Discussion - No firearms allowed as part of your lease.

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  • HoughMade

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    It seems that I am not the one going far afield. Look, I am a big defender of gun rights, but the way laws and leases are interpreted are the way they are interpreted.

    The 14th Amendment made Government discrimination based upon things illegal and applied CERTAIN federal rights to the states. It DID NOT make private discrimination illegal, though over time it was applied to prevent some private discrimination impossible to defend in court because court action is government action. In fact, until the recent McDonald case, the 2d Amendment was never applied to govern state action. The 2d Amendment being applied to private citizens to restrict how a land owner can lease property? Never, or at least, not yet and there would be no precedent for that.

    So, what made "public accommodation" discrimination illegal? Various Acts of Congress, not the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment gave Congress authority to outlaw racial, then expanded to ethnic and religious, discrimination. Other laws deemed gender discrimination illegal in certain (not all) circumstances and to this day, gender discrimination is not given the same scrutiny as race, ethnicity or religion.

    So, the 14th Amendment, in and of itself, does not govern private actions and federal (and state) laws against discrimination is where we must look to to see what is illegal and legal. Please direct me to the federal or state law that forbids leases from excluding firearms. If it is there, that is where we look for the lease being illegal, not the 14th or 2d Amendments.

    Once again, we are not children, so let's not talk of what we think should be the interpretation of the law. Let's confine the discussion to what the IS and how courts, based on precedent, will interpret it. When one of you want to bring the seminal lawsuit on this issue, then we can talk about what the law should be (but find yourself another lawyer, because I believe in private property rights). Until then, people live their lives based on what IS, not on what WE WANT IT TO BE.

    ....and it seems that I've missing meeting many of you at the bar association meetings.

    For anyone who doubts my analysis of how the law would actually be applied, I would love to be proved wrong. Please direct me to an Indiana case that holds a "no firearms" provision in a lease invalid. If you can do that, I'll eat crow- not the first time.
     
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    jgreiner

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    Isn't it the same as walking into a restaurant/store with a "no guns" sign in the window?

    They have the right to ask you to leave.

    The landlord can't take your rights to own a gun away, but they have the right to make you leave.

    Or a hotel room. You paid, it's your residence for the time allotted.
     

    CitiusFortius

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    I'm asking your input on the LEGAL aspects of the following:

    I am a police officer

    EEK! a cop is asking legal advice on a message board? I know there are many smart people here, but don't cops have like, an in house attorney or something to get answers to legal questions from???
     

    IndyBeerman

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    Houghmade: Let's not get too far afield here. Rights to speak freely and believe freely are not implicated in the RKBA. We are talking about housing here. Public accommodations. Let's further keep on track in that we're talking about a trailer park, where the real estate owner provides a gravel driveway, an electric, water, and sewer hook up point, and maybe a gas hook up and a concrete pad to park on. The actual residence is provided by the leasor himself. There is zero grounds upon which the trailer park owner can enter a privately owned house trailer. The most they could do is to go around to the utilities access point, shut them all off, and padlock them.

    CIB, hate to break some news to you, but you are making an assumption that the aforementioned trailer park is one where it involves a owned asset by a individual being placed on a property specifically to be used as lot rental. Versus a trailer park where lot, and trailer is part of the rental lease agreement.

    A lot and trailer lease agreement would fail under the same classification as a apartment lease, entry is allowed with notification.

    If it is an owned asset that is being placed on a lot for rental, then the lessee has private property rights inside their domain and they may not enter.
     

    Kutnupe14

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    A) The 2A is about the government, not about private business. It does not apply here at all.

    B) Your lease is simply a contract. Either you agreed to the terms (both parties) or not. If you violate the terms, then there is generally a termination clause of some sort (read: eviction).

    Same as if your lease said no cats/dogs, and you brought one home anyway.

    And the cookie for the first correct answer is awarded to....
     

    Kutnupe14

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    beararms1776

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    I'm asking your input on the LEGAL aspects of the following:

    I am a police officer in a city north of Indianapolis and the other day a female walked into the department asking if it was legal if she had a compound bow in her trailer. The officer working stated, of course, why not?

    The female stated, according to her lease no firearms were allowed in any trailer in this trailer court. (Note: This female obviously did not know the definition of a firearm and that is a different story all of its own.) Also note, the property itself is considered private property but once you declare residency in my opinion, according to our second amendment it is our right to own a firearm. Because the property as a whole is private property the property owner can trespass anyone carrying a firearm on the property if they are just walking through.

    So answer this...

