Here's what I want to bring. Let me know the legalities, and the wisdom of these choices:

S&W 642 in a locked box. To be taken into our hotel room for "home" defense.
Sabre Red pepper spray on keychain
24" collapsible baton inside door pocket of car.
Assisted opening knife, 3" blade.

Point out where I could be in legal trouble, and an alternative. Thanks!

LOLOLOL!!!


Read the sticky threads at the top of the Home Page.






Why are you bringing all that on a road trip?  Where the hell are you going?  If you feel you need this level of self defense, consider not going there.

If you bring these, better not get stopped for any reason.  Sometimes, out of State plates are enough to trigger a stop.

S&W 642 is a five shot .38 snubbie. should be ok.

Ok, No baton.

What kind of pocket knife is legal?

And I did read the stickies as far as I could. They're not super clear. Thanks for laughing at me, and berating me. Are all Californians as arrogant and dumb as those SNL skits?

Oh, and I'll be in downtown Los Angeles. Is there a worse place in CA? I'm fairly disabled, and use a cane and a wheelchair. I'm not gonna be fistfighting anybody. I know CA is shit for self-defense, but a guy can try right?

No, no, no, it was good natured laughing - a ribbing.  No offense intended.  I just came here after reading a bunch of funny threads.  It seemed like you were coming 'loaded for bear'.

Fear not, most Californians are not as dumb as I am.  What you perceive as arrogance is just my dumbness.     LOLOLOL!   <-  see, I laughed at myself, too.




No one will have any trouble with the revolver, as long as you don't carry it concealed or carry it in your car accessible and loaded.  Do NOT store it in the glove box or center console - unloaded, locked and in the trunk is the way most people do it.

California no longer allows 'open carry', so that's not an option, either.  

Legally, the hotel room is your 'home' while you are here.  


The stickies should be summarized.  There is always the possibility someone will read only the summary and make a mistake, so it has to be done carefully.  The 'assault weapon' flow chart is an excellent summary of a set of laws.    

IIRC, you can carry a 1 1/2" folding blade in your pocket.  Anything bigger cannot be concealed.  Inside the waist band is probably, might be, considered concealed.  <-- read sticky for clarification.

IIRC, you can carry a Bowie knife if it is carried openly.  <-- I wouldn't recommend this, it is stated just to make a point.



Honestly, California's knife laws are even stranger than its gun laws.  Dirks and daggers, I mean, who even knows what those are?  Cane knives are a felony but a sword in a sheath is okay.  What's the real difference?


Come to California.  You will enjoy yourself.  It's a really nice place to visit.  Go to Manhattan Beach (in February) and cruise the bike path in your chair.  You'll enjoy it, even in February (the winter).

What cities are you going to? CA is a big place!

S&W is fine, locked box and unloaded. The ammo can be in the same box right next to it. Trunk counts as a locked container, glove box and center console do not.

Sabre Pepper I'm not sure, if that's some super crazy powered stuff you might be in trouble, but every girl here has some form of spray on her keychain so I imagine the risk to be low regardless.

Baton is a no go, safest way to think about it, is anything you have for the sole purpose of kicking the crap out of someone is a no go. If you really want something use something like a baseball bat and toss a baseball and glove in with it, so that it's clear that its sole purpose isn't to be used as a weapon.

Spring Assisted knifes are fine, no limit. Switchblades are not (unless they are under a inch I think). Also certain cities like LA have additional knife laws so its good to double check those if need be.

Also, cities like SF have gun laws as well. SF has a ban on black talon ammo, or any ammo that performs like it, or marketed for LE only. Basically only hallow points marketed to civilians are ok and the law doesn't go against possession, only sale and transfer.

Lastly, you may want to know that CA has no retreat laws, if you can legally be there you have the right to defend yourself or anyone else from death or great bodily harm.

Okay, we're driving down in a mini van. Would shoving the locked gun case under the luggage in the very back be considered inaccessible?

ETA:  I guess a self defense knife is out, how about a leatherman? Any problems with those?

If it's locked you can have it in the seat next to you. I just use a TSA luggage lock on the zippers of my range bag.

ETA: Locked container, cable lock through the barrel is a no go.

I'm not sure what you mean.  It can be in a locked box, but not have a gun lock on it?

It just needs to be in a container that is locked. So my range bag with a TSA lock through the two zippers so you can't open it is in a "locked container." A gun with a cable lock through the barrel is not in a locked container and is illegal for transportation.  Does that make more sense?

Yes.

It will be in a lockbox, unloaded, with a couple speedloaders with it.

put it in the back, not immediately accessible, doesn't need to be buried.

