Editing Paradise City:Introduction to Paradise City (section)

=Weapons in Paradise=

[[Image:expandable_gun_rack.jpg]]

==What the Law Says==
Federal law states that a citizen may own and carry a weapon of LR 3, such as an auto pistol, provided that they register the weapon with the federal government, and pay a license fee equal to 10% of the cost of the weapon.  A citizen may carry the weapon concealed if they have a concealed weapons permit, which is free but requires government approval.  Weapons with an LR of 4 or above are not regulated.  Citizens have a legal duty not to carry a weapon onto private property if instructed not to by the owner.  The instruction can be as a simple as a sign by the door.  The government may issue permits to allow organizations to arm their members with weapons of LR 2, such as submachine guns.

==The Reality==

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In reality, what weapons you can carry varies enormously depending on what part of the city you are in, ranging from nothing at all to auto rifles.  Area descriptions under [http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Paradise_City:Urban_Geography Urban Geography] will describe the specific weapon culture in that area – read them carefully before entering an area, as it could mean the difference between life and death. As a rule of thumb, the more important, prosperous or privately-owned an area is, the tighter the restrictions are likely to be.  Corporate offices will have a “No Weapons” sign at every door and police in middleclass neighborhoods will arrest someone for having a visible weapon.  On the other hand, you can carry an auto-pistol on your hip in the seedier parts of the downtown commercial district - although even a very rough bar is likely to demand that handguns be left at the door.  Police in poor neighborhoods control weapons as strictly as they can.  Enforcement ranges from arresting anyone found to be carrying a weapon to taking no notice of anything short of a squad-support weapon.  Suffice to say that any neighborhood in which the police won’t stop you from walking down the street carrying a submachine gun has been effectively ceded to the gangs – who will have their own unique opinions about what kinds of weapons it is alright to carry into their territory.

==Registration and Licensing==
Very few people bother to register or license their guns, as the police rarely care if a weapon is registered or licensed.  A police officer can arrest you for not having a license, but unless you are in a particularly nice neighborhood, any officer who asks about your gun license is already looking for an excuse to bust you.  It is unlikely that an officer who is looking for an excuse to bust you won’t be able to find one (or invent one!).

==Concealed Weapons Permits==
The federal government will only issue permits to government security personnel, or to the security personnel of major corporations.  In practice, the police generally don’t care if you hide your weapon or not – they either care that you have it in the first place or they don’t.

==“Unregulated” Weapons==
In theory, weapons of LR 4 and above are not regulated.  In practice, like “regulated” weapons, enforcement ranges from complete lack of regulation to complete bans, depending on the weapons culture of the local area.

==Private Property==
The law allows owners to forbid some or all weapons from their private property.  Owners generally don’t want violence taking place on their property, so will tend to make the rules as strict as they can without driving away wanted customers.  All businesses are private property as is any land owned by a corporation, so many places have special restrictions.

==Corporate Security==
The government often uses its control over heavy weapons permits to make it legal for corporate security troops to carry weapons of LR 2, such as submachine-guns.