Road trip report

Discussion of other state's CHL's & reciprocity

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Soccerdad1995
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Road trip report

#1

Post by Soccerdad1995 »

My wife and I were without kids this Spring Break since they were with our respective exes. So we decided to take a little road trip West. We started in Fort Worth to drop her mom off at my BIL's house. First day, we made it to Flagstaff, then spent the next morning in Sedona, afternoon at the Grand Canyon, and night in Laughlin, NV. Went on to Vegas for a few days, then came back along the southern route through El Paso.

Ran across a couple interesting things on the trip. First off, in AZ (I believe) one of the very few places a LTC holder cannot carry is in a bar, but the bar needs to post a "no guns" notice near their liquor license (of all places). Also, carry is verboten if the LTC holder consumes any alcohol at all. We only went to one place that served alcohol, and I planned to have a beer, so my gun stayed in the car.

Grand Canyon National park was generally carry friendly, but the building that houses their visitor center had a sign saying that firearms were prohibited since it was a federal facility. Not being sure of the validity (I only researched state laws), I waited outside while my wife went in and got us some info.

We had a similar experience at the Hoover Dam. Last Fall, they built a new freeway and you no longer travel over the dam when driving to/from Vegas. But you can take a bypass to visit the dam. However, there are large signs saying that no firearms are allowed past the checkpoint, which is well before any available parking. The checkpoint was manned by armed guards (guess they didn't get the message) and dogs. So I just turned around and we skipped this diversion. We had seen the dam before, so no real loss.

Nevada has pretty gun friendly laws, and signs have no legal weight, unlike Texas. However, Casino's also have a lot of freedom to demand that anyone leaves, at the risk of a trespass law violation. Among other things, this is how they keep known card counters and others who can legally beat them, off of their games. First (and only) night in Laughlin, my wife insisted on using Valet parking, and there was no place to park so I could secure the J frame I had in my console. Valet was also very quick in opening my door and caught a glimpse of me putting the holstered gun in my computer bag. This led to an interesting discussion with a manager as we were checking in. He came up to me and in a quiet voice, asked if I had a "sidearm". I said "yes". He then asked if I had it on me. I'm 99% certain he was asking about the J frame in my computer bag that was slung over my shoulder and not the 1911 on my hip, but not wanting to volunteer info or get into semantics, I just said "yes". He then called the security guy over from the end of the counter and they offered to lock my gun in their safe, or I could leave, but I couldn't stay with my gun. I politely declined and said I would just put it in my car and self park. They were fine with this. Looking back on it, I should have just left since my wife had already told me she would rather that we stay at the Golden Nugget property down the street (it was our first time in Laughlin and we didn't know that GN was there). But I was a bit flustered and irritated at myself for failing to conceal completely.

In Vegas, we visited the mob museum. No signs on the doors (not that they would be enforceable regardless), but when we did the use of force attraction, they were very diligent about making sure we did not have any guns on us. That is a simulator where you go through various scenarios in the character of a LEO. The last one is with a live actor who is an off duty cop. It is pretty intense so I can understand their concern. That is a lot of fun, by the way, even though I got "killed" on each of the first two scenarios and shot an unarmed man on the last one. My wife did a lot better, which she has reminded me of a few times already.

Bruin98
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Re: Road trip report

#2

Post by Bruin98 »

The bar should have provided you a locker to lock your gun in--at least the one I visited in Phoenix did. I kept the key while we were there and turned it back in when I retrieved my weapon.

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Soccerdad1995
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Re: Road trip report

#3

Post by Soccerdad1995 »

Bruin98 wrote:The bar should have provided you a locker to lock your gun in--at least the one I visited in Phoenix did. I kept the key while we were there and turned it back in when I retrieved my weapon.
It was actually more of a restaurant that served alcohol, but there was a separate bar area. The way I read the AZ rules on my Legal Heat app it sounded like you couldn't have ANY alcohol if you were carrying, so I didn't want to push it. Also, they may have had a locker available. I never asked since I wasn't carrying. The only mention of a locker was in Nevada.

Bruin98
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Re: Road trip report

#4

Post by Bruin98 »

I wouldn't have known either if I wasn't with an AZ resident.
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