Asp is out.    If you take an axe handle in and of itself, it isn't a baton, but a hand strap on it and/or use it as an offensive weapon, it can become a baton.  Again it's the use as a weapon, the asp is designed for use as a weapon.

Assisted opening knives are legal as long as the assistance is in pushing the blade opening, you have to be moving the blade when it opens,  blades where it can be opened without actually touching the blade itself, are a no-no.  3" is ok.  Dirks and daggers are defined as having blades with one or more sharpened edges used for stabbing, once it used as a stabbing weapon a regular knife may become a dirk or dagger.  Using it to stab, therefore an ice pick, screwdriver, etc when carried as a weapon, an ice pick or screwdriver  carried for use as an icepick or screwdriver is fine.

As far as laughing, well, CA is not the hotbed of personal danger, you seem to think it is.  You pay a little attention and you won't have problems, stay out of marginal neighborhoods, don't go in to gang areas at night and drive around looking like you are searching for drugs, that can have several results, most aren't pleasant.  TV and movies are exaggerating the dangers, gunfights aren't constantly erupting, etc  

anything that is stronger than a paper bag that has a "lock" on the outside meets the requirements.  If it has a combination, or a key to open it's a lock.  you can pull it apart or twist it off, fine. as long as the opening is sealed.

Define or tell us what you mean by "downtown" LA.  There some areas I would consider "downtown" where I don't go, even the old family residence.  Other parts I'll go at any and all hours un-armed and they are only a relatively few blocks apart.

Ok, this could lead to good info.

We are spending four days, staying in Anaheim. Two days in Disneyland maybe including California Adventure. I'm not worried about that. But on day 3 & 4, we are going to the U.S.S. Iowa Museum in Long Beach, and the L.A. Science Center to see the Shuttle Endeavor.

We will also hit a beach... Haven't decided which yet, and we will probably look around for something else to do in those areas.

ah ha, Anaheim.  The areas around the "Resort" are for the most part fine.  Nothing really to do there outside the tourist area, anyway.  Get a multi-day passport.  Gets you in early on some mornings.  Also good for both parks on the same day.  The "Frozen Fun"  in DCA is reportedly nice if you have kids and/or enjoyed the movie.  If you are driving to the parks, then it is usually easier to park in the Toy Story lot off Convention Way and Harbor.  They'll bring the bus over to you at one of the designated loading area, if you need assistance, make sure you let them know, and get the yellow tag at the "Toll Booth" to get directed to disabled parking.  Waiting until you are directed into a parking space is a litle late.  (Yeah people do that)

To get to the beaches from DL take the 5 south to the 55 south and then follow on down to the beaches.  You can take Harbor Blvd surface streets down there also, but takes longer and is not scenic.  That takes you down to Newport and Balboa.  You can take Ball or Katella west to Beach Blvd in Buena Park and then south to Huntington Beach.  Pacific Coast Highway runs along the beach all through there until it gets to Seal Beach and then goes inland some.  PCH is ok in Long Beach but don't go north, it gets bad quick.

San Pedro, home of the Iowa, is ok for the most part, I haven't ever found bad areas, little run down.  From the Iowa, just down the waterfront are the WW@ Merchant Marine Memorial and the Fishing Fleet Memorials.  Both are worth the stop.  Also right there is the Maritime Museum and Fire Boat Station.  Interesting.  There is a restoration of the street car line that runs in that area, and you can probably take it to get to the above spots.  Just beyond that is what's left of Port's Of Call.  The shopping area is blehh, but the seafood restaurants are not bad.  Several have outside eating ares where you can eat and watch the shipping.  Also you can go up to the Korean Freedom Bell  and get a great view of the Catalina Channel, and right around the corner is the Ft. MacArthur Military Museum.  It's located in one of the old Coast Defense Artillery  batteries.

The area around the Exposition Park Museums, gets bad quickly.  Around the Museums is ok and USC is right across the street.  You need to check out the Natural History Museum next to the Science Center, it's definitely worth the visit.  Classic museum, dinosaurs, animals, mummies, you'll recognize it from TV and movies.  Especially the east rotunda..  The Rose Garden out in front is also recognizable.  The Museum Complex is "The Jeffersonian" from "Bones".  Depending on the time and what you want to see of LA, you can drive north on Vermont west boundary of the museums and USC all the way up to Hollywood, and staying on Vermont actually takes you past the Greek Theater and up to the Griffith Park Planetarium.  If you have the time, that's worth a visit.  Overlooks all of downtown LA and Hollywood, you can see down back to and past Disneyland, out to the Channel Islands, etc

Or you can drive up Figueroa St. east boundary of the museums and USC, that takes you past the Staples Center in to downtown proper past interesting buildings.  Time allowing interesting area, Chinatown, Old Plaza, Music Center.  If you want to get to Hollywood, not necessarily that interesting, a little grungy, but what the heck, then take Cesar Chavez west from Figueroa. Cesar Chavez, in that area is the former Sunset Blvd.  Pretty eclectic, going through an area that varies from Chinatown, then through mostly hispanic immigrant, then Armenian and Thai, mixed with hipster, old hippy artsy-fartsy, and gentrification, one of those, "oh woe', the folks at home aren't going to believe this." Caveat, a lot of immigrants aren't particularly good drivers.  

