TexasCHLforum.com

For clarification I do not carry at a post office anymore. I just have a question as to why the same rules of posting signs do not apply seeing as how the federal government shall not make any laws stricter than a state. (Perhaps I did not exactly word for word get that correct, but I believe I saw that somewhere in my government classes)

Javier730 wrote:Post offices are off limits. They do not need signs as they are federal property. You cant even be armed in the parking lot.

My understanding too.

You cannot put your handgun in the console of your vehicle from the post office parking lot when you enter the post office to retrieve your mail? Hmmm.

Okay then this scenario to be lawful: at the house puts on concealed handgun, enters vehicle heads to grocery store...from the grocery store have to stop by the courthouse...puts gun in console in parking lot...courthouse business...comes back out to parking lot and puts concealed gun back on person inside vehicle...heads over to nursing home to see mom...takes gun off in car in nursing home parking lot and puts in console...comes back out of nursing home and in nursing home parking lot but inside vehicle puts gun back on and heads over to post office....wait...cannot have gun in vehicle in post office parking lot so must park on public street across the way from the post office then enter post office....

Such is the every day life of many in the Texas concealed carry community. :(

dlh

bmwrdr wrote:

Javier730 wrote:Post offices are off limits. They do not need signs as they are federal property. You cant even be armed in the parking lot.

My understanding too.

From the first page of this discussion they do need a sign.

dlh wrote:You cannot put your handgun in the console of your vehicle from the post office parking lot when you enter the post office to retrieve your mail? Hmmm.

Okay then this scenario to be lawful: at the house puts on concealed handgun, enters vehicle heads to grocery store...from the grocery store have to stop by the courthouse...puts gun in console in parking lot...courthouse business...comes back out to parking lot and puts concealed gun back on person inside vehicle...heads over to nursing home to see mom...takes gun off in car in nursing home parking lot and puts in console...comes back out of nursing home and in nursing home parking lot but inside vehicle puts gun back on and heads over to post office....wait...cannot have gun in vehicle in post office parking lot so must park on public street across the way from the post office then enter post office....

Such is the every day life of many in the Texas concealed carry community. :(

dlh

I probably would have just left it in the console

Topbuilder wrote:

Javier730 wrote:Post offices are off limits. They do not need signs as they are federal property. You cant even be armed in the parking lot.

Unless your Post Office is in a strip mall or they do not own the parking lot.

The enabling statute for banning firearms in Federal FACILITIES is 18 USC 930.

This statute does not ban firearms in the parking lot. The Postal Service has cited 39 C.F.R. § 232.1(l ) which they use to ban firearms from postal property. However the enabling statute for this regulation is not 18 USC 930. The statute that they use has a maximum $50 fine and possible 30 day jail.

While the regulation doesn't require posting, the only time I've been able to find that it was enforced outside of the "facility" was on a postal service employee. Without posting it may be difficult to get a conviction of somebody under the enabling statute. The blanket statement that it is "illegal" to have a gun on postal property is hard to support, since there are a number of legal reasons for having firearms on the property (i.e. shipping to licensed dealer) and the CRIMINAL statute used 18 USC 930 doesn't apply to parking lots, and does specifically require notice. I wouldn't spend a lot of time worrying about leaving my CCW in my car in the parking lot. I would NOT carry in the FACILITY.

ScottDLS wrote:

Topbuilder wrote:

Javier730 wrote:Post offices are off limits. They do not need signs as they are federal property. You cant even be armed in the parking lot.

Unless your Post Office is in a strip mall or they do not own the parking lot.

The enabling statute for banning firearms in Federal FACILITIES is 18 USC 930.

This statute does not ban firearms in the parking lot. The Postal Service has cited 39 C.F.R. § 232.1(l ) which they use to ban firearms from postal property. However the enabling statute for this regulation is not 18 USC 930. The statute that they use has a maximum $50 fine and possible 30 day jail.

While the regulation doesn't require posting, the only time I've been able to find that it was enforced outside of the "facility" was on a postal service employee. Without posting it may be difficult to get a conviction of somebody under the enabling statute. The blanket statement that it is "illegal" to have a gun on postal property is hard to support, since there are a number of legal reasons for having firearms on the property (i.e. shipping to licensed dealer) and the CRIMINAL statute used 18 USC 930 doesn't apply to parking lots, and does specifically require notice. I wouldn't spend a lot of time worrying about leaving my CCW in my car in the parking lot. I would NOT carry in the FACILITY.

And even if you did get arrested for having a pistol stored in your car at a post office parking lot, I wonder if a smart attorney couldn't appeal to the standard set when federal law began to allow carry of firearms in national parks, according to the laws of the state in which the national park land falls. You still can't carry into a national park office or other federal building in the park, but you can carry outdoors in the park all day long, as long as the state permits it. Why would one be regulated any differently than the other?

rotor wrote:

bmwrdr wrote:

Javier730 wrote:Post offices are off limits. They do not need signs as they are federal property. You cant even be armed in the parking lot.

My understanding too.

From the first page of this discussion they do need a sign.

For sure but if it is a federal post office I still would not enter with a gun on me regardless if ther is a sign, no sign, weong sign or whatever.

Postal employees are going to start checking for guns in peoples cars in the parking lot? You cant even get them to do their current job at a pace a normal human would work at.

I can see them now running after people in the parking lot slower then a snail.

winters wrote:Postal employees are going to start checking for guns in peoples cars in the parking lot? You cant even get them to do their current job at a pace a normal human would work at.

I can see them now running after people in the parking lot slower then a snail.

My concern is that some post offices have cameras that monitor the parking lot and you might be visible disarming or arming in your car....but then I'm probably overly paranoid about it. I just park on the public street.

VMI77 wrote:

winters wrote:Postal employees are going to start checking for guns in peoples cars in the parking lot? You cant even get them to do their current job at a pace a normal human would work at.

I can see them now running after people in the parking lot slower then a snail.

My concern is that some post offices have cameras that monitor the parking lot and you might be visible disarming or arming in your car....but then I'm probably overly paranoid about it. I just park on the public street.

the post office I go to has cameras outside facing the parking lot.

I just went in to my PO this morning (parked in the church lot across the street). They have a sign posted on the inside door warning that firearms are prohibited inside and in the parking lot. I don't recall that USC it cited. I should've taken a pic.

I go to two different Post Offices. One in a strip mall. The other has a high school parking lot next to it. So, I hope I am never asked why I am parking in the school lot to go to the post office...