More on where you can and can't carry in California

It snowed this morning on the way to work.  I was driving slow.  Never drive faster than the speed you want to crash at.  That doesn't make sense for normal everyday driving but on snow and ice on twisting mountain roads, it's something I take to heart.  Especially since I'm new to driving on ice and snow.  Every mile or so there's a marked turnout off the road for slowpokes like me to pull out of other people's way.  I usually end up pulling over three or four times each day.  Not a problem.  It takes an hour and fifteen minutes when I go fast and an hour and a half when I go slow.  Today I was going slow.  There was patchy fog to go along with the ice.  As I was driving up one stretch a truck was coming up from behind so I pulled over into the turnout lane.  The truck swerved a little just to make sure it missed me.  As it did so, it hit a patch of ice.  The driver tried to straighten the truck out.  I was impressed.  Unfortunately the driving tactics didn't work.  The truck went off the road and into a snowbank.  Fortunately it didn't hit any trees.  I pulled up a little, parked in front of the truck in a safe spot off the road and got out.  I walked up to the truck and realized it was someone from my office.  My first responder background kicked in.  Checked her out, and her two year old that was strapped into the car seat.  All was well.  She called for a tow.  A highway worker showed up and started to call it in.  I told him an ambulance wasn't needed just the tow.  I took the baby with me and headed to the office. No sense in having the baby out in 25 degree weather with just his pj's on.  The babysitter met me at the office so I didn't have the baby with me all day. 

At my new job they stated in our initial training that company policy does not allow weapons (guns, since I've seen tons of pocket knives).  I heard the story about one employee who brought a gun to work, had it in his vehicle, and then at lunch time brought it out for all to see.  He and a couple other guys were admiring it when the employee decided to shoot it.  Now they were in the middle of nowhere, against the side of a hill.  He did not act in a reckless manner in any way, at least legally.  He got fired after lunch.

My new employer had an incident a year or two ago where a fired employee walked into the office and shot and killed several people.  It wasn't my office, or anywhere near my office.  This is a very large, international company.  What's the security like in my office?  There isn't any.  Anyone can walk in or out.  Anyone can walk down the hall, up or down stairs.  Many of the buildings have national security interests.  And, other than some interior rooms with locked doors, just about anyone could enter and walk around.  It's amazing to me that they have such terrible security.  You are supposed to sign in on an unmanned log book.  There aren't cameras.  Now that's comforting.

So I carry.  Every day.  It's not against the law.  It's against the rules so I could get fired.  While researching exactly where you can and can't carry, one of the topics that was brought up at my old job was carrying on school grounds.  We have these gun-free zones here in California.  Read the law! (636.9(l))- (l)This section does not apply to a ... person holding a valid license to carry the firearm pursuant to Article 3 (commencing with Section 12050) of Chapter 1 of Title 2 of Part 4.   Section 12050 was changed to 26150 in case you try to look up 12050.  If you have a concealed weapons permit you CAN carry in the school.  Did you know that?  Most don't realize that!  I always do carry when I go pick up the grand kids or meet with their teachers.  I know it isn't against the law. 

So who can't carry at the school even though they may have the permit?  A teacher, employee, or student!  Why?  Because that's in the school rules.  The teacher, employee, or student with a valid CCW permit can carry.  They'll just get fired or suspended if caught.  So I guess it's up to that teacher or employee as to whether they want to get fired.  They won't go to jail.  It's not illegal. 

I work closely with about 10 people at this new job.  When you are thrown together you get to know people, or at least as much as they want to reveal.  When I went through the new employee orientation part of the training was to tattle on any employee who spent too much time focusing on bad things...like weapons.  So no joking about guns, and very little talk about guns.  This is very different than my state job since many people there were Post graduated.  Here, every once in a while in a one-on-one situation things come up.  There's one employee who owns a few weapons and has thought about carrying as he rides his motorcycle across country on his vacations.  In a private moment I told him to consider getting a concealed weapons permit from Arizona or Utah or both.  It's not too expensive.  You then can carry on most of your trip.  Just stay out of Illinois!!!  Only the criminals are allowed to have handguns there. 

I did tell him that I have taken training and he should think about doing so.  You can get a good instructor for several hours for $100.  That may seem like a lot of money to some but it's so well worth the money spent to get excellent training that focuses strictly on you.  I also told him about the process for a California permit.  If he used his brain he could probably assume that I have more than one permit.  But I will never admit to that.  I will never admit to carrying at the office.  That could get me fired and I would still like to work for a few more years. 

There's an interesting website called  http://www.handgunlaw.us/ . I clicked on California and was fascinated by some of their interpretation of the laws.  It made a lot of sense.