So I am new to the whole open carry thing. I fully support it. I have been reading up on the letter of the law as much as I can. Getting info as I go along. Working up the courage to open carry on my own block.
I live in an apartment complex. There is no ban on guns in the lease agreement I already checked. I have a good amount of space with a back deck. I live on a lake and we usually get around 4 or 5 Swans that migrate in this time of year and the first Swan showed up today. I was out on my deck (Only accessible to me by way of sliding glass door) taking some stills and video of the first Swan that has come in. My neighbor, whom I dont know well at all noticed I was open carrying on the deck. At first he said nothing but I knew he was looking at me. I ignored him and kept doing what I was doing. He went inside, came back out, went inside, came back out, each time looking at me for a bit.
I knew what he was looking at so finally I looked over at him and said "Good Afternoon, I noticed you looking at me is there something I can help you with?" His response was "Is that a gun on your hip?" I answered yes and he followed up with "You cant have that out in the open like that" I asked him for a reason and he responded with "This is a public area, anyone can see you, you cant have guns out in the public like that so I suggest you take the gun inside or I will call the police." I then explained to him that the deck is my private dwelling and I can carry openly as if I were inside the building. I also added that there is no law against open carry at this location. His response was "We will see about that"
I was expecting the police to knock on the door a few minutes later but instead I got a call from the office. She told me there was a call about me having a gun out in the open. I told her that was correct and explained the same laws to her as I did the neighbor. She agreed with me and that was the end of it. I went back out on the deck to take some more photos and even pulled up a chair and just sat there. The neighbor never came back out. Have not heard anything since but it got me wondering.
I went digging through some of the laws and could not find much except for bits and pieces regarding your dwelling or within the 4 walls of your dwelling. So would the back deck be considered public? And even so I was open carrying in public in an area not off limits to it. We also have a public dwelling that all the apartments connect too. Its a public area that is heated and cooled where we get the mail and such and I have open carried to the laundry room and the mail box without issue. This public dwelling I assume is the same as the sidewalk, parking lot, main street. But I could be wrong. So I simply ask your advice to avoid problems in the future to where if the police do come knocking at the door I will know what to do and say.
Thank you all for your time.
