The other thread about dumb things you've been pulled over for got me thinking. I didn't really have much for that thread, as I honestly have been at fault for something when I've been pulled over, and have always been treated fairly, or better, even while carrying. Until recently taking a job locally, I spent the last 7 or 8 years commuting long distances, usually in beater cars, and sometimes in a hurry. Here's the roadside interactions with LEOs I've had while armed.

About a year ago, I smashed a large buck with my small Honda. It took out the right headlight housing, amongst other things. While wrangling with the insurance company, I replaced just the bulb, for the time being. As the bulb was exposed to the elements, they'd last about a week. Twice, it burned out during my commute, and I was pulled over in 2 different small towns. Both times, I already had my license/CCW Permit/registration/insurance in hand, dome light on, window down, and hands at 10 and 2 when the officer approached. I immediately hand licenses etc. over, CCW on top and give a courtesy notification. Both times I was thanked for being up front, given a verbal, and let go.

Another time, I was doing about 12 over, and finishing a pass of a slower car when I saw a county sheriff in a parking lot. He popped out and pulled me over right away. I had everything ready, and proceeded as previously noted. He asked if I knew why he pulled me over. I replied along the lines of "because I'm a moron and breaking the law with my speed on my way to work, and I knew it was a righteous stop". After running my info, he cut me loose with a written warning and indicated that he cut me slack for 2 reasons. One, for owning my mistake, and not making excuses. Two, because only decent folks legally carry and have the courtesy to notify, even when not required, as in Wisconsin. He even indicated that he doesn't believe it's gov's business to be in the licensing business. That a right is a right, and I shouldn't need permission to exercise a right, especially when criminals do as they wish, why shouldn't honest folks. I thought that was pretty cool.

A little further back, when I first got my CCW, I was evidently following a little too closely given the conditions of the road, and my junker vehicle. A lady in front of me gave me a demonstration on the impressive braking qualities of a new Subaru, compared to my old Tercel. She remembered where she lived at the last nanosecond, and I slid into the corner of her bumper, instead of narrowly missing her, as I hoped. We called it in, and a little while later a county sheriff responded. I notified him that I was carrying right away, and he thanked me, even asked what I was carrying (G26). Then, since it was cold outside and he had to write the accident report, he offered for me to sit in the squad, BEHIND HIM, to stay warm while he wrote it up. I reminded him of my carry status, and he said "no worries". I was more than a little surprised, but grateful and humbled that he knew "no worries" to be true, and proved it.

What have your LEO interaction experiences been while either CCW, armed on your property, shotgun in the rear window of the pickup etc?

We had an extensive thread on this exact topic not too long ago. Not sure if it is resurrect-able or not. You might find that thread very interesting, because it had discussions from all viewpoints, including LEO members. It was a good thread, and I learned a thing or two that I wouldn't have originally considered.

I only had one "problem" while packing ccw. This happened about 4 years ago.

I was driving my sister's junk spare car, as mine was broke down and needed an expensive repair, which at that time I couldn't afford.

Well anyways. I worked in Louisville KY, but lived in another county. I was tooling down the road and a LMPD officer comes flying up behind me.

I'm in the slow lane, doing the speed limit. It's rush hour and traffic is shitty. He's riding my ass. We go about 2 miles at this then he lights me up. I signaled and pulled to the side. Wondering what the hell I was getting pulled over for.

He walks up and asked if I knew what I was pulled over for. I said "no". He said expired tags. Well hell!

I already had my license the car restoration and insurance and my ccdw out. But when he walked up and asked me that question he cut me off before I informed him that I was armed. Now mind you we don't have to inform, I do it as a courtesy.

So when I do, he freaks out and draws his weapon, now he didn't point it at me just held it by his side.

Then he ordered me to hand it (my weapon) over. I told him that I was uncomfortable in doing that and he freaks out on me again. I told him that I didn't want to be Fucking with a loaded pistol behind the wheel of my car on the side of the road.

I told him that, if he really wanted me to disarm, that I would take the holster off with the pistol still in it. He agreed to that and I did.

I handed my holstered pistol, and all of the other stuff. He walks backwards to his patrol car and gets in. Ten minutes later he comes up, dumps a handful of rounds in my hand, empty magazine and sets me paperwork and holster on the dash. Says don't load the weapon until he pulls away.

He wasn't very "nice", had an attitude and was a smartass. Said to me "why do you need to be armed?" When I started to answer, he cut me off and told me that "I'm giving you a warning, to get the tags on the car ASAP." Told me have a good day and drive safe.

I put my spare magazine in the pistol and charged it, and stuck it in the holster before he got back to his patrol car. As he pulls away I reloaded the empty magazine and placed it back in the magazine pouch, then made my way back into fucked up rush hour traffic.


Now all the other times that I have had interaction with law enforcement armed has been, "oh you're armed, cool. Don't touch it". The business at hand and maybe a question about what I'm packing, what holster, where I go shooting and the like.

Oh, one other bad run in with law enforcement while armed.

This way in 2000. At the time I was working for an armored car company and doing armed security on the side. I was driving home from work, in full uniform, and get pulled over for burned out head light.
Hell I didn't know it was out.

