If a man's home is his castle, is his campsite his castle, too? At this point in Oregon, it seems to be true. Depending on your viewpoint, this could be a good thing, or a step on the slippery slope. Here's the background:

David Wolf, a 66-year old man, was camping out at the North Fork John Day Campground, a Forest Service Campground outside of Granite, in eastern Oregon. Apparently Wolf had intentions of doing some dredging in the nearby river. When the campground host got wind of Wolf's plans, he contacted a service ranger, who stopped by Wolf's campsite.

In the ensuing conversation, Mr. Wolf revealed that he had a pistol in his pocket, and did not have a concealed carry permit. Lugged into court, Wolf was found guilty of carrying a concealed weapon unlawfully. On appeal to the Oregon Court of Appeals, Wolf's case was reversed, the charges dismissed. What was behind the finding?

Wolf's attorney argued that since Mr. Wolf had rented the site, set up a tent, and was living on the site, his camp site was his residence, and hence, he was exempt from the required concealed weapons permit. While 'home is castle,' laws are generally decided by the states, some in the camping industry fear the ruling could have repercussions if the ruling is considered a precedent setter.

There's a couple of things to glean from the ruling. First, many states recognize that a "residence" doesn't have to be tied down. That is, your RV is your residence – your castle – and so to be searched, warrants are required, and laws applying to concealed weapons permits wouldn't apply – when inside the rig. But Oregon's ruling carries the idea a bit farther, making the area around the rig, the campsite, part of the residence.

How does this frighten the campground industry? They fear that they would then lose their ability to dictate what takes place in a campsite that they own, but that a customer rents. For example, a "no smoking outside your RV" rule would then – if you will – go up in smoke if the customer chooses to light up while sitting by his campfire.

Others might find the ruling a self-defense victory or nightmare. If your RV site is your castle and you feel threatened, pulling a weapon and firing on an intruder who walks up to that campfire might meet the test of the 'defensible castle.' Whether that proves true will need to wait for a case to appear in court. In today's 'critical times, hard to deal with,' sadly enough, it will only be a matter of time before the speculative becomes the real thing.

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