One question that we get all the time in our Free Concealed Carry Classes is “What is the definition of concealed under Colorado law.”
Its an important question asked by people who are conscious about following the law. But In Colorado, the answer is not as easy or intuitive to find as people would hope.
The starting place to look for clarification is C.R.S. 18-12-105: Unlawfully Carrying a Concealed Weapon
(1) A person commits a class 1 misdemeanor if such person knowingly and unlawfully:
(b) Carries a firearm concealed on or about his or her person.
The statute goes on to show that it shall be an affirmative device if the person has a valid concealed handgun permit or is in their home, vehicle or their own business.
This state does not provide a definition of “concealed” here. It just says it’s against the law. But if we move down to the relevant case law referenced below the statute, we are directed to two important cases that provide a definition.
The first part of the definition of concealed is based on a case involving a 15 year old juvenile who was approached and then chased by police officers (https://casetext.com/case/people-v-or-1). While he was running away, the arresting officer saw the silver handle of a handgun sticking out of his back pocket. The officer went on to testify that he could tell that this was a firearm and the juvenile was charged and convicted of unlawfully carrying a concealed handgun.
The state court of appeals eventually overturned this conviction based on the interpretation of concealed as a weapon “carried on or about the body in such a way as the weapon is not readily discernible” as a firearm. Essentially, how could the police officer say that he saw the gun while also making the argument that it was concealed? The court overturned the conviction based on this analysis.
“For these reasons, we conclude that the juvenile court erred in determining that a partially concealed but readily discernible firearm is “concealed” for purposes of section 18-12-105(1)(b). We further conclude that the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that O.R. carried, or even attempted to carry, a concealed firearm on or about his person.”
In our classes a variation of the question of when the gun is concealed includes, “What if I’m walking from the gun store to my car and the gun is in a case.”
Case law provides the second important part of the definition of concealed . Pueblo vs Sanders, 1962, affirms that intent must be part of the criminal activity when the offense is carrying a firearm unlawfully concealed. The defendant here was charged with unlawfully carrying concealed when he was carrying the gun as an article of merchandise. The Colorado Appeals court found that:
“The offense of carrying a concealed weapon forms no exception to the general rule that to constitute a crime there must be a criminal intent. . . . In trials for the offense of carrying a concealed weapon, it should be borne in mind that guilty intent is the intent to carry the weapon concealed, and does not depend upon the intent to use it.” (Emphasis supplied.)”
What does this mean for you? Simply put, if there is an intent to conceal the gun, and the gun is not readily discernible as a firearm, it is concealed.
My personal advice here is to not try to ride a line between lawful and unlawful carrying. If you are going to carry open then do it in an obvious way. If you’re carrying concealed, keep that gun well concealed.
join us for a free concealed carry class by checking our class calendar at https://concealedcarryforfree.com.
Guns For Everyone has had nearly 100,000 students come through our Free Concealed Carry classes in the last 10 years. We have heard every kind of story, heard every kind of question, and seen every walk of life.
When we discuss the 911 call in our class, we always emphasize that the recording of the call will be used in the investigation after a self defense incident, and is very likely to be used in the prosecution against you.
You are almost guaranteed to say something on that 911 call that opens legal doors that are not easily closed. You must understand this risk.
Two months ago I had a County Criminal Court Judge in the class. She had 16 years experience as a Prosecutor, and had been on the bench for more than 2 years. In this class, when we reached the topic of the 911 call, our judge emphatically agreed, and made it a point to tell the entire class that in her experience, the prosecution will almost always use the 911 call in the court room.
A key point that I try to impress on our students is that there is a huge amount of risk involved in that call. You are likely to be in an altered and elevated state of mind. You are almost guaranteed to say something on that 911 call that opens legal doors that are not easily closed. You must understand this risk.
Most people have never experienced an investigation or a prosecution, and will be caught completely off guard as the investigation moves forward. Training and education is essential to prepare you for that risk. Take your responsibilities seriously, continue your education, and don’t take anything for granted in the aftermath.
William confronted a drunk intruder on his property on the night of January 29th, 2022. The intruder was a man named Christopher Cotton. Cotton was caught trespassing after dark on Scholle’s property. According to Scholle, he held Cotton at gunpoint while waiting for Routt County Sheriff’s to respond to his wife’s 911 call.
