Off-duty LEO encounter

[frank.macher]

Not being from TN, I have to go by what y'all have typed.

It is a rule in MI that entering an establishment whose primary income is from alcohol sales, you are in violation of the weapons free zones.

That - from what I read - is not the case there, and I agree a quiet attention getter like hey can I talk to you for a second, or some other innocuous approach would have better served. The only other thing that comes to mind is the person may have been nervous noticing a concealed weapon. But, if you have met the person many times before, maybe he doesn't realize how loud he was?

Can't really say, not having been there.

[J.T.]

Just work on those concealment skills my friend. It would not have even happened if he could not see it! Think about it.

[wuzfuz]

I can see where the LEO could have been acting out of genuine concern for the poster, but I was trained to constantly paly a mental game of 'what if.' In this case, if I were the off-duty LEO, I would be thinking, "What if one of the other people in the place is here to hold it up?" To brace someone loud enough to be heard could result in the putative BG to shoot both members to the conversation out of fear of arrest or worse. There are more diplomatic and safer ways to handle this situation. As far as people being panicked when they see a gun, I had the chance when I purchase my Ruger 10/22 to edducate a WalMart* assistant manager on our state's gun laws. We were talking and he made the statement that if someone with a CPL accidentally flashed the weapon, he could get arrested. I told him the responding officer would more likely realize that it was accidental or on purpose, but that if hte person walked in with the weapon in a visible holster there i snothing anyone could do about it, as Washington is an OC state. He did not know that. I later ran off the info from usacarry.com and gave to him. He appreciated the info, as he was really unaware of the ability to carry open in the state.

[tattedupboy]

If you weren't breaking the law, he shouldn't have accosted you, period.

[Fallguy]

Originally Posted by tattedupboy

If you weren't breaking the law, he shouldn't have accosted you, period.

Well while OC is legal in TN it is only with a permit. Unlike some other states. Also in TN they way the law is, it is illegal to carry a handgun period. But having a Handgun Carry Permit is a "defense" against that law. So if a LEO sees you carrying, as far as he knows, you are breaking the law until you can "defend" yourself by showing your permit.

All that said....finding out if the OP had a permit or not didn't seem to be the intent of the LEO in this case.

[J.T.]

Originally Posted by Fallguy

Well while OC is legal in TN it is only with a permit. Unlike some other states. Also in TN they way the law is, it is illegal to carry a handgun period. But having a Handgun Carry Permit is a "defense" against that law. So if a LEO sees you carrying, as far as he knows, you are breaking the law until you can "defend" yourself by showing your permit.

All that said....finding out if the OP had a permit or not didn't seem to be the intent of the LEO in this case.

Hence....Better concealment techniques are in order.

[gdcleanfun]

This is a bit off topic but I wanted to chime in.

Open carry is pretty common in my town, so I'm thinking that maybe cc is probably pretty common, too. Though I'm sure we all do what we can and we hope that adverse things never happens, but if we cc and the jacket happens to fly open in the wind, or rises up and above our waist or ankle, or gets caught in the seat belt, well, we are still okay because both open carry and cc (with the proper permit) are legal in Nevada.

It's my opinion that it's nice to know the Sheriff personally because he knows he's got backup and we know who to backup. I was surprised but pleased that he actually knows who we are because he asked hubby one time if I had yet received my CCW, weeks after I called to check on it's progress in the system? Getting to know the Sheriff in my old county of residence in California would never have happened as that county boasts a population of more than 830,000 people and getting close enough to the Sheriff to even shake hands was considered suspicious behavior. To tell the truth, I cannot even remember their names or their genders in the almost 30 years that I lived in that county. My current county boasts 46,000+, 38,000+ of whom are located in my town, making it a whole lot easier for us to know the local politicians and deputies, and they us. Good or bad, that's the way it is in small towns.

I'm interested in knowing how many current CCWs are on the books in this county. I could be way off base but I'm thinking that maybe 1 out of 10 people cc. I'll try to remember to ask him next time I see him. It's nice that our county's Sheriff isn't just a paper pusher; he's a working LEO. He gets out and about, he oc's, and he writes traffic citations. Not everyone agrees with his politics, but I think it would be hard to deny that he's a hard-working LEO.

[Jaeger]

GDCLEANFUN's post reminds me of something that happened here a couple of years ago. One of the local TV stations was doing a story on weapons and CCW's and interviewed our Sheriff. The interview was progressing well until the gal from the TV station asked how many CCW permits had been issued here. The Sheriff immediately asked her why she expected him to put out that info, if she was trying to give criminals some kind of idea how" safe" it might be for them here etc. All the time she's spluttering and stammering and can't really get in a word. He didn't become angry, he just put her on the spot. Then he got this HUGE smile, looked straight into the camera, and said "A LOT".

Those were the final words of the interview and the piece they were doing.

[Jaeger]

Originally Posted by gdcleanfun

Getting to know the Sheriff in my old county of residence in California would never have happened as that county boasts a population of more than 830,000 people and getting close enough to the Sheriff to even shake hands was considered suspicious behavior.

I'm guessing that was south of Sacramento?

[tattedupboy]

I see his concern, but he could have handled it differently. He could have pulled you off to the side to tell you what he wanted to tell you if he was so concerned. In either event, at least he wasn't an a**hole about it and it could have been a lot worse. Thankfully, he wasn't one of those a**hole LEOs who would throw you down on the ground and put a knee in your back.