Hi, I'm a disabled old fart, early 60s, living on a small bit of acreage a few miles out from Hart. I cannot afford the "modest" costs of CCW in the PRofMI, so, I carry on my own property, and hope for the best on those rare occasions when I travel (of necessity unarmed).
I wish Michigan trusted its citizens as much as Vermont and a few other states trusted their citizens (for that matter, I wish Michigan trusted its citizens as much as
Vermont trusted Michigan citizens!) -- hell, for that matter, I wish it was legal for me to carry (open OR concealed) on my own property while riding my lawnmower down to my garden. My options seem to be to either ride on my lawnmower -- disarmed -- or, to hobble on my crutches, if I wish to be armed (not always practical due to the lay of the land (hilly), the distance to the garden (down behind the barn), and the nature of my disability (bum heart, bad arthritis).
(Third option is to get my wife to drive me down to the garden in "our" (translation, "her"
Jeep) with my pistol unloaded and cased in the back. This is generally more hassle than it's worth.) (She of course says I can take it myself "any time I want" but as fortune would have it, "any time I want" turns out to be "a time she '
needs' it," go figure.)
I've read the relevant section of law over and over, and each time conclude that it's sufficiently ambiguous as to provide precisely zero confidence that I have any "right" to do other than the above (i.e., the law
seems to say that concealed carry via vehicle "and so forth" is illegal UNLESS on my own property, but it seems that in practice, the vehicular part of "unless on one's own property" is meaningless).
Given the nonsense levied against the Second Amendment (asserting (wrongly) that the first clause serves to restrict the second), not to mention the stuff I've read about "interpretation" of "loaded in magazine" (in Michigan), i.e., a loaded magazine, separate from a firearm, may, or may not be considered as part of a "loaded weapon" depending on the discretion of whoever is doing the discreting
I am NOT going to ride my lawnmower -- armed -- and trust that I am protected due to the wording of the law.
Well, enough rambling. (Right?
)
P.S.: WHY do I make a practice of
always carrying when I step out onto my land? For some odd reason (perhaps the ghastly high percentage of illegal aliens residing in this county?) I have been a multiple victim of "rural crime" (to the tune of several thousand dollars worth of property that's walked off when no one was looking). While I've had no personal "violent crime" incidents, there've been a few close calls (one time, one carload after another of "presumed illegals" kept pulling into my driveway, getting out of their vehicles, asking "how much for your chickens?" (I kept repeating "they're not for sale"), while it became clear to me that they were trying to spread out, get around me and get me away from my door, and, in general, make me very nervous as to their intent. (When I casually pulled up my shirt so that they would notice the .45 I was wearing via "Mexican carry" they decided to understand what "not for sale" meant and they left.)
BTW a few years ago, a couple miles from where I live, a farmer got up one morning, walked out his front door, and was walking down to his barn, when he was jumped by a couple of illegals and murdered. About a year ago, a carload of illegals drove past my house one night, got to the next intersection, turned the corner, stopped the car, took their "friend" out, and proceeded to shoot him a few times before driving off and leaving him to die on the side of the road (he managed to crawl to a house and someone called 911).
Then there was the time I was working on my computer late one night (like three AM) -- computer was in utility room, by side door to house -- when I hear a "tap tap tap" on the door. WTF, says I to myself, as I hobble over to the door, .45 in hand.
I am confronted by a (30-something white guy) claiming his car broke down, can he come in to use my phone. Yeah, right. So I tell him I don't have a phone (hey, late, tired, best I could come up with at the moment
), and he slowly backs away from the house (.45 was NOT displayed for him). A few minutes later I go back to see if he's still hanging around. I shine my flashlight, see he's parked his car in the ONE spot that's tree-shaded from my merc-vapor yardlight. He sees me, gets in his car, and drives off.
Next day I call the SD and they tell me I should have called them when it happened, they might have had a car in the area and might have been able to catch him. Oh, well.
Then there was the time a couple of hosers from "the next block" were futzing around near my garden. I was observing from behind my house (about 1/4 mile) and they saw me -- stopped their truck (they were trying to haul off a trailer that apparently the guy who owned the adjacent land had sold to them), and come walking up at me, one carrying the biggest wrench I've ever seen, slowly slapping it against his other hand over and over (I guess the message was that they were going to "adjust" me). When they got close enough to see the holstered .45 on my belt they had a sudden change of demeanor, got all mealy-mouthed, and when they'd shut up, I told them not to damage my garden, at which point I got a bunch of profuse promises and told them to leave.
And then there was the time that...
Oh, well, you get the point. Life in the country ain't what it used to be. My most frustrating part of this all is that my wife, who grew up "around the corner" (and a few miles down the road) is still living in denial -- REFUSES to lock vehicle doors, thinks I'm "paranoid" for worrying about crime (hey, where's my boat? where's my Troy-Bilt rototiller? Where's my...)
Sheesh, so much for "enough rambling" eh? Sorry 'bout that!
