Flare guns in some otherwise restricted areas

Now that brings up another question. If you carried a flare gun concealed is it against the law. I think the law deals with hand guns. Is a flare gun a hand gun?? I am serious about this. Does anyone know about this. Is there a LEO out there that can help...

Actually, Arizona's permit is a concealed weapon permit. There, a permit allows people to carry handguns, long guns, class III and NFA weapons, edged weapons, and batons (the only weapons I know of that are illegal and can't be carried with a permit are nunchukus). Even without a permit, all of the aforementioned weapons can be carried openly. I posed this question because I was wondering if there, a flare gun can be considered a weapon and could be carried as such. Can anyone answer this?
 

Arizona CCW Permit

I had a CCW permit in Arizona, when I returned to the state after living in Washington and Caliphony. When I had lived there previously, I was a deputy sheriff and there was no provision at that time for anyone but an LEO or millitary personnel to carry concealed, in connection with their duties. Now, California lists on the back of your permit the guns you may carry. This I learned as a student in an academy for security, and the instructor for the private investigations block showed us his permit. Arizona doesn't even have the word firearm anywhere on it's permit, and according to my CCW instructor, a sword cane I possess is covered by Arizona's permit. One slight correction, here; if you are a registered student in a martial arts school, you may possess nunchaku.:cool:
 
Now, California lists on the back of your permit the guns you may carry.
As far as I know it has always been that way. Back in the mid to late 70's I was stationed at Castle AFB and was a Reserve Officer for Atwater PD and my permit had all my weapons listed by serial number. If it wasn't on the permit you couldn't carry it.
 
Just wondering about the flare thing....

I grew up in a land locked state where the widest body of water is the TN river, so I was fairly unfamiliar with them. However, after reading the thread, I took a look at one at Wally world. Is it my imagination, or are the flares not 12 gauge? Of course, using it that way would probably be WAY naughty. Also, I couldn't tell if it was plastic or metal. What's the deal?
 
I grew up in a land locked state where the widest body of water is the TN river, so I was fairly unfamiliar with them. However, after reading the thread, I took a look at one at Wally world. Is it my imagination, or are the flares not 12 gauge? Of course, using it that way would probably be WAY naughty. Also, I couldn't tell if it was plastic or metal. What's the deal?

Welcome to USA Carry, Boomboy. Are you going to introduce yourself in the new members intro forum?

Anyway, I wasn't aware that flares were measured in a certain gauge or caliber. By that, do you mean that it appears that the flare "rounds" appear as if they could fit in a 12 gauge shotgun? I myself would never try that.
 
I've fired flares out of my 12ga. No harm to the shotgun, and makes for a much better launcher than that plastic pistol in the event of an emergency.




gf
 
I do not beleive the ATF classifies a flare gun as a weapon so does it fall under any CCL or is it perfectly within the law to carry one anywhere?
An incindeary ammo round burns at about what 3000 to 5000 F, what is the temp of a flare? at short range it could do some serious damage.....at these high temps it would liteally "latch" onto the clothing or flesh!!:butcher:
 
I've fired flares out of my 12ga. No harm to the shotgun, and makes for a much better launcher than that plastic pistol in the event of an emergency.




gf

When you did that for the first time, was it sorta trial and error, meaning something may or may not happen? Or were you 100% certain that it would be safe to do?
 
I had no doubt that it would fire. Wasn't sure how high the flare would go, but wasn't afraid that anything bad would happen.



gf
 
When you did that for the first time, was it sorta trial and error, meaning something may or may not happen? Or were you 100% certain that it would be safe to do?
The Navy and CG occasionally use the Moss 500/590 for flares. You're probably ok shooting most things out of a decent quality shotgun, as long as it's not something crazy like dragon's breath.
 
The Navy and CG occasionally use the Moss 500/590 for flares. You're probably ok shooting most things out of a decent quality shotgun, as long as it's not something crazy like dragon's breath.


Ok, so my next question is, is it legal, for self defense or otherwise?
 
Ok, so my next question is, is it legal, for self defense or otherwise?
Carrying a loaded shotgun around in otherwise restricted areas, even if it's loaded with flares, would probably be frowned upon by most LEOs and judges.

Carrying a flare pistol around might be a different story. After Katrina, I bought a flare gun kit and put it in my car. If you were driving around in a place like Illinois, you would be legally better off carrying a loaded flare gun than an ordinary gun. I doubt there's established case law on this. You could justifiably say that you're apprehensive about the possibility of a terrorist attack or natural disaster, and wanted a way to signal to rescuers, without having to rely on electronics. Flare guns are intended for that purpose, and you were keeping it for its intended purpose.

Of course, if you're the victim of an attack, then you may have to improvise. Whether you're able to hit the target or not, a red flaming ball of fire would be at least as persuasive as the racking noise from a shotgun.
 
Carrying a loaded shotgun around in otherwise restricted areas, even if it's loaded with flares, would probably be frowned upon by most LEOs and judges.

Carrying a flare pistol around might be a different story. After Katrina, I bought a flare gun kit and put it in my car. If you were driving around in a place like Illinois, you would be legally better off carrying a loaded flare gun than an ordinary gun. I doubt there's established case law on this. You could justifiably say that you're apprehensive about the possibility of a terrorist attack or natural disaster, and wanted a way to signal to rescuers, without having to rely on electronics. Flare guns are intended for that purpose, and you were keeping it for its intended purpose.

Of course, if you're the victim of an attack, then you may have to improvise. Whether you're able to hit the target or not, a red flaming ball of fire would be at least as persuasive as the racking noise from a shotgun.

Depends on how close that "red flaming ball" comes to them :wink:
 
Welcome to USA Carry, Boomboy. Are you going to introduce yourself in the new members intro forum?

Anyway, I wasn't aware that flares were measured in a certain gauge or caliber. By that, do you mean that it appears that the flare "rounds" appear as if they could fit in a 12 gauge shotgun? I myself would never try that.

Well, on the packaging proper it refers to the flares as "12 gauge". Like this one below:

Link Removed

Again, entertainment purposes only regarding my question.
 
This would go well in the ongoing defense loads and the law thread. As much as I feel it is asinine to use a person's choice of caliber against them, I'm pretty sure that most juries would frown upon burning the perp to a crisp.
 
This would go well in the ongoing defense loads and the law thread. As much as I feel it is asinine to use a person's choice of caliber against them, I'm pretty sure that most juries would frown upon burning the perp to a crisp.
The idea is that it's not really a "choice" in the conventional sense of the term, but an "all you've got lying around at the moment" kind of thing. If you only had a nail gun, that would be useful as well.
 
Link Removed
Link Removed
Just one supplier of inexpensive surplus flare guns and the ammo. Also, adapters to use 12 ga. flares are available. Search a bit and you'll find other vendors.

Notice: Even though flare guns can be inexpensive; flares, new or surplus, aren't cheap.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
49,520
Messages
610,641
Members
74,980
Latest member
Brad_R
Back
Top