OC in alderwood mall

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I'm brand new to this forum! Aaron at Sam's gun shop told me about this site and I'm glad he did!

Roughly about a year ago I was at the alderwood mall with the GF and my roommates daughter doing some shopping I was OC'ing at the time, we walked into one particular store where a couple with