Detroit Zoo OC

[Bronson]

Wrong analysis.

I agree with everything you wrote.

I also think an entertainment facility's corporate legal dept. will attempt to make the leap based on the wording of the law that they don't actually have to seat 2500+ to keep people from carrying there as long as they post it per the law. I also wouldn't be surprised if there aren't police and prosecutors out there that would arrest and prosecute based on the wording of the law. They would most likely loose but what a PITA.

Unfortunately how are we to know the exact seating capacity? The theaters in my area don't appear on the websites I've found that show seating capacity and if you call them and ask they won't tell you an exact number. I solve this by going to smaller theaters but it would be nice to go to the bigger ones with the nice sound systems and comfy seats without having to disarm.

Just more crap that makes me write letters to get PFZs repealed. Of course then we'll probably see a huge crop of "NO GUNS" signs crop up

Bronson

 

[DrTodd]

I agree with everything you wrote.

I also think an entertainment facility's corporate legal dept. will attempt to make the leap based on the wording of the law that they don't actually have to seat 2500+ to keep people from carrying there as long as they post it per the law. I also wouldn't be surprised if there aren't police and prosecutors out there that would arrest and prosecute based on the wording of the law. They would most likely loose but what a PITA.

Unfortunately how are we to know the exact seating capacity? The theaters in my area don't appear on the websites I've found that show seating capacity and if you call them and ask they won't tell you an exact number. I solve this by going to smaller theaters but it would be nice to go to the bigger ones with the nice sound systems and comfy seats without having to disarm.

Just more crap that makes me write letters to get PFZs repealed. Of course then we'll probably see a huge crop of "NO GUNS" signs crop up

Bronson

FWIW
It has been a few years, but at one time I searched the internet for a while and found that theaters that had 8 or 9+ screens generally had a seating capacity of 2500+. Those with fewer screens had fewer than 2500 seats.

 

[Bronson]

I also think an entertainment facility's corporate legal dept. will attempt to make the leap based on the wording of the law that they don't actually have to seat 2500+ to keep people from carrying there as long as they post it per the law.

I once struck up a conversation with the some of the workers at Celebration Cinemas in Portage. I used to work in a small theater so it was easy to talk a little "shop" with them. I asked them what their full capacity was and they didn't know but one of them pulled out a calculator and starting adding up the seating capacities of the theaters. I can't remember the total but it was something like 2350 or 2300...less than 2500 anyway....yet a couple of months later there appeared a 2500+ sign on the front of the building. The theater is large enough that it very well could have had 2500+ seats, and it was posted that it had 2500+ seats but according to the numbers I got from the workers they didn't actually have 2500+ seats. So how are we to know?

Here's something I just learned tonight. Be careful of websites that list the seating capacities of theaters because depending on where they get their information it may not be correct. I had dinner with a friend of mine tonight that used to be an assistant manager of the theater where I worked and later another, larger, theater in Kalamazoo. I asked him where we could find the total seating capacity of a theater and he told me that "it depends on if you want the real capacity or the reported capacity." Theaters are charged a certain amount of $$ by the distribution co. and that amount is based on the size of the theater. More seats = higher cost to the theater. He said the large theater chain he worked for would routinely under report their seating capacity to the distributors by 100+ seats/theater to get a smaller fee from the dist. co. His only other suggestions were to not call and ask but to just strike up a friendly coversation with the employees while you were there and gently nudge the information out of them.

He did suggest that one or more of the gun rights groups in MI make a formal request of the corporate offices asking them to make the seating capacity information public and to see if the corporate offices wanted our business or if we should start a campaign to take our entertainment money elsewhere.

Bronson

 

[Venator]

I once struck up a conversation with the some of the workers at Celebration Cinemas in Portage. I used to work in a small theater so it was easy to talk a little "shop" with them. I asked them what their full capacity was and they didn't know but one of them pulled out a calculator and starting adding up the seating capacities of the theaters. I can't remember the total but it was something like 2350 or 2300...less than 2500 anyway....yet a couple of months later there appeared a 2500+ sign on the front of the building. The theater is large enough that it very well could have had 2500+ seats, and it was posted that it had 2500+ seats but according to the numbers I got from the workers they didn't actually have 2500+ seats. So how are we to know?

Here's something I just learned tonight. Be careful of websites that list the seating capacities of theaters because depending on where they get their information it may not be correct. I had dinner with a friend of mine tonight that used to be an assistant manager of the theater where I worked and later another, larger, theater in Kalamazoo. I asked him where we could find the total seating capacity of a theater and he told me that "it depends on if you want the real capacity or the reported capacity." Theaters are charged a certain amount of $$ by the distribution co. and that amount is based on the size of the theater. More seats = higher cost to the theater. He said the large theater chain he worked for would routinely under report their seating capacity to the distributors by 100+ seats/theater to get a smaller fee from the dist. co. His only other suggestions were to not call and ask but to just strike up a friendly coversation with the employees while you were there and gently nudge the information out of them.

He did suggest that one or more of the gun rights groups in MI make a formal request of the corporate offices asking them to make the seating capacity information public and to see if the corporate offices wanted our business or if we should start a campaign to take our entertainment money elsewhere.

Bronson

All good info, But they can ban guns if they only seat 100 people, they are private.

All we can do is take away their argument that they are complying with the 2500 seat law, so it's a cope out. If we show they are under 2500 then the HAVE TO decide if they want to be anti-gun.

 

[DanM]

I agree with everything you wrote.

I also think an entertainment facility's corporate legal dept. will attempt to make the leap based on the wording of the law that they don't actually have to seat 2500+ to keep people from carrying there as long as they post it per the law. I also wouldn't be surprised if there aren't police and prosecutors out there that would arrest and prosecute based on the wording of the law. They would most likely loose but what a PITA.

I agree those are possibilities. With regard to a corporation's erroneous interpretation, all we can do is comply with any of their resulting rules to avoid trespass. With regard to any arrest or prosecution based on erroneous interpretation, hopefully an analysis similar to mine is in the defense's toolbox.