    Normally the property owner goes over your lease line by line. When you come to the line that states "No Firearms" you ignore it. The next day the property owner sees you loading/unloading guns from your vehicle and starts the eviction process for breach of lease. Now technically you did breach the lease by having a firearm when your lease specifically states "No Firearms". But our second amendment states it is our right to own a firearm. Your input?
    I couldn't tell you sir but that signature line makes me :):
     

    Leo

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    I had a lease that those things came up. No firearms, no gun powder, nothing explosive, no business of any kind, etc. I just drew through that verbage with a black felt tipped marker and signed on the bottom line. The landlord aske why I did that. I said I hunt, I reload, I need a can of gas in the garage to mow the lawn, and I sell whatever things I am tired of on Ebay. He laughed and said that he just buys those lease forms and never even noticed those things were on it. He accepted my copy of the lined out lease and I kept paying the man on time.
     

    Hammerhead

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    I couldn't tell you sir but that signature line makes me :):

    Someone in my town actually had a yard sign (looked like a political sign) that said the same thing.

    I had a lease that those things came up. No firearms, no gun powder, nothing explosive, no business of any kind, etc. I just drew through that verbage with a black felt tipped marker and signed on the bottom line. The landlord aske why I did that. I said I hunt, I reload, I need a can of gas in the garage to mow the lawn, and I sell whatever things I am tired of on Ebay. He laughed and said that he just buys those lease forms and never even noticed those things were on it. He accepted my copy of the lined out lease and I kept paying the man on time.


    This. Leases are contracts. You don't have to sign it if you don't like something in it. Negotiate, black out, draw a line through, whatever you have to do to make the contract favorable. If the landlord doesn't accept it, then there's no agreement and you try again elsewhere.
     

    HoughMade

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    I had a lease that those things came up. No firearms, no gun powder, nothing explosive, no business of any kind, etc. I just drew through that verbage with a black felt tipped marker and signed on the bottom line. The landlord aske why I did that. I said I hunt, I reload, I need a can of gas in the garage to mow the lawn, and I sell whatever things I am tired of on Ebay. He laughed and said that he just buys those lease forms and never even noticed those things were on it. He accepted my copy of the lined out lease and I kept paying the man on time.

    Good for you! That's what anyone concerned with this issue should do. If the landlord accepts the change, great! If not, keep looking.
     

    Libertarian01

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    To All,

    Let us not forget that while a lease is not the law it must be LEGAL.

    That is, I cannot, as the landlord put a clause into the lease that says that "if you do not pay on a certain time I get to have sex with you." Why? Because it is not legal. It does not matter if we both agreed to it or not.

    A lease cannot say that I do not allow Jews. If you convert to Judaism you will be expelled. Why? Illegal to discriminate. Again, our agreement is not relevant.

    Article #32 of the Indiana Constitution says "The people shall have the right to bear arms, for the defense of themselves and the State."

    The landlord can show NO damage done to his/her property by simply owning a firearm. A rifle in the closet is no more damaging than a broom, a chair, a TV tray, etc. On the other hand a dog or cat that has a potential for urinating on wooden floors and doing substantial monetary damage. Not only that, but the ownership of dogs and cats is not protected, save as an aid animal.

    However, I am not a lawyer and will wait for such to give their opinion.

    Regards,

    Doug
     

    Leo

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    Hough, pretty good bio. A gun totin', motorcycle riding Baptist Lawyer. If you pick a little guitar, you would have all the bases covered. Thanks for your input, I appreciate it.
     

    88GT

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    I would imagine that what goes on inside the actual residence is none of the landlord's business as long as it isn't illegal.

    Not a landlord, are ya? ;)

    The way it works is that by the leaseholder allowing you to sign a lease they have granted you a right to that property. You have a contractual interest in said property. You have a reasonable expectation of privacy and safety in said property. A landlord cannot enter your property without notice except in emergency situations.
    Yes, I can.

    For all legal purposes the property leased is yours. That is why it takes a court to evict you and reclaim their property back.

    No, it's not. It's a possessory interest. Nothing more. And only within those terms dictated by the property owner via the lease agreement. A contractual interest is not necessarily an ownership interest. Nor is it necessarily a possessory interest. Lenders have a contractual interest in a property and it is neither ownership (at least for Indiana ;)) nor possessory.

    In any case, I can limit that possessory right as much or as little as I deem desirable. If someone doesn't like it, he can go live somewhere else. Have to keep the dog's poop cleaned up daily? You betcha. Have to provide one litter box for every cat? Yup. Want your water bed? No can do. LOL, my lease even stipulates a cleaning schedule. So there!;)

    "My roof, my rules." Not just for parents anymore.
     
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