At some point Cotton refused to stay on the ground and when he got up, Scholle shot him once in the abdomen. Cotton eventually survived. Scholle was charged with two felonies — first-degree assault and menacing, and one misdemeanor, prohibited use of a firearm.
Originally Scholle tried to use the Defense Against Intruder law to defend his actions. This defense ended up being rejected by the presiding judge as the shooting did not take place within the dwelling.
The judge also determined that Cotton had not made an unlawful entry into the dwelling. The court determined that “dwelling” and “premises” are two separate things, and after considering numerous other court cases, the judge concluded that the concrete patio where Cotton was shot shouldn’t be defined as a part of the dwelling.
This was not the only issue with Scholle’s invocation of the Defense Against Intruder law, but it was an insurmountable problem for Scholle.
Scholle also made inconsistent statements about the events of that night. Without video evidence, the prosecutor and ultimately the jury are left to decide who the credible parties are. Scholle originally said that he shot Cotton after Cotton stood up from the prone position. 10 months later, Scholle stated that he now recalled that Cotton and he exchanged punches before Scholle fired. Prosecutors did attack Scholle’s credibility based on this change of story, as well they should if they are any good at their job. This is exactly why it’s so important to get an attorney involved immediately when involved in a self defense incident. A competent attorney would have helped Scholle gather all of his thoughts as well as evidence before providing a statement to detectives. This isn’t because Scholle was guilty, but his job after protecting his family is to protect his affirmative defense.
Eventually, a jury was left to decide whether or not Scholle’s actions were “reasonable” in defense of his life and the life of his family. The jury did acquit Scholle of all charges. However the path to a conviction is much easier when the jury is left to decide the case under the Defense of A Person statute, especially when dealing with an unarmed attacker and a Defendant who has admittedly changed his story.
William Scholle did hire an attorney but from all appearances, this was not done immediately and almost certainly at extremely high expense. I’m sure Scholle counts the cost of the attorneys as “worth it” to keep him out of prison. But I’m also sure that it was a very painful experience.
Once again this is why we recommend Firearms Legal Protection, in part so that you will not hesitate to call an attorney right away after you have defended yourself. William Scholle was protecting himself, his wife and his children. But without a plan for the aftermath, William created problems for his case that cost him a year of his life, an expensive legal defense and the stress of leaving his future up to a jury of his peers.
We get this question in our Free Concealed Carry classes on a pretty regular basis, and it’s worth discussing.
What happens if you end up in a self defense shooting but you were carrying the gun illegally?
Before you jump to conclusions on ‘illegally carrying’, the most common way people end up carrying illegally is carrying in a ‘gun free zone’, often unaware that carry is prohibited in that area. Colorado has just made this circumstance much more likely by removing some important state law that prevented local jurisdictions from enacting local ordinances about where concealed carry can be prohibited. With 336 local jurisdictions, it becomes impossible for everyone to keep track of all the prohibited places.
What we’re going to discuss here is a guiding legal principle. I won’t promise that it is true in every circumstance because I’m not an attorney and honestly I’m not well enough informed to be fully aware of possible exceptions to this principle. I’m not qualified to give legal advice and you should always consult an attorney about specific legal circumstances.
Coffee was acquitted by a jury on 5 counts including attempted murder of a police officer. The jury agreed with the Defense’s argument that Coffee was reasonably acting in self defense. However Coffee was also a convicted felon and possessed his firearm illegally.
The fundamental question in these circumstances is whether or not you surrender you’re right to self defense by being in possession of an illegal item. The short answer is, no, you do not surrender your natural right to self defense just by possessing a gun in an illegal area, or even possessing an illegal item. This is better illustrated with a couple of examples.
in 2017, Andrew Coffee was involved in a shootout with a Florida SWAT team. The shootout resulted in the death of Coffee’s girlfriend, Alteria Woods. Woods was killed by police in the raid and Coffee was charged with felony murder for causing her death. I won’t rehash the details of the case, you can read a synopsis HERE. Coffee was acquitted by a jury on 5 counts including attempted murder of a police officer. The jury agreed with the Defense’s argument that Coffee was reasonably acting in self defense. However Coffee was also a convicted felon and possessed his firearm illegally. The jury convicted Coffee of the possession charge, and Coffee was eventually sentenced to 10 years.
