[DaveM55]

Originally Posted by Philadelphia

No problemo but you can't enforce laws that don't exist. Criminal laws are proscriptive. The text tells you what people can't do. If you want to arrest someone, somewhere down the road you had better be able to point to a law that says whatever it is is illegal. If you can't, you won't have to give an inch the judge will take care of what you'll be giving, welcome to the defendant's side of the courtroom. The basic premise is that the public can't be made to guess what is and isn't illegal and will land them in a cell. If you have to guess and wonder, how do you think John Q. is supposed to deal with his everyday life? Walk around wondering if his every move might at any moment be declared illegal by the police?

The crimes code is pretty short and very easy to understand.

All Hawkins did was remind the police and gov't that it's not illegal to openly carry a gun. There is no law against it. That case should really drive home the point that no matter what anyone might think, if the legislature didn't make something illegal, it's not. If it's not illegal to do it, it can't make people doing it suspicious either. These should not be remarkable conclusions requiring the Pa Supreme Court to tell us, but it did. Why, well people just refuse to believe that openly carrying a gun is, as a matter of law, not suspicious; it has to be, right? No, it's not. There's no law against it.

Seriously, if you think you need to see something written down saying people are allowed to do something before you'll let them do it, for your own good you better have a talk with your city solicitor or department counsel.

Oh and before I forget, I'm not arguing with you to criticize your point of view. I'm trying to get a handle on the various sides of the issue before I decide where I want to come down on it. So, I appreciate your point of vew.

Ok so a cop sees a guy walking down a street and carrying a wooden axe handle with nails sticking out of it. The cop doesn't know if that's a POW or not. Two different reactions here.

1) So bearing on the side of caution, the cop calls for backup, disarms him at gun point, cuffs him, and takes him into custody for investigation. Come to find out it was just a realistic movie prop he bought for a Halloween costume.

2) Because he's not sure of the law, the cop doesn't take any action and he ends up critically hurting someone later.