Armed to the Terror... Off-Road?

Some of my recent posts have addressed weapon offenses at demonstrations and other public events, and I also wrote recently about the issue of dicta in a court opinion being treated as binding precedent. Those two topics converged in an interesting way during a training seminar yesterday for magistrates. We were discussing one of the most well-known offenses in this area, Going Armed to Terror of the People, when this question came up:  is it really limited to offenses that occur "on a public highway," or can it apply in other public places like parks, bus stations, and government buildings? If not, why not? Especially since other breach of the peace offenses like affray or disorderly conduct apply more broadly to any "public place?" Charging practices seem to differ on this point around the state, and there is some room for debate depending on how far back we go in the case law, so I thought it warranted a closer look. The Elements of the Offense If you need a refresher on this offense, Professor Smith's helpful summary is available here. Going armed to the terror of the people is a common law offense, meaning it's established and defined by the cases interpreting it. Case law on this offense is pretty limited, but the more modern cases (relatively speaking) that we do have identify the "four essential elements to charge the common law offense of intentionally going about armed with an unusual and dangerous weapon to the terror of the people" [...]