On Fri, 27 Nov 2015 13:23:45 -0800, in talk.politics.guns Buzz Forward
Post by Buzz ForwardThis is settled; it is not in dispute.
The fact that the business is "open to the public" does not make it
public property. The status of property as public or private depends
*only* on the ownership of it.
Well, not entirely. The *property* is private, of course. When one
opens a retail business, it is now a public *place* and the business
owner has to conform to different local laws. For example, the owner
of a business usually has to maintain bathrooms; in your home, you do
as you please on that. The laws on whether or not these are public
bathrooms tend to vary; however, while the owner may say they're
reserved for customers only, in general they can't file trespass if
someone walks in and uses it.
In my younger days, I once owned a taxicab; the car was mine. One
evening, I was carrying a passenger who had committed a crime
(burglary) and we were pulled over and searched; the police found
evidence in the back seat. Later, the defense would argue that they
needed a search warrant to have searched the cab. It was found that
they could search the cab in the same manner as they could have
searched a city bus or commuter train... it was a public space.
After that, I always put my weed under the back seat when I wasn't
smoking it. If you want the property to be strictly private, you
cannot operate a retail business on the property.
Jones