Anyways, the officer walks up to the drivers side. I tell him that the window was broke and won't roll down. I asked if it was OK to open the door. He freaks out and starts to yell at me and backs to the rear of my Jeep. Next thing I know there is 5 other police cars pulling up!

They are on both sides of the Jeep, pistols drawn and the original officer is pounding on my pasanger side window, demanding that I roll it down. Now mind you, they are old school crank windows, so when I lean over to roll it down he freaks out again and starts yelling "get back up, get back up!". I tell him that it's a manual crank window but he keeps yelling get back up.

About this time another officer trys to open the driver door. Which is locked because if you don't, you are asking to get car jacked.

Anyways. The cop on my side is now pounding on the door and window. I yell that I will unlock the door, or roll down the passenger side window. Just quit pounding on my vehicle!

I unlocked the door and the officer opens it, the original officer comes running around to that side and grabs my arm. He asked me what the fuck was I doing?

I, not knowing about what he is talking about asked about what? Now mind you at this time I didn't know what the hell I was getting pulled over for.

Then the oc (original cop) sees my duty belt and starts to yell at me, "why are you carrying that?". At first I didn't know what the hell he was talking about.

Anyways, I figured that out and said that I was coming home from work. He said why didn't I leave my pistol at work. I told him that 1)it was my personal weapon (LMPD officer got their pistol paid for).2) that I was going to go home eat change shirts and go to my second job.3) that even then it was none of his fucking business (by this time it was an hour of clown bullshit, I still didn't know what the hell I was getting pulled over for, and I was tired of his unprofessionalism, attitude and smart ass mouth).

At which time, he asked me if I had any other weapons. Which I did, my backup in my ankle holster. Which got him riled up again.

Then at this point he asked "do you know why I pulled you over?" I said NO! Then he informed me that I had a burned out head light.

My fucking god! Really? I told him that I didn't know that and thanks.

He takes my information and all but one officer walks back to their cars. The one that stood there by me was fairly cool. After a few minutes then oc walks up to me, gives me my paperwork and tells me to fix my head light. That he's not going to write me a ticket and I can leave.

I did, went home and called and complained about it, to his Sargent that I knew. The next day I filed an official complaint, but never heard a word about it. Oh well.

98% of the time. They have all been cool. The best two was a KSP trooper. The other was a Spencer county sheriff's deputy. With him I was packed my HK P7 PSP and he was very interested in it. We talked for a half hour before he got another call.

So if there is a jackwad cop out there, I will most likely get them. With that said, most have been very professional, kind, helpful and courteous. Some being just plan cool, awesome dudes!


ARman

Any officer that can't deal with the idea of an armed lawful citizen should find another line of work.

Got hit by another car while driving. Called it in and waited for police, other car drives off.
Police man comes and I say immediately, I have a CHL and am carrying. He says ok, no problem where is the other guy?

No issues but the officer only knew that I had any guns once because my rifle was visible. He asked if a gun wa in the case and I told him there was. It was not mentioned again.

Normally I don't tell them I have a gun though.

Got pulled over twice while armed. The last time was in 2003. The first time, I was working in a place that prohibited concealed carry, and my Sig was on the glove compartment, on top of my registration and proof of insurance. I gave the officer my carry permit along with my license, and informed him that I had a loaded holstered handgun in the glove compartment sitting on top of my registration and proof of insurance, and asked what he wanted me to do. The second time, I went from a 50 MPH zone to a 35 MPH zone, and had already started to slow down when they got me on radar going 10 MPH over the limit. I provided my CCW permit, and informed the officer I was carrying at the start of the stop.

Both times, my handgun was taken by the officers. Both times, I was ticketed. In the twenty years that I lived in the area, I had two other traffic stops when I wasn't carrying. Had one written and one verbal warning, with no tickets at the other stops.

Glad I moved out of Yuppieville, TN.

Oh yeah, one other. I finished work about 0200 one night, and hadn't eaten all day. The place I was working at was close to what was then a questionable section of town. I was hungry, and I knew of a Waffle House nearby. I mentioned it, and everybody at work thought I was nuts to go there in the wee hours. I was hungry, and went anyway. When I walked in, I was recognized by a Metro police officer in plain clothes-he wave and asked me to join him. He also had the homicide squad with him at the same table, with a bunch of equipment piled in the middle. I did, had a good meal and good conversation about lots of stuff besides our respective jobs. I never mentioned I was armed at that time.

I live in Utah. It's a pretty gun friendly State. Last time I was pulled over I had an HK USPct sitting in my passenger front seat. The officer conducted his business and then we talked about HKs. He asked to handle the weapon. I asked him to tell me how he preferred I hand it to him. I did what he said, he admired the gun and handed it back resolved to get one for himself. No big deal. Nice guy. I kept my hands where he could see them and informed before I did anything.

Pulled over twice I recall in the last 10 years or so. We are required by NC law to notify and provide CHP with license.

One NC trooper asked me to exit vehicle while he took possession of the gun temporarily. No other issues.

One NCHP trooper didn't say a word about it.