A more recent case is even more stark. in June of this year, William Thompson was arrested after being involved in a shootout with a group of teens who had assaulted his 9 year old daughter. The attack on his daughter led to a fight which escalated to a shooting. Thompson was armed with a ‘ghost gun’ (a non serialized homemade gun) equipped with a switch that converted the handgun to full auto. A grand jury announced today a no bill (no charges) against Thompson for his act of shooting at his attackers in defense of himself and his daughter. But Thompson is not off the hook for the illegal machine gun. He is still facing a federal felony charge which carries a possible 10 year sentence.
This principle could also apply to carrying a gun while under the influence. The difference with being under the influence is that the prosecution will likely try to use your inhibited state against you, questioning your judgement in the moment.
These kinds of legal questions are good reasons why it’s important to expand your legal education about self defense law beyond just taking a concealed carry class.
Even if you’ve already taken the state mandated classes, you will benefit from more FREE education and training.
Guns For Everyone is now offering multiple versions of our Free Concealed Carry classes that focus on specific topics, such as the legal implications of deadly force. Even if you’ve already taken the state mandated classes, you will benefit from more FREE education and training. You can find our complete class calendar HERE. Continue your training and education, your life and your freedom may very well depend on it.
Tuesday afternoon I was stopping in to a gun store to see a fellow instructor. As soon as I walked in the door he told me, “Another mass shooting. Elementary school, so far 14 kids.” I was instantly speechless. Unfortunately we are used to hearing this kind of news but hearing about it taking place at an elementary school hits harder.
I’m sick of hearing about this. Many people are tired of hearing about it too. But because of my role as firearms instructor I am steeped in news of violence far more than just mass shootings that make it to the headlines. I have a responsibility as an instructor to be a student of violence. It’s a dark place to hang out. I force myself to watch and read about the most heinous types of attacks in order to better understand how and why it happens.
The details of this latest shooting in Texas are unusual in a few ways that I don’t really need to go into here. The point of bringing it up here is to underscore the fact that as much as we try to group these events under the convenient umbrella of “crazy”, or “racist” or “evil”, at some point these reasons are not useful to us. Lots of people struggle with crippling mental illness without shooting up a school. Lot’s of people are sociopathic or psychopathic without being violent. If we continue to rely on these broad descriptors then we will never have a useful way to confront these issues.
This young man has a history of violent and anti social behavior according to friends, family and others. But we have many of these people in our society who never get close to shooting up a school. How do we stop this kind of tragedy when the target is so small and so concealed amongst the noise?
I have a controversial answer to this question. My answer is that is the wrong question. In my humble opinion, the right question is to ask is, “How prepared can you be for when horrific moments come to you?”
“Evil” has been with us since Cain killed his brother in a jealous rage. Mankind has always been murderous towards his fellow man. The motivations vary, but murder is in our hearts just like kindness and goodness is in our hearts. We blame whatever helps us make sense of the act, but essentially this is part of who we are. Just like Mother Nature will always give us food and at the same time threaten to kill us with heat, cold, storms, drought, even lightning.
How do we protect ourselves from Mother Nature? We build shelters, we plan for the worst, we plant in the spring and harvest before the cold. We understand that the world doesn’t owe us safety and we work extremely hard to guard against the inherent danger of the world. That’s what a responsible person does. And when the sun is warm and the wind is calm, we bask in the joy of Nature.
These killers will always be with us. Sometimes we will see them coming from a mile away, and sometimes they will cloak themselves until they are ready to destroy and no one will see it coming. The responsible thing to do is to accept this reality and be as prepared as possible.
How do we prepare? My belief is that the first step is Mindset. Mindset drives everything we do and understand, or fail to understand, about the world around us. In this case, I think a useful mindset is to acknowledge the reality of this world and not trick yourself into believing that you have a right to safety. You have a right to defend yourself, but not a single person on this planet can guarantee your safety. Developing and maintaining this mindset requires you to confront the reality of the potential for evil in the world around you. This shouldn’t make you cynical, it should make you aware.
The rest of your preparation will depend on you, your values, your priorities, etc. Are you the type of person who would fight this kind of evil should it come to your threshold? Then prepare by learning how to fight, whether with hands or weapons. That may not be the best answer for everyone, you will have to make these determinations for yourself.
We cannot wipe away the evil in the hearts of men, and trying to remove their means for evil will be an exercise in futility. I’m reminded of the line in Jurassic Park, “Life finds a way.” The sick but very real inverse of that line is, “Death finds a way.” Our job is to prepare for it.
