Asked if i was LEO this weekend

So i have a good friend that i ride bikes with all the time. Usually during the summer, we meet at the downtown memphis starbucks most sunday mornings for a coffee and talk. Anyway, with the "polar vortex" and such, we havent done it in awhile but we decided to brave it this weekend. We both always OC. Anyway, we were in a very spirited political discussion and a middle aged lady comes over says to me, "excuse me, are you a law enforcement officer?" i responded no ma'am... she replied "oh, you have a gun license then?" to which i said yes and she walked away before i could say anything else. She didnt seem offended and obviously not scared. I was just curious what she wanted but didnt get to ask.

On a side note, a co worker i know told me that one of her employees saw me OC'ing my "big @ss glock" in the cordova/wolfchase area a few weeks ago and he was wondering why i felt the need to carry in wolfchase as it's such a safe area blah blah blah. Well, apparently friday night, 5-6 armed guys stole $700,000 in rolex watching in a smash n grab at the wolfchase mall! Needless to say, i pointed that out to her and her employee on monday. they didnt think i had a bad idea after all.

I always love the question about the "need to carry" in a certain area or even period. Want to respond why do you carry a spare tire everywhere? But it would be lost on most.

I get asked that at least twice a week. Its usually funny, considering I personally do not think I look like a cop, but sometimes people seem... weird about it. I never answer yes, mainly because I am not a cop, and on the off chance the person asking is a cop, there is that whole, "Impersonating" charge. Invariably, the question is always followed with, "Why are you carrying a gun then?" My go to answer at this point is usually "Why aren't you?"

Usually get a confused look on their faces, but I had one off duty sheriff's deputy in Clarksville fire back with one of those ridiculous gun safety stats, something about being targeted for the gun itself. I just shook my head and laughed at that, because I honestly couldn't figure out why a deputy would believe such a thing. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've never been targeted by anyone that wasn't wearing a badge.

"What!?!?! A gun!?!?! How did that get there?!?!"

cjohnson44546 said:

"What!?!?! A gun!?!?! How did that get there?!?!"

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lol.. good one.


yeah i think i had mentioned this story a few weeks ago but one of my company's employees saw me OCing my G17 about a month ago in the wolfchase mall/cordova area and made the comment to his boss how he saw me "reppin a big @ss glock" and he thought it was funny because you dont need that in wolfchase/cordova. Well last week, 6 armed guys robbed the reed's jewelers in the mall. Like the poster said above.. i have used my spare tire in years but i still carry it.

i don't resemble a cop in any conceivable fashion ,and still get asked on occasion .

Kopis said:

i responded no ma'am... she replied "oh, you have a gun license then?" to which i said yes and she walked away before i could say anything else.

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Why didn't you show her your ID and give her your home address? I mean it seems important to you to clue her in why not be thorough?

I get asked all the time if I'm a LEO; I have no clue why. I've even had one LEO (USFS Cop) ask "what agency I was with) while OCing and waiting for my son at a Bankhead NF trail site (Winston county, AL).

Oh well, keep on OCing!