If you are leaving the museums in the afternoon and want to return to the DL area, I personally, would take Figueroa up to Washington Blvd, then Washington east to I-5 and get on there.  One of things you can talk about, it's north Central America, part of the way, then through part of the RR area, you might recognize it from TV and movies at some places.  Or take the 110 Harbor freeway south to the 91 east to the 5 , the 5 to DL.

Rush hour on the freeways can be overwhelming, I5 can be nasty all the time.

Make sure you look up what is legal to carry into Disneyland, too. There are bag searches (no pat-downs... yet) between ticketing and the park gates. I'm pretty sure, don't quote me on it, that anything considered a weapon is a no-no in the parks. Again, you can probably go to the Disneyland site and look up what's authorized.

For beaches. Wierdo's Venice. Tourist trap. Santa Monica.
Nice enough. Huntington Beach. They have fire pits.

The Science center SUCKS. The endeavor and SR71 are the only ggod things there. Neighborhood  BAD at night.

If you can. Squeeze in The Ghetty center. Its free.

Have fun..

You are a troll.

While he very well may be a troll (i.e. "why do you NEED a 30rd mag?") he raises the point that the best way to survive a hostile situation is to avoid it. Which is valid.

Due to the OP's disability, though, I would say that warrants carrying whatever the hell he wants wherever he goes. Anything you can do to overcome a shortcoming and put yourself on a level playing field is a MUST in my book.

The OP's disabilities afford him no special rights to violate the law.  If he is targeted by thugs and is involved in an unfortunate encounter, those violations (carrying concealed weapons) are sure to surface when the police arrive on the scene.  Avoidance is preferable by such a large margin, so ...

Downtown LA, Venice Beach and Santa Monica are not places the OP should be sent to visit, they are places he should avoid.  Manhattan Beach, north to El Porto and south to Hermosa Pier are decent places.  I would not go to the Redondo Beach Pier.

The Getty Center is nice.  IMO, the Getty Villa in Malibu is even better.  Either or both are awesome.

I was, in fact, agreeing with your point about avoidance. And I (mostly) agree with your quoted statement above... But the often over-quoted, but still valid saying goes: "Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six."

In the event that a disabled (or any other) person had no choice but to enter into a dangerous situation, I would sincerely hope that they were as well-equipped as they could be.

^^^^
I just saw this.

Stay in your car and drive through.
If you have to park. Beware if it is a garage.
They will close and lock you out when they CLOSE.



As the Troll and others have stated.
If it looks like crap. It is.

Santa Monica is a Mixture of Hipsters and Low life thugs.
Venice is a Freakshow and everything is there.
San Perdro. Stay on the main road that goes to the IOWA.


Air museum is in the middle of crap. Not a nice place to get lost.


OP if you give us a idea what you and your family are looking for.
We can recommend good ,,great places..

You already know your CCW is usless here. Lock it up good when in the room. Don't want your maid finger fuking it
or calling PD on you. In this state an unsecured gun can get you in shit.

Also. its not as bad if you use common sense.

I was thinking of the Kershaw Blur. But it snaps open with a spring once the thumb stud is pushed forward. "Assisted opening" is how I've always seen it described. Are you saying that's legal?

GTG.

You can even buy another here at most Walmart's or Big5

Disney Policy is NO weapons.  Period.

The bag check is a nominal visual search of bags, they check carriers on strollers, wheelchairs, etc.  If they see a clip knife they will have you or someone in your party take it back to your vehicle.  IF they see it.  The quality of the inspection is based on the person performing it, most times it is more or less effective.  Some screeners don't look all that hard, and I've seen clip-knives go through.  I've seen cast members at the trams or Toy Story buses hint to people that their clip is showing, and if they don't want their "comb" to be inspected maybe it should be unclipped.  YMMV.

They do have plain clothes security officers in the vicinity of the gates and in the parks and downtown Disney.  Un-clipping and storing a clip knife in front of them gets you a trip back to your car.  I've yet to hear of an incident inside the park where a guest needed to protect themselves with a weapon.  That said, the most dangerous thing in the parks is an Annual Passholder on her scooter trying to get someplace.

