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Pulled over by the cops... Now what?

B

Bear 45/70

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May 22, 2007
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Union, Washington, USA
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I have a personal policy of not liking to look down the wrong end of a barrel in the hands of a nervous and scared cop. To that end, I always inform the officer as he arrives at my window, that; "I have a Concealed Weapons Permit and that I am carrying." I do this with both hands on the steering wheel where the officer can see them. In the last 15 years or so, the response has pretty much been "Where are you carrying it and don't reach your hand there." Before the copsseemed to think if you had a gun you needed to be gotten out of the car, relieved of your weapon and have it unloaded. But my not liking nervous cops with guns pointed at me, might seem unreasonable to you.
 
J

joeroket

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Dec 5, 2006
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Everett, Washington, USA
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Bear 45/70 wrote:
I have a personal policy of not liking to look down the wrong end of a barrel in the hands of a nervous and scared cop. To that end, I always inform the officer as he arrives at my window, that; "I have a Concealed Weapons Permit and that I am carrying." I do this with both hands on the steering wheel where the officer can see them. In the last 15 years or so, the response has pretty much been "Where are you carrying it and don't reach your hand there." Before the copsseemed to think if you had a gun you needed to be gotten out of the car, relieved of your weapon and have it unloaded. But my not liking nervous cops with guns pointed at me, might seem unreasonable to you.
Click to expand...
Seems completely reasonable to me. Myself though I just prefer to obey traffic laws and not get pulled over.:D
 
D

DrewGunner

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Jun 29, 2007
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Seattle, Washington, USA
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Bear 45/70 wrote:
I have a personal policy of not liking to look down the wrong end of a barrel in the hands of a nervous and scared cop. To that end, I always inform the officer as he arrives at my window, that; "I have a Concealed Weapons Permit and that I am carrying." I do this with both hands on the steering wheel where the officer can see them. In the last 15 years or so, the response has pretty much been "Where are you carrying it and don't reach your hand there." Before the copsseemed to think if you had a gun you needed to be gotten out of the car, relieved of your weapon and have it unloaded. But my not liking nervous cops with guns pointed at me, might seem unreasonable to you.
Click to expand...
Same policy I'vegone by... I couple weeks ago I got pulled over, I immediately handed him my CWP and DL (CWP on top), he look at it for a couple seconds and asked "what is this?", "Thats my concealed weapons permit", "Why did you give it to me?", "I'm carrying a fireman, thought you might want to know". He looks a me for a sec, "ya, i don't care." And he let me off with a warning :)!
 
S

Snubber

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Jul 11, 2007
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Yakima, ,
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I agree that handing the officer both cards at once is a good policy - and I like it because I can see it making it more likely that you get waved off with a warning for the original offense.
 
L

LoveMyCountry

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Oct 20, 2006
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Ocean Shores, WA
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DrewGunner wrote:
Bear 45/70 wrote:
I have a personal policy of not liking to look down the wrong end of a barrel in the hands of a nervous and scared cop.  To that end, I always inform the officer as he arrives at my window, that;  "I have a Concealed Weapons Permit and that I am carrying."  I do this with both hands on the steering wheel where the officer can see them. In the last 15 years or so,  the response has pretty much been "Where are you carrying it and don't reach your hand there."  Before the cops seemed to think if you had a gun you needed to be gotten out of the car, relieved of your weapon and have it unloaded.   But my not liking nervous cops with guns pointed at me,  might seem unreasonable to you.
Click to expand...
Same policy I've gone by...  I couple weeks ago I got pulled over, I immediately handed him my CWP and DL (CWP on top), he look at it for a couple seconds and asked "what is this?",  "Thats my concealed weapons permit", "Why did you give it to me?", "I'm carrying a fireman, thought you might want to know".  He looks a me for a sec, "ya, i don't care."  And he let me off with a warning :)!
Click to expand...

Hey, don't ask, don't tell. :shock:

:p

LoveMyCountry
 
D

DrewGunner

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Seattle, Washington, USA
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LoveMyCountry wrote:
DrewGunner wrote:
Bear 45/70 wrote:
I have a personal policy of not liking to look down the wrong end of a barrel in the hands of a nervous and scared cop. To that end, I always inform the officer as he arrives at my window, that; "I have a Concealed Weapons Permit and that I am carrying." I do this with both hands on the steering wheel where the officer can see them. In the last 15 years or so, the response has pretty much been "Where are you carrying it and don't reach your hand there." Before the copsseemed to think if you had a gun you needed to be gotten out of the car, relieved of your weapon and have it unloaded. But my not liking nervous cops with guns pointed at me, might seem unreasonable to you.
Click to expand...
Same policy I'vegone by... I couple weeks ago I got pulled over, I immediately handed him my CWP and DL (CWP on top), he look at it for a couple seconds and asked "what is this?", "Thats my concealed weapons permit", "Why did you give it to me?", "I'm carrying a fireman, thought you might want to know". He looks a me for a sec, "ya, i don't care." And he let me off with a warning :)!
Click to expand...

