.... So I went one night and a Harris county Sheriff decides to blue light me.... from his car, he says place your hands out to the side parallel with the ground, I complied. I asked him what was going on? he said I don't recognize you, why are you carrying?
You were stopped...... and his stated reason for doing so was he "didn't recognize you"?
If that's a reasonable suspicion of there being a crime, then we're All in trouble!
"...I don't recognize you either, what's your point? You wanna go out and get a beer or something?
Why am I carrying a pistol? For the same reason I'm wearing pants, I think it's terribly impolite go out in public undressed, don't you agree?"
Learn the "Dealing with Officer Friendly" mantra...
"
Am I being detained?" (tons of discussion about why it needs to be asked, and what to do when answered, or more importantly when not answered or Officer Friendly attempts to side-step giving an answer.) Oh, and you'll probably earn the Deputies undying hatred, but heh, life's rough.
He took the pistol and pulled the slide to the rear and locked it, then pushed the mag release. My mag hit the ground ejecting 2 round out. He sat the and looked down and said "oops sorry" I was instantly pissed
I'd be pissed too, but not very surprised.
After he had my weapon and searched me,he asked me If I had ID and I said yes he also said do you have a Carry license? I said yes! He said let me see. I gave them up and after 20 minutes they gave me my weapon and mag back and told me not to chamber a round until they leave, so I complied.
"Officer Friendly, am I being detained or are you just asking me for a voluntary chat, all friendly like? If I'm being detained for suspicion of a crime, then I'm going to exercise my right to not incriminate myself until I have a lawyer present, but if you're just asking for a voluntary chat then I'll be happy to answer."
...
"If I'm NOT being detained and we're just having a friendly little voluntary encounter then.... Sorry, I don't have voluntary 'chats' with people that have guns when I don't. So, I guess you can hand me back my loaded firearm and we'll have a charming little chat for as long as you like, or, you can hand me back my firearm and I'll go skipping down the road on my merry little fracking way. You might notice a certain similarity in the two choices."
"Oh, and if you're
asking for me to provide identification, that's cool, too.
I just need to see Two Pieces of Photo Identification from you first. No problem with that, right? You don't, mmm.. have anything to hide...... do you?"
They left and I went back to carrying like I do. I haven't had an issue since, but just in case for next time should there be a next time I want to know that's all. I'm not looking to cause trouble or make someone job hard I just want to know the law and be in the good to use my RIGHTS without hassle.
Anyways sorry for the boring talk I hope this helps what it is that I am asking for.
V/R
Chris
Ya done good! I'd continue to carry on just the way you did. You did absolutely nothing criminal and were wrongly stopped without any suspicion of criminal activity.
If you have the deputy's name, I would go to his precinct and respectfully ask to speak with his supervisor. It may be surprising how many actually care about the performance of their officers when they interact with the public. I had a deputy draw down on me (I was in my hard and armed) and had a nice hour-and-a-half chat with his precinct Captain who was rather upset that one of his employees would conduct himself in such a manner.