Really the parks are about as safe a place as you can go.  The most dangerous people I've seen lately have been young ladies under-dressed and under-supported.  uhh, wow, it's the big one Ethel.  restart restart

Not at all worried about the parks. I am worried about the area around the science center. We want to see the IMAX Hubble movie and then the Shuttle. I guess if the rest of it sucks, we'll hit "The Jeffersonian." We do watch Bones, and I mentioned that to the wife and she was impressed. I would like to hit Griffith Park. How easy would that be to do on the same day as the Shuttle?

BTW, where should we eat?

Griffith Observatory is definitely worth the time.

Get there an hour before it opens if you want to park up there. It fills up
with all the Hikers.

Planetarium
http://www.griffithobservatory.org/programs/soplanetarium.html

Bring a set of Binoculars to the show. I'm not kidding. It is that Great of a show with such high
detail that you can actually recline in your seat inside and use you binos to look at more.

I don't know if the shuttle runs from the zoo to the Observatory.

HollyWeird is just that. Your choice

Your not going to have much time.

Disneyland all day.
Driving through traffic.

If you like old cars. Duisenberg's.
http://www.nethercuttcollection.org/
Its in the Valley. About an hour drive with traffic.

And the SanFernando Mission.
since 1797.
http://missiontour.org/sanfernando/index.htm

Food...What do you like??

Food: just about everything. Love Burgers, but do not care for In N Out, which we have here.

Tex Mex
Italian
Thai
Chinese
BBQ


Would love to go get a dog at Pinks, but I don't know if it's worth it to take the time.

You could hit the museums in the morning, then drive up to Hollywood on Vermont, go across on Melrose, past Paramount, Hollywood Forever Cemetery is on the north side of Paramount, lot's of celebrities there, back to Melrose,hit Pink's for a late lunch, see some of the Hollywood sites,  Graumans Chinese, etc during the late afternoon.  Hollywood is different, kind of grungy, do the Griffith Observatory late evening, it's open until 10 pm. .  Lot's of Thai places in the area, vary large Thai community.  After you leave the Observatory, you can drop right to Los Feliz, east on Los Feliz to the I5 and take that right back to DL.  Later in the evening close to 8 or 9 traffic should be reasonable.

You might e-mail Hollywood Shooter on eating places.  If I was in the area, I personally would either go to the Original Tommy's for burgers.  I wouldn't recommend going to the Original location for a visitor at night.  However, a Tommy Burger is worth stopping for if you like burgers. Or maybe to a Thai place that looked interesting, or a Middle Eastern, or drive up toward Glendale, there are a lot of Armenian places up there and a couple of places I take my Mother to every so often.

Tex-Mex - I guess you could find Tex-Mex, but all kinds of Mexican places all over.  

Italian - again lot's, can't recommend any in LA or in the immediate DL area, for a fun meal, I would go north on Harbor Blvd from the park to Angelo & Vinci's in Fullerton (3-4 miles north of the park).  Also that part of Harbor in Fullerton is a bit of a night spot, lots of food and beverage spots catering to the younger tastes, The Matador Cantina is great, we've eaten at a few of the places and all were pretty good.

Thai - all over the place

Chinese - All over the place

BBQ - I haven't found one yet in SoCal that matches better ones in other parts of the country.  Not saying there aren't any good ones.just none I would go back to with all the other kinds of places around.

If you've never had Middle-Eastern food, a lot of good places.  By Disneyland, Zankhou Chicken is a good bet. You can get great chicken or middle-eastern, several locations. A few more blocks over is "Little Gaza" and a lot of good places

You guys said it couldn't be done. We did the Iowa and the Endeavor all in the same day. Even took in the IMAX Hubble 3D show. I forgot I'm an Iowa Plankowner. I found my plank and took a pic. The ship is magnificent. The shuttle too.  Reminds me of our bygone days of greatness.

We had no time for fancy eats though. Did take the kids to Medieval Times on Monday. It was worth the price of admission. The girls loved it.

Drove up to Simi Valley to the Reagan Library too. What an experience! Also a blast of our past greatness.

Also, anyone who has to deal with Los Angeles freeway traffic on a daily basis is a stupid ass mofo.  Move to somewhere with fewer people. Holy shit it's bad.

Oh, and we hit Redondo Beach at sunset. Marvelous!

Hit and run.  

You got that right!  It is a major factor whenever I plan a trip.  Honestly, it keeps me from getting out and about the town more than I do.  

My least favorite traffic story - one Sunday afternoon, it took me over four hours to drive the 60 miles home from the range.  There were no accidents, nothing anomalous, just a LOT of people,...  Too many.  I plan to retire elsewhere, I'm just not yet sure where.