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Hospital Carry

20K views 29 replies 25 participants last post by  C5A 
#1 ·
I had to take my wife in for some surgery in the city last week. Not a real bad part of the city, but as a whole the city has been getting worse. Nonetheless, I checked their website before I left and they stated they strictly prohibited weapons. I got there, not signs on the door, no metal detectors. Long story short, I could have carried no problem. Hopefully, there won't be a next time for me to make a decision on.
 
#3 ·
I have mixed feeling about my issue. I had not been in a big city emergency room until right after I got out of the Army. I secured my pistol in the vehicle and went inside I looked around the emergency room and wanted to go back and get my weapon. It was scary, you did the right thing but hospitals make me nervous.
 
#4 ·
luckily Indiana has none of this nonsense legally binding sinage rules and when i go to the hospital or doctors office, all signs are ignored and my weapon stays with me
 
#5 ·
Hospitals are off-limits here. It's in the law of prohibited places.

The regular ER hospital is like you describe, no signs, no security, and no one would notice if you carried. They're really worried that you might light up a cigarette in their parking lot, but not too concerned about your guns.
The "state hospital" is scary though. They only order pizza at 9:50 at night it seems, but I always have to lock it up there. There's signs as soon as you pull in the driveway, and security is always roaming around, and there's some kind of detention facility there and some kind of mental facility - not a place I'm going to get caught carrying illegally. I hate going there.
 
#6 ·
Hospitals are off-limits here. It's in the law of prohibited places.
That depends on where you are. There are no laws regulating concealed carry in hospitals here in Maine (except VA facilities since they're federal), though the hospitals themselves can choose to post "no gun" signs.
 
#7 ·
There is not signage on the doors of our local hospital BUT there is a small "No Guns" sign in the emergency waiting room. If I am not the patient I carry in the hospital and if caught all they can do is ask me to leave.
 
#8 ·
Yep, really depends on where you are. I'm surprised that, here in Colorado, some nice public (as in publicly funded) places include weapons on their list of 'No's' (along with no drugs, and the like) which, without metal detectors, is pretty meaningless from what I can tell by reading the laws.

I've never noticed a sign in a hospital here, and the only time I haven't carried there was when our baby was born.
 
#16 ·
I am pretty sure that is incorrect......unless 30.06 posted of course.

It used to be illegal, but the law was changed in 1997.
 
#13 ·
(First post)
I have had my ccw from Pennsylvania for 15 years. Just took my Missouri CCW class on Saturday since PA will expire soon.

There is a long list of places you can't carry. Hospitals being one of them. The worst that can happen to you is if your weapon is seen or someone thinks you have a weapon, you can be asked to leave. Even if they freak out and call the cops before asking you to leave, the cops can only ask you to leave the premisis or ask you to take your weapon to your vehicle. Where it gets hairy is if you decline... Then its a tresspassing violation. 100 bucks for 1st offense, 250 for 2nd, 500 for 3rd offense and loss of CCW endorsement...

Now this is in Missouri, not sure what your respective states say, but you may want to check... I took the family to the circus last night. Venues seating over 5000 people are a no CCW zone... I carried anyhow. Most they can do is ask me to leave.... Plus, I hate clowns!
 
#14 ·
In MI, hospitals are listed as a "pistol free zone". Meaning, is you have a MI CPL (CCW), you have to dis-arm prior to entering. The parking area's are not pistol free. If caught carrying, you face losing your license. But, some have the "pistol free except" box checked on the CPL. As always, this only applies to the legal ones that carry. The gang bangers carry where ever they wish.
 
#18 ·
I'm still new to all this CCW stuff and far be it for this average joe to question the good lawmakers, but if you can legally carry a pistol and have been deemed stable enough/safe enough to do so in Wal-Mart, a restaurant, or the like, why in the world are Hospitals off limits? My thought is if you say I am safe to carry a gun and I go through the hassle of getting legally approved, leave me be and trust that I won't cause problems. If I have it and you don't know it's there, what's the problem? And yet, if a nut with an illegal gun comes in and starts making trouble, I bet they'd want me to have it then.......right?
 
#19 ·
AFAIK, hosptals aren't listed in our prohibited places. However, one thing that bothers me a bit is whether some hospital could be technically classified as a school also. Of course some hospitals have large on-going programs to teach medical students/physiciana, nursing students, physical therapists, xray tech, lab tech, etc. Pretty much any hospital may have something to offer for students in a health related-curriculum.

This is our definition for school------"School" means any public or private elementary, secondary, high school, or vocational-technical school, college, or university in this state.
 
#20 ·
In Texas, you can as long as there are no 30.06 signs. The hospital my wife had our baby in said on the door "it is prohibited by state law ... ... to have a firearm on this property" but the laws have since changed. Needless to say, I was armed even as my daughter was being born.

As my wife was going into labor, before we left our house, I was double checking the laws concerning it. :) wife: "We NEED to go" Me: "I know, hang on, 2 seconds..."
 
#21 ·
if a nut with an illegal gun comes in and starts making trouble, I bet they'd want me to have it then.......right?
Yes and No, Depending on who you talk to. Some think the possibility that you would hurt others or cause them to be hurt outweighs the chances of you helping. I, obviously, disagree completely.

As to the reason you can't carry in hospitals... I am not sure. Possibly they don't want you enacting revenge on someone who is incapacitated. Although, again, the age old argument of the logical: If you are hell bent on it, a little sign or even a law is not going to stop you.
 
#22 ·
In Nevada hospitals are not off limits and sinage posted at the entrance is meaningless. Worst that can happen is you're asked to leave. Refuse to do so and you're guilty of trespass. Now, metro police possibly shooting you for no good reasion is another discussion.
 
#23 ·
Only 1 hospital (other than military and VA) is restricted by law, and that is Medical College of Virginia. The hospital my wife worked at until her knee went out restricted employees, but was not posted. She goes in next month for knee replacement. I'll be armed.
 
#25 ·
In Oklahoma, AFAIK, hospitals aren't restricted. However, the wife is mid-management with a very large hospital group and she says that security regularly practices for a MWG, everything from calling it in to the cops to asking the person to leave and escorting them out.
 
#28 ·
TVJ:



The law WAS that you could not carry into those places. But in....2007? I think, (edit: yeah, 1997...) they added the sign-age law to apply to those places. Good for us!


Nice catch.

I stopped reading too early.

The actual writing of Texas code can be done much clearer and simpler.

I avoid fighting city hall and read everything....lol. Zero shortcuts.

Instead of putting the 30.06 exclusion on each particular lettered location - duh - Texas sticks it below and goes back and references the letters.
 
#27 ·
I'm of the opinion that if you care to go through all this trouble to find out if it is legal or not, it should be legal for you. Nuts and revenge seekers take no such time.
 
#29 ·
Hospitals make the rules for them. At our local hospital, they have a no smoking on the entire campus sign, seems its only ment for those visiting because the doctors and staff who do smoke are seen doing just that until they get up to the enterance doors. We have a "No Firearms" red slash circle sign outside the enterance doors, at best if they see a print or my firearm, all they can do is ask me to leave. Montana has no laws against hospital carry, and does not plan on having one either. When I bring my wife or visit someone, I am still carrying but if I were there to get test done where I got to strip out of my cloths, that's another story. But my wife is there, and my Airweight is in her purse.
 
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