Positive encounters with OC in Portsmouth/Chesapeake area + one walmart to avoid.

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I'm the new guy. Posted a couple times before. Just want to put my experiences out there from the Portsmouth/Chesapeake area.

Home Depot by Chesapeake Square- Only one look from the lady at the tool dept, other than that, no problems.

7-11 They see me every day for coffee and smokes, and asked about it once, I told them about the OC laws here in VA, next day both clerks told me they now OC wherever they go.

Best Buy- The cashier asked about my 1911 on my side, just made some friendly conversation with the workers there. No flak caught there.

Sonic on Portsmouth Blvd. and Charlotte Dr.- walked up to menu, ordered, 2 LEO pull into the lot, and sit down at a table near me. I then became a conversation piece/training tool for the LEOs. They walked over and sat down at my table and said they had just gone through training on OC laws due to the diner incident. :lol: They then ordered their food and ate with me. I'm active duty Navy and they were both prior service Navy in my rating, so we sat and conversed for a while. Good times.

Now there had to be at least one bad encounter in this post.

Walmart in Chesapeake Square Mall plaza- About 2 in the morning, I walked into walmart to pick up some supplies for the next day. I could tell someone was going to ask me to leave because the rent-a-cops were standing about 30 yards away on their radios looking straight at me. The night manager walks up, asks if I'm LEO, I politely said no, I told him I checked by the doors for signs that say 'No firearms allowed' and he told me to leave. The whole time I was nothing but polite to him, gave off a good vibe for him and everything. Got his name, store number, and the number to corporate headquarters and reported the incident. I politely informed him that if my money was no good there, I will not conduct my business there any longer. This was almost a month ago, and I haven't heard back from Walmart HQ.

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Well, awesome on the good experiences. I'd be interested in hearing more about the LEOs that sat down and ate with you. Can you elaborate? How'd the conversation go? Were they friendly? Did they seem as if they were just being friendly people or was there more to it?

Everytime I've ever been around LEO while carrying, it's never been a situatuation like this. They've never decided to just sit down and eat with me or anything.

As for Wal*Mart...no official policy there, really. Best I can tell, it's up to the store manager/district manager to make a decision. Though, seems general concensus is that they follow the laws of the local municipality. I have never had a problem in a Wal*Mart. Been in several Wal*Marts in the area. In fact, recently, I bought about $100 worth of ammo at a Wal*Mart in Manassas with a .45 strapped on.

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I'll admit, I was a little suspicious of their actions, too. But we only talked about my .45 for less than a minute. Then we went on to just basically shoot the breeze, talked about our deployments and sea stories. It was kind of weird. They reminded me alot of the cops from the movie Superbad. From what I could tell, they were just being friendly and having a burger with me. They saw my base stickers on my truck, so they knew I was military. All in all, it was a very positive experience for me.

As for the Walmart, I've been in there with my .45 plenty of times, and I suppose that night, the swing shift manager had a bug up his ass about something. I've bought bags of ammo there OCing as well. Like I said, must have had a bad night.

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Well, good. I am glad that your experience was a positive one. It's reassuring to hear these stories, I think. I must admit, that in previous times, I had always felt that having a peaceful conversation with LEO while armed would be the epitome of a citizens expression of their rights.

However, when reading many threads on this and other various boards, and watching all manner of police shows and what not, I fear that the LEO are simply trained to only converse with people with a purpose of discovering crime.

It's almost as if I cannot even have a peaceful conversation with LEO without fear of them trying to analyze the conversation and looking for a crime with which to charge one with.

I am a peaceful person. Sure, I'm not perfect. However, I should not have to fear talking to an officer. Sad matter of the fact is...I often am/do. This is not the way America is supposed to be. We should be reassured of the presence of LEO, but while I am out exercising my rights, it's a distraction to see LEO.

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I used to work at Best Buy, I recently made a fuss to the district office about the stores telling open carry customers (and me, a former employee)that it is illegal and against company policy to to carry in the store. About a week later, the General Manager, my friend, to me that District office meet with the corp office in Minnesota, and that the company is going to have the District office meet with the store management to educate them on the law of the states, and that Best Buy will follow the current state law.

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muzz3256 wrote:

I used to work at Best Buy, I recently made a fuss to the district office about the stores telling open carry customers (and me, a former employee)that it is illegal and against company policy to to carry in the store. About a week later, the General Manager, my friend, to me that District office meet with the corp office in Minnesota, and that the company is going to have the District office meet with the store management to educate them on the law of the states, and that Best Buy will follow the current state law.

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:exclaim::celebrate

Good work, dude!!

Be diplomatic, don't back down...always a balancing act, and it seems you did well.

:arrowo you think it would be a good idea to post address and phone # here so people can call and thank them for their change in policy?? I think it would be in order.

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It was the Best Buy in Charlottesville, as far as name or number, I'd have to look it up, I still had access to the Super Secret Squirrel names and numbers at the time. This all happened about 2-3 months ago.

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I've never OCd in the Charlottesville Best Buy, but have CC'd there many times. However, I don't make a huge effort to be uber concealed, so it's relatively easy to spot on me even if you're not looking hard.