, Bill.

Bill: Police officer and investigator.

Dennis: And you also have a, you’re a certified firearms instructor?

Bill: That’s correct.

Dennis: And what does that mean?

Bill: That means that the National Rifle Association courses that I have taken have qualified me to teach certain firearms courses. Included are personal protection and home firearm safety course.

Dennis: I guess the threshold question before we even start talking about how gun laws should apply to the individual is I guess a moral choice as to whether or not you can tend to have a firearm and whether or not you would have the ability, the moral ability to use one, would you agree with that?

Bill: I think that’s very important.

Dennis: What have been your experiences as far as how people have made that type of choice?

Bill: Well, first of all, if they’re going to a firearm for personal protection they need to have thought it through and made the choice before the crisis occurs.

Dennis: Uh huh.

Bill: Otherwise they’re going to be in that mode of making up their mind at the critical moment.

Dennis: Oh that could be pretty dangerous.

Bill: It could be because the firearm in their possession might be taken from them and used against them.

Dennis: I’ve heard a number of people talk in terms of I don’t want a firearm around because I’m more concerned the assailant could be using it on me then me on them, is this part of the moral choice you’re talking about?

Bill: I think it is. If that’s the case then they probably shouldn’t have the firearm around.

Dennis: So what you’re saying is the person has made the non-revocable, mental, moral choice that if their life is threatened that they will use a firearm for their protection?

Bill: If they have made that decision to use the firearm as a part of their repertory of tools available for their personal protection then it’s appropriate for them to have it. It’s also appropriate that they know exactly how the firearm works and under what circumstances they can use it.

Dennis: When you teach your course, do you teach things such as gun safety?

Bill: Yes, of course.

Dennis: And besides gun safety is there any hands on type of experience that you believe is necessary to train somebody?

Bill: Well, obviously you need to know the proper function of the firearm and in my course I teach at the range so there is some actual hands on actual practice with the firearm.

Part 2

Dennis: We’re back, we’re live I’m Dennis Merenbach I’m a lawyer, we like your calls at 962-8731. Joining with me is Bill Tanner, you there Bill?

Bill: Yes I am.

Dennis: How are you doing this morning?

Bill: I’m just fine, how are you doing?

Dennis: Just fine. As I say, there’s a lot of people out here and we know that we have a lot of people in rural areas that are listening to this program and just to talk about the rural areas we’re talking now about our farmers, our sportsmen, our ranchers and what we often see when we go out into the rural area, which is a pickup truck with a rack on the back window and we see a couple of long guns there. Is that a legal way to carry weapons?

Bill: As far as I know it’s legal, as long as they’re unloaded

Dennis: So the basic key then is you can carry them and they’re unloaded?

Bill: That’s right.

Dennis: Is there a definition that we use for loaded or unloaded?

Bill: There is, it’s no unexpended cartridges in the weapon itself.

Dennis: In other words what you’re saying is, if you have a live round actually in the chamber then you have a problem?

Bill: That’s, that would be defined as loaded for sure.

Dennis: That would be defined as loaded. What about these situations where you have a long gun, you know some of them are semi automatics and they’ll have a five shot clip. And what about a situation where you have that long gun and they say it’s in the side of the cab of the pick up truck and you have five rounds loaded in a clip and you’re keeping that in the glove compartment?

Bill: Well, if it’s a long gun, it would not be a concealable weapon so I probably would say that that’s not a problem.

Dennis: Okay, so there are people who are out there, as long as they keep an unloaded weapon, no live ammunition in the chamber and certainly no clip which has any ammunition which is in the weapon itself, then they should be safe as far as getting stopped by law enforcement.

Bill: I would think so.

Dennis: Alright, that’s the concern people have is they’re going about their business and we take the position that these people who made the decision to carry fire arms, whether long guns and shot guns are responsible people so they are going to be responsible for their own actions. Let’s talk a little bit about firearm safety. In your experience as a certified firearm instructor, what have you found to be the greatest violation of safety that you think that you’ve experienced?

Bill: Well in first place, talking about handguns, when people pick up a handgun the first thing they do is stick their finger in and on the trigger. That’s a violation of a rule; one should keep their fingers off the trigger unless they’re ready to shoot. The other thing is they should always check and make sure the gun is unloaded before handling it and examining it. If they don’t know how to do that properly they best leave the gun down.

Dennis: Alright, so the first rule that you say is that there’s a weapon that’s involved, never put your finger on the trigger.

Bill: Not unless you’re ready to shoot, the other really, the cardinal rule of gun handling is always keep the muzzle in a safe direction, that’s generally straight up or straight down although there might be exceptions.

Dennis: You know sometimes when we are around firearms we become forgetful and sometimes I think when we are teaching our younger children how to use firearms, well let’s talk about that, do you ever have classes in which you have young people, their first experience in handling firearms?

Bill: I’ve been asked to do that Dennis but I haven’t yet formed a class of juveniles. The classes that I teach, personal protection, are geared toward adults who want to use a handgun as part of their personal protection program.

Dennis: I see, so you, actually your experience locally in our tri county area then has been in the teaching of handgun as a self-defense system?

Bill: That’s, yes, that’s part of one’s personal protection system, that’s fine.

Dennis: Just out of curiosity have you noticed percentages between male and female who show interest in this subject?

Bill: Predominantly, females have been in my classes probably because possibly a lot of males probably figure they know enough already to handle the guns properly.

Dennis: Uh huh, I see, now what do you find to be the optimal number for a class?

Bill: Well I keep my classes down to ten so that I can give personal attention to everybody there.

Dennis: Okay, hold on just a moment. Okay, I just wanted to take a short break; we’re going to take a little break here. This is Dennis Merenbach, this is You and the law, and our subject today is you in relationship to the law as it applies to being in possession of guns, call me at 962-9731 call me, give me your comments, tell me some of your problems and let’s talk about it so we can help you, and you don’t collide with the law.