"Gun-Free Zone" is defined in the
proposed legislation as "any building,
place, area or curtilage or in or on any conveyance
in which a person's right or ability to possess
a firearm is infringed, restricted or diminished
in any way by statute, policy, rule, regulation,
ordinance, utterance or posted sign." Curtilage
is a legal term that refers to the grounds immediately
around, and used with, a building.
This proposal would change the rules for a
property owner who excludes from his or her
property any person carrying a firearm. My interpretation
of current law is that even if the property
is open to the public, the property owner can
give notice that the entire property is an area
where public entry is not authorized as to persons
carrying firearms, effectively prohibiting entry
of the property by anyone carrying a firearm.
If the above proposal becomes law, a property
owner could still prohibit possession of firearms
in the manner I have suggested. By doing so,
however, the property owner would expose himself
or herself to claims for damages resulting from
criminal conduct on the premises "if a
reasonable person would believe that possession
of a firearm could have helped the individual
[who is injured by the criminal conduct] defend
against the criminal conduct." If the person
injured by the criminal conduct is under sixteen
or over seventy years of age, or if the criminal
conduct was the result of "terrorism"
(a term that is not defined in the legislation),
then the property owner would be liable for
three times the damages suffered.
The second piece of proposed legislation is
apparently more straightforward in its application,
if rather cumbersome to explain. It would affect
only one particular category of commercial properties,
namely restaurants that have liquor licenses.
Under prior law, it was illegal to be in possession
of a firearm while on the premises of any establishment
that has a retail liquor license including restaurants.
That prohibition has recently been narrowed
to exclude persons who are on the premises for
a limited time in order to seek emergency aid,
and to exclude persons who are unaware that
such possession is prohibited (which probably
effectively means that the owner of any establishment
that has a retail liquor license must post a
notice that firearms are prohibited if they
want to keep guns out).
The new proposed legislation would further
narrow the law against carrying a gun into a
licensed retail liquor establishment by making
that law inapplicable as to restaurant patrons
carrying guns unless the restaurant posts a
notice that firearms may not be carried in the
restaurant. The notice would have to be posted
either within twenty feet of each cash register,
or behind the bar (sounds kind of "Old
West," doesn't it?), would have to be of
a specified minimum size and typeface, and would
have to read:
