# One Of My Biggest Pet Peeves or Why I Don't Inform.



## Cypher (May 17, 2017)

I was watching an episode of Live PD this afternoon. In one of the segments the cop approached the car and told the driver why he stopped her.

As soon as he did the driver informed him that she had a Concealed Handgun Permit and that there were firearms in the vehicle. She even told him exactly what handguns she had and where they were at the vehicle.

_The instant she said that the cop had her out of the car and in handcuffs. _He also told the passenger to get their hands up on the dash.

Then under the pretext of "securing the guns" (Remember the driver told him _exactly_ where they were.) He searched the _entire _vehicle.

When it was all said and done he told the cameraman that he didn't find anything illegal in the vehicle and you could hear the disappointment in his voice.

I went to YouTube to check it out and it's not real common that they run into somebody with a concealed handgun permit but from what I've seen almost every single time they do that's how it goes.

So first of all I have not been pulled over since the middle of 2009.

Second the state I'm in doesn't require me to inform the police that I'm armed unless I am specifically asked.

The last time I was asked the cop went absolutely ballistic on me because I hadn't told him previously and threatened to take me to jail for breaking a fictitious law.

So if I'm going to be treated like Criminal no matter what there is no reason for me to proactively tell the cop that there's a gun in the car.


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## rickclark28 (Apr 14, 2019)

Very interesting topic and a good one. Follow local laws and one should beware when pulled over. I have heard both sides of this issue. Thread lightly and be safe. You are not the criminal.


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## Yusrilha (Apr 20, 2020)

rickclark28 said:


> Very interesting topic and a good one. Follow local laws and one should beware when pulled over. I have heard both sides of this issue. Thread lightly and be safe. You are not the criminal.


+1


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## Goldwing (Nov 5, 2014)

Cypher said:


> I was watching an episode of Live PD this afternoon. In one of the segments the cop approached the car and told the driver why he stopped her.
> 
> As soon as he did the driver informed him that she had a Concealed Handgun Permit and that there were firearms in the vehicle. She even told him exactly what handguns she had and where they were at the vehicle.
> 
> ...


A friend of mine who is now a retired Deputy Sheriff and I had a conversation that opened my eyes.
He said that he couldn't care less if I obeyed the speed limit or signaled a lane change. These were the things that allowed him to get close enough to see what else the traffic offender was up to.
Writing a ticket for a traffic offense never got you promoted, but catching someone on the road committing a felony was. 
I have a suspicion that some ambitious LEOs consider that if you are carrying then a minor offense has a multiplier if you do it armed.
If you carry you had best be on your best behavior. JMHO YMMV!

GW


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## Cypher (May 17, 2017)

I work as an armed security guard and I've encountered cops in that role multiple times. I have yet to have one look at my gun twice under those circumstances.


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## Rock185 (Oct 26, 2012)

Cypher, I've read of legally armed motorists being treated that way, mostly in the N.E. US. I spent some years in LE in Arizona, and never saw any legally armed motorists treated that way. We always assumed anyone we contacted could be armed, but absent some other cause for concern, did not make a camera worthy dramatic incident out of it. I wonder if the officer on the T.V. program, knowing he was being taped, was performing for the cameras? Of course, I do realize that some officers are Gung-Ho, and are prone to making a big deal out of whatever they can make a big deal out of, even without the cameras rolling


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## Cypher (May 17, 2017)

The particular incident I'm referencing occurred someplace in Missouri. 

I remember one night I was on my way to work and I walked out my front door and right into an active police scene. They were arresting somebody for drunk driving. The only reason I know that is because I heard the cop telling him as I was walking through there scene. 

I made sure as soon as I realized what was going on I looked at the nearest cop and said "Hey look I'm on my way to work, I'm a security guard My car is parked right in the middle of your investigation and I need to walk through." the cop I spoke to was like "Whatever." I don't know for sure if they even noticed I was armed. 


I remember one particular incident I was doing a check on the city building and out of nowhere five cop cars around me. The cops got out they told me that they were looking for somebody possibly across the street possibly with a rifle and had I seen anybody like that. I told them I hadn't they told me to exercise caution as I was going about my checks and then one of them asked me "Are you armed?" I mean they were literally surrounding me within handshake distance and none of them even bothered to look at my hip.


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## curly1943 (Jun 30, 2014)

With the way things are going now I can not really blame the police for overreacting but as stated there seem to be a number that are impressed with their badge. But most are not that way and behave in an correct way.


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## Cypher (May 17, 2017)

curly1943 said:


> But most are not that way and behave in an correct way.


The problem is you don't know what kind of cop you got until _after _you tell them and once those words are out of your mouth there's no calling them back.

I want to be really clear I am not suggesting that anyone violate their local laws. That said, I have no legal requirement to inform unless I am specifically asked. So, I don't or more accurately I _wouldn't_ if I should happen to be pulled over again.


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## berettatoter (Sep 1, 2011)

Well, there should not be ANY "gray" area here. One is either legally armed or not, but when dealing with humans, whether they be cops or not, there seems to be too much "gray area" to deal with.


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## chinabald (Mar 6, 2019)

I've had 2 instances of me informing a PO after being pulled over. Neither time was I asked to get out of the car or was my car searched. A friend of mine informed and was told "don't show me yours and you wont see mine"

In Michigan, If you don't inform, once they run your drivers license they will have the information, and you will have an additional ticket for $500.


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## Goldwing (Nov 5, 2014)

Last I knew in Wisconsin, carry permit info is not available to dispatchers in most circumstances.

GW


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## Babbalou1956 (Sep 2, 2014)

I'm not required to tell police if I'm armed in my state. If I mention I'm armed I can't say how that will be interpreted. Some might think it's a warning, threat or challenge. I'm not going to risk that unless they ask me. A man was shot for reaching for his wallet after telling the cop he was armed, read about it a few years ago. TMI.


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## Tangof (Jan 26, 2014)

One stop for speeding. (I was) I told my Wife "Hands on the dashboard." I did it too. The Officer asked for my DL and I said "I'm armed. Do you want that license first?" He said yes and I handed over my LEOSA ID. He wanted the DL too and I told him my weapon was on my right side with my DL. He took both ID's and ran them. No hit's of course so he let me go with a warning to slow down. I suggest telling the Officer before you reach for anything whether the law requires you to do so or not.


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## SamBond (Aug 30, 2016)

I play with hot rod motorcycles, cars too, so I get to "visit" with a LEO on the side of the road from time to time.
I never ever tell them anything about my firearm until they ask. When he asks for my DL I first hand him my CCW with my DL out, ready to follow. 
From there I just answer questions as I'm asked. They usually don't even ask where my pistol is. 
Most of the time I'm told not to put my hands in my pocket or anything while he runs my DL. That's easy enough.
They generally seem to feel more at ease after they see that I've been checked out by the FBI and have jumped thru all the hoops so I can carry legally. 
Only one time was a copper trying to create a problem with me on the side of the road. Not sure if he didn't like the motorcycle or the gun, maybe both? 
I resorted to my "bad cop" procedure... Answer all questions with Yes, No or use as short of an answer as possible, don't notice his insults or that he just wrote a ticket for a good 15 MPH faster than I know I was going.
Sometimes you gotta go into.... _survival mode._

Sam


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## corneileous (Feb 17, 2018)

I’m really surprised that all took place in a state like Missouri who’s a lot more friendlier towards guns as where I would expect something like to happen, like up in the Northeast. But yes, living out here in Oklahoma after we went full blown Constitutional carry, that was one of the laws they changed was where we no longer have the duty to inform until we are asked. 

With me being a professional truck driver, I get pulled over a lot. And no, I don’t have to be doing anything necessarily wrong to warrant getting pulled over because I drive a federally mandated commercial vehicle so that if the DOT man wants to pull me over just out of the blue and inspect my equipment or me, he doesn’t have to have a reason to pull me over even though nine times out of 10, they won’t mess with you until you do something wrong. 

There’s only really been one time where I had an officer that was rather dickish with me back before our constitutional carry went into effect when we still had the duty to inform well, because we still were required to be permitted to carry in a vehicle so when you got pulled over, you had to hand the officer your carry permit along with your drivers license and other info and you had to tell him that you were armed. 

I had gotten pulled over at the time because a city cop on the edge of town had somebody pulled over. It was on a really narrow 2-lane highway and he pulled me over afterwards because he didn’t think I was going slow enough and that I didn’t move over into the oncoming lane enough to make him satisfied while he was doing his traffic stop so he proceeded to, once he pulled me over, make it sound like I was trying to run him over and that my truck whizzing by blew him all over the road. I told him that I had the dotted line centered pretty much in the center of my truck there wasn’t a whole lot for me to do and that I was going 10 miles an hour under the posted speed limit. Well, long story short, he tried to make me sound like the worst person in the world because I didn’t do exactly what he thought I should do so of course I argued back with him and said no I don’t want to run you over, I was going slower than the speed limit I did move over and that I wasn’t trying to do anything that it sounded like he was trying to accuse me of so of course, I did get a ticket for improper passing of a stationary vehicle but I guess because I didn’t really think I did anything wrong, I did have a slight bit of an attitude with him and since I had already given him my carry permit like I was supposed to, he asked me if I was armed and I said yes. He then asked me to take the little 22 Magnum revolver out of my pocket and set it down on the threshold of the cab before I got out to go back there and sit with him in his cruiser as he wrote out the ticket. 

All the other times I’ve gotten pulled over for anything else, I haven’t had a single problem with a LEO and usually the one thing I get told all the other times is that well as long as I don’t reach for mine, he won’t reach for his… LOL. 

I did get pulled over about eight months ago for just a plain old random inspection after the Constitutional carry had went into place and the cop that pulled me over tried to tell me that even though it’s no longer required by law, he did say that he thought it was still a wise idea to inform the officer if you’re carrying a pistol which, I can kind of see some logic in that, but I don’t know, as far as I’m concerned, if I’m no longer allowed to tell the cop that I’m packing a pistol when I get pulled over, I think it’s my right to not tell him unless he asked for it, just because of all this right here. But then again, I would say it’s pretty safe to assume that a cop will probably treat you like this if you don’t tell him on your own free will you have a pistol until he ask you if you do because he’ll probably think you’re trying to hide something so it’s probably a damned if you do, damned if you don’t if you tell him before he asks, or if you wait until he asks because it just all depends on the attitude of the cop that pulls you over, it depends on why he’s pulling you over and how he feels about you having a pistol on you when you’re in a car. 


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