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No requirement to notify in WA, so I don’t.

Depending on who pulls you over they, they may or may not have run to veh owner to the CPL database (some agencies do to automatically).

Since it isn’t required, I don’t advise for just the very reason as some of the horror stories about cops flipping out over it.

I’ve had it taken away, unloaded and slide removed, I’ve had officer says if I don’t go for mine, he won’t go for his.

I understand they have a hard job, but it would be nice if they could get together and come up with a reasonable, rational standard way of dealing with cooperative motorists who happen to be exercising their rights when the only concern is some sort of traffic or equipment issue.

I got stopped for speeding a couple of years back, I admitted I was exceeding the speed limit. The officer asked if I was armed, I said yes, he said if you don't go for yours, I won't go for mine.

Only times they knew were when they asked - both of those times they were cool cats, didn't freak out or disarm me.

The one time I expected the female cop to freak, she didn't ask about weapons, so she didn't get he hear me tell her I was carrying on the way to the range, had about 2000rds of ammunition and several 'evil' rifles in the back.

But I'm sure if she had asked it would have been a painful experience, considering how bent she was I supposedly when through a red turn arrow (with her behind me in plain sight). But I just 'yes ma'am'ed her and took her tax slip without much beyond "yes", "no", "ok".

I've been pulled over while carrying a couple of times. I was also involved in a traffic accident (somebody hit my car on a snowy night on the highway).

I always inform the officer (though I am not required to in the states I travel in). And in my experience, it's always been a positive interaction.

I was pulled over in Arkansas while driving down to Texas for 5 miles over the limit. Unsure of notification requirements, I handed officer both license and permit. He asked what it was so I told him a conceal carry permit. He said, "I don't need this" and handed it back to me. I still got a ticket.

This past Spring, I and my husband were out in the desert at place one weekend where one can lawfully target practice. It's a pretty wide open place surrounded by hills way north of the city and we were the only ones there, both open carrying and practicing shooting revolvers at some steel targets we'd put up. I turn around and see Metro police driving down the road and turn into the range area heading straight for us. I'm trying to think what law we've broken and can't come up with anything. We both set our guns down on a small crate and step away from them. I still had on a visible belt knife, though. The officer stops about 10 yards from us and exits his vehicle and we slowly walked a few feet toward him and stopped with plenty of distance still between us, and asked him if there was a problem. He said no, rather he was just "checking out the competition!". He was very friendly and approached us further. I admired his choice of firearms, a cocked and locked Kimber 1911 with a goodly number of magazines at the ready on his belt. We started chatting and he told us about another desert place where we could shoot that was cooler due to a much higher elevation (and this turned out to be a great place to go to shoot this summer!), then he went on his way. A totally unexpected and great encounter with an LEO!

I've only had a couple, and only one of them was one BEFORE i was one...

I was actually in the academy, and going through multiple application processes.

My brother and I took our little cousin shooting, he was probably 18 or so at the time, and we were on our 40 acres of family property that my father's house sits on, and shooting down one hillside in the woods into another hillside with about a 40 foot hillside as our berm/backstop.

We had been out for maybe an hour, running both our AR's, some shotguns, a bolt action .222, and multiple pistols. It is unincorporated land and perfectly legal to shoot, provided you have an appropriate backstop (we did) and are not within 100 yards of an occupied dwelling (were were probably 400 yards away from the nearest house, which was our house).

I guess some cranky neighbor called (at least that is what the deputies said) so 4 deputies responded.... Luckily for us, they rolled up the driveway and spoke with our mother first, who walked them down to where we were shooting at. (probably 100 yards through pretty dense woods).

We got startled by a booming voice from a deputy yelling at us "You boys unload and put your weapons down and come up here."

Since we were on our own property, we all had holstered, and loaded, pistols, and of course, our range bags with proabably 10 other pistols between us, and various long guns. Both brother and I were well over the legal age, and they were all our guns.

We had a decent chat and even BS'd about guns. The only weird thing one of the deputies said was "Had we not spoken with your mother first, we would have had our rifles out when we came down here."

Seemed a bit weird, but he then told us that since we were on our own property, and it was daylight hours (it was probably around 4 or 5 pm, during the summer) and we had an appropriate range set up safely, that we could continue shooting if we wanted to. He told us a neighbor called who actually was retired from them complaining about the noise, but since we were not breaking any laws, we could continue our business.

Since we had probably already blown through a couple hundred bucks worth of ammo, we called it a day anyway...

I live in CA. The only time I am "armed" is going to/from the range, with the firearm in a locked case in the back.

Two cars responded to a false alarm at my business. I greeted them, he asked to verify my ID (seemed reasonable) and we talked for a few minutes. I never mentioned that I was armed and he never asked.

GA you don't have to notify. But I always have. In the end I usually get thanked or being polite and sent on my way.

"I'd like to inform the officer I'm legally carrying a firearm. How would you like to proceed."

quote:

Originally posted by KevinCW:
. . .We got startled by a booming voice from a deputy yelling at us "You boys unload and put your weapons down and come up here.". . .

Think I probably would've responded with "Who are you and what are you doing on my property!?" before doing anything else.