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MN Court - Car Storage While Intoxicated Is Legal


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From Firearm Owners Against Crime


It is illegal in Minnesota to carry a gun when intoxicated, but apparently not if the firearm is stored in the center console of your car.


The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a district court judge’s decision Monday to dismiss a gun charge pressed against Christopher Prigge, which stemmed from an April 2016 traffic stop. After a Maple Grove police officer stopped the man for suspected drunk driving, a gun was found in the center console, leading police to hit the man with an additional charge of carrying a firearm while intoxicated.


The district judge originally dismissed the charge, as Minnesota state law stipulates the gun would have to be “on or about the person’s clothes or person in a public place” for the charge to stick. Monday, the three-judge panel agreedwith that decision.


Judge Michelle Larkin concluded the following in the decision: “The phrase to ‘carry a pistol on or about the person’s clothes or person’ in Minnesota Statutes section 624.7142, subdivision 1, subsection 4, requires a physical nexus between a person or the person’s clothes and a pistol. Because there was not a physical nexus between Prigge or his clothes and the pistol, the district court did not err in dismissing the charge under section 624.7142 for lack of probable cause.”


http://www.guns.com/2017/08/01/mn-court-rules-law-against-carrying-gun-while-drunk-doesnt-apply-to-car-console/


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Would be legal in IL to transport(cased and unloaded) while under the influence too, right? Didn't want to say intoxicated. One shouldn't be operating a vehicle then.
So you shouldn't drive intoxicated, but it's ok to drive under the influence?

 

Or did you misstate what you were trying to say?

 

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What about

 

 

Would be legal in IL to transport(cased and unloaded) while under the influence too, right? Didn't want to say intoxicated. One shouldn't be operating a vehicle then.

So you shouldn't drive intoxicated, but it's ok to drive under the influence?

Or did you misstate what you were trying to say?

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So could you legally store a firearm in your car while you "sleep it off" in the parking lot of your favorite establishment?

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If you were in whatever condition you wanna call it, I am too asking if the the transporting of a firearm(cased and unloaded, not carrying or storing a loaded firearm) in the scenario similar to the MN case in the OP. is illegal in IL.

 

 

You guys seem to want to pick apart the terms I used or turn this into something else. I'm not goin' down that rabbit hole.

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If you were in whatever condition you wanna call it, I am too asking if the the transporting of a firearm(cased and unloaded, not carrying or storing a loaded firearm) in the scenario similar to the MN case in the OP. is illegal in IL.

 

 

You guys seem to want to pick apart the terms I used or turn this into something else. I'm not goin' down that rabbit hole.

Hey, you were the one who made the distinction between "under the influence" and "intoxicated." I was just trying to clarify lol.

 

As to the question at hand, I'd say the best bet for not going to jail was if it were also inaccessible, like in the trunk or something.

 

And I realize that transporting and carrying are two very different things, but keep in mind the FCCA (which is where the penalty for carrying under the influence comes into play) defines carry as "loaded or unloaded, on or about your person," or something along those lines. I could easily see them using that if the gun were simply unloaded in the console or glove box.

 

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