Hey, don't ask, don't tell. :shock:

:p

LoveMyCountry
Click to expand...
LOL!! Maybe thats why he let me off with just a warning...
 
B

Bear 45/70

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Joined
May 22, 2007
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3,256
Location
Union, Washington, USA
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LoveMyCountry wrote:
DrewGunner wrote:
Bear 45/70 wrote:
I have a personal policy of not liking to look down the wrong end of a barrel in the hands of a nervous and scared cop. To that end, I always inform the officer as he arrives at my window, that; "I have a Concealed Weapons Permit and that I am carrying." I do this with both hands on the steering wheel where the officer can see them. In the last 15 years or so, the response has pretty much been "Where are you carrying it and don't reach your hand there." Before the copsseemed to think if you had a gun you needed to be gotten out of the car, relieved of your weapon and have it unloaded. But my not liking nervous cops with guns pointed at me, might seem unreasonable to you.
Click to expand...
Same policy I'vegone by... I couple weeks ago I got pulled over, I immediately handed him my CWP and DL (CWP on top), he look at it for a couple seconds and asked "what is this?", "Thats my concealed weapons permit", "Why did you give it to me?", "I'm carrying a fireman, thought you might want to know". He looks a me for a sec, "ya, i don't care." And he let me off with a warning :)!
Click to expand...

Hey, don't ask, don't tell. :shock:

:p

LoveMyCountry
Click to expand...
The trouble with don't ask, don't tell is that if he has a partner looking in from the right side and the second officersees your weapon, they will yell "GUN" and you end up looking down the barrels of two very nervous cop's guns who are thinking they have a bad guy on their hands. I did a ride along many years ago and the two I rode with pulled a car load of white males over, no turn signal. The left window cop asked for DL, registrationand insurance. The driver leans over and opens the glove box where a pistol resides. Right side officer yells "Gun" and there we have two very nervous and scaredcops aiming guns at 5 guys in the car. Driver's jaw drops and then he yells "I'm a cop too". Produces ID to prove thison request. Then Joyce, she has very little tolerance for "STUPID" and a big adrenalin rush doesn't help any either,proceeds to chew his ass for 5 minutes about not telling them this to start with and producing the ID. I must admit he was pretty embarrassed by the whole episode. But the bottom line is not to scare the cops any worse than they may already be, due to the fact that more cops are killed on traffic stops than anywhere else in police work. Besides that, I just don't like look into gun barrel under any circumstance.
 
HankT

HankT

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Feb 20, 2007
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Invisible Mode
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Bear 45/70 wrote:
The left window cop asked for DL, registrationand insurance. The driver leans over and opens the glove box where a pistol resides. Right side officer yells "Gun" and there we have two very nervous and scaredcops aiming guns...
Click to expand...
Top Ten Dumb Things To Do With a Gun In the Car

x. Keeping your registration/insurance docs in the same place as your gun.
 
B

Bear 45/70

Regular Member
Joined
May 22, 2007
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Location
Union, Washington, USA
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HankT wrote:
Bear 45/70 wrote:
The left window cop asked for DL, registrationand insurance. The driver leans over and opens the glove box where a pistol resides. Right side officer yells "Gun" and there we have two very nervous and scaredcops aiming guns...
Click to expand...
Top Ten Dumb Things To Do With a Gun In the Car

x. Keeping your registration/insurance docs in the same place as your gun.
Click to expand...
Hey, I said he was a cop didn't I?
roflrofl.gif
 
thebastidge

thebastidge

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Joined
May 6, 2007
Messages
313
Location
2519 E Fourth Plain Blvd, Vancouver Washington, US
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Snubber wrote:
I agree that handing the officer both cards at once is a good policy - and I like it because I can see it making it more likely that you get waved off with a warning for the original offense.
Click to expand...

Not always. My CC instructor in Oregon said local cops around Portland get pissed when you do it that way. Local customs vary, but I think informing them up front and producing it if they request it is the way to go that has the least amount of likelihood to cause nervousness or animosity.

Although it's true that interrupting the flow of the ticketing process in any non-negative way seems to help with getting a warning rather than a ticket. Military ID cards in the opposite side of your DL holder is usually a good one- not always, some few WA state troopers seem to have a hard on for military.

I haven't been stopped for a few years now, so I haven't had the situation of having a gun in the car and needing to deal with that, so full disclosure: I'm theorizing with my statement above about handing over the CPL with the DL.
 
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