Do you inform?

[Trigger Time]

I don't inform or answer any questions asked by any police. Answering even the simplest question will never help you in court but it can and will be used to convict you even if your wrongly convicted. Never answer questions without a lawyer. It is my own responsibility to protect my freedom.
I have no ill wishes towards a police officer who pulls me over so he has nothing to fear from me and will never even know there were guns in the car. If I break the law I will gladly accept my fine and be on my way thank you.

 

[ModernGunner]

Doesn't matter. If they stop you and run your license or license plates, they already know whether you have a LTCH, anyway.

So, who cares?

If you're being argumentative simply for the sake of being argumentative, then guess what? YOU have just GIVEN the LEO the 'articulable fact' he needs to delve further, and look deeper.

Duh...

 

[Scutter01]

Doesn't matter. If they stop you and run your license or license plates, they already know whether you have a LTCH, anyway.

Great! If they already know, then there's absolutely no reason to waste anyone's time by asking.

 

[jbombelli]

Great! If they already know, then there's absolutely no reason to waste anyone's time by asking.

This. There's no need to see my LTCH if they already know I have it. They also already know it's valid, so they don't need to coonfinger my firearm. And State V. Richardson (I think that's the one) says that once the valid LTCH is presented all questioning into firearms must cease.

 

[ATM]

...If you're being argumentative simply for the sake of being argumentative, then guess what? YOU have just GIVEN the LEO the 'articulable fact' he needs to delve further, and look deeper.

Duh...

So... me not answering questions is deemed "argumentative" which magically bestows them with some new level of justification to ask me more questions (which I will also not answer)?




That's funny.

 

[AndersonIN]

Doesn't matter. If they stop you and run your license or license plates, they already know whether you have a LTCH, anyway.

So, who cares?

If you're being argumentative simply for the sake of being argumentative, then guess what? YOU have just GIVEN the LEO the 'articulable fact' he needs to delve further, and look deeper.

Duh...

And EXACTLY how do you come up with this brilliant deduction???? What are they going to do ask me the same question with a 'poopy face' to put fear into my heart???

Been watching to many bad B grade movies if you ask me.

 

[Jack Burton]

And EXACTLY how do you come up with this brilliant deduction???? What are they going to do ask me the same question with a 'poopy face' to put fear into my heart???

Been watching to many bad B grade movies if you ask me.

Watching too may COPS episodes...

Whatcha gonna do when the bad boys come for you...

 

[stephen87]

Doesn't matter. If they stop you and run your license or license plates, they already know whether you have a LTCH, anyway.

So, who cares?

If you're being argumentative simply for the sake of being argumentative, then guess what? YOU have just GIVEN the LEO the 'articulable fact' he needs to delve further, and look deeper.

Duh...

Close, only pops up with your DLN.


I care. I really do.

I like being argumentative, just to be argumentative. I didn't give the LEO anything other than a reason to give me that ticket I deserve. All while being an ass to me.

 

[Barry in IN]

Four or five years ago, I was on my way to a 3-gun match. I got stopped going through a town because I was doing 3 mph over, but he said the speed limiit was changing there soon and I would have been eight over then. Um, OK.

When I left home, I grabbed an additional pistol mag pouch. My hands were full, and the quickest/easiest way to carry it was to snap it on my belt.
When I was stopped, I leaned over to get my registration from the glove compartment, and he saw this bulky extra double mag pouch poking out.

And so it began.

He asked if I had a gun, I replied affirmative, then he kinda seem confused on what to do next. He seemed a little freaked out at first, but calmed and asked where it was, and what it was, and if I had a carry permit. I offered up the permit, but he said that was OK, he didn't need to see it.
He asked where I was headed, and I told him about the 3-gun match, which he seemed to find curious and interesting.

He then says "Can you step out and follow me?" then turns and walks back toward his car.

That seemed relaxed, turning your back on an armed motorist and walking away, so I assume everything is dandy fine.
I have visions of when my buddy was pulled over near Paoli, and he and the deputy spent an hour along the side of the road having their own little gun show. I don't think this guy is quite that way, but maybe wants to know about 3-gun.

Heck, he didn't want to see my permit, and just turned his back on me- an armed man- and walked away, so he must not be too worried about me.

I get to the front of his car, and he asks me to take my gun out and show it to him. Now I am thinking he does want to play show and tell.
I was wrong.
Now begins the real show.

I hand it over, making it clear it was loaded rather than jacking around clearing it in a residential area and risking me putting a round through a house while standing by an officer.
He didn't have such concerns and starts yanking on the slide. It's a Browning HiPower, which is like a 1911 in that the safety locks the slide when engaged. I try to tell him this, but he is too busy sruggling.

Somewhere in here, he tells me he is unloading my gun "for our safety". What?
He goes back to yanking on the slide and fights my pistol for a while, and the more he struggles, the worse his muzzle discipline becomes. I'm swept, his car is swept, the neighborhood is swept. I swear, sweat was starting to run down his face.
He pauses again to tell me this was "for our safety", but I think it was to catch his breath.

The struggle continues. He's yanking. I'm trying to tell him the slide is locked by the safety. I've already slid over so I have his car between us for a little cover when the inevitible ND happens.
I have this picture in my head of him discharging my gun, someone in the surrounding houses hearing it (it's a quiet Sunday morning), looking outside and deciding the officer is in a shootout, and shooting me in the head with their deer rifle.

Eventually, he gets the safety down, though I think it got knocked off in the one-man struggle. He had never taken the magazine out, so guess what happened? Naturally the slide snaps back then closed again, picking up another round. The look on his face when that happened was priceless.

He was huffing and puffing like a steam locomotive by now, so he pauses again to remind me this gun waving exercise was for our safety.

I'm not sure whether to laugh, cry, yell, or just get back in my car and drive off. I think mostly I was too curious to do anything but watch.

This little break must have given him the chance to think over the gun, because he then got the magazine out and the slide open within a minute or two. I think there were three live rounds on the ground by then.

I have no idea how many of the Four Rules were broken in this assurance of our safety, but it was the most unsafe I felt in a long time.

After handing my violated, sweat-soaked gun back to me, he asked if I had any other guns. Heh.
I had been standing there with two backup guns on me, and of course there were at least four long guns in the van (rifle and shotgun for the match, plus a backup for each). When I answered his quesion about having any more guns with "Yeah, lots of them!" he had that same dejected, knee to the groin look as when he realized he left the mag in and chambered another round earlier.

I could read his mind: He really wanted to check them all (any hint of which would have finished off my patience) but decided he didn't want to spend the day trying to get them open.

He sent me on my way with the admonishment to tell him first next time.
I asked him- "What would you have done if I had told you at the beginning?"
He said he would have done the same thing- cleared my gun and given it back.
Wrong answer, officer.
Why I would do that? Why would I volunteer to have my own gun waved around at me? Had I not snapped on that extra mag pouch, he would have never been the wiser. And he thinks I would offer up that info, so he could panic and wave my own gun at me? Nope, don't think so.

The usual argument for voluntarily disclosing you are armed is to head off dangerous misunderstandings. That used to make some sense to me. Not after that episode I had. Now I see that it can just as easily bring about a dangerous situation.
If my choices are:
1) Disclose it and risk having a gun pointed at me by a nervous or overzealous officer, or
2) Keep quiet and risk having a gun pointed at me, but only if they find out,
Why would I choose #1?

If I knew every law enforcement officer out there, and knew how they would react to the news, I'd evaluate it on a case by case basis. There arre some I'd tell in an instant (but I wouldn't have to, because they would already know). there are some I would never reveal it to. I don't know them all, don't kow who I will get, and don't know how they will react.
So in my opinion, it's better to keep quiet and not volunteer any info I don't have to.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

He goes back to yanking on the slide and fights my pistol for a while, and the more he struggles, the worse his muzzle discipline becomes. I'm swept, his car is swept, the neighborhood is swept.

Hey! I saw that movie! But I saw it in Broad Ripple.

My buddy saw it in Lake County where a ISP trooper was jumped up and down trying to get the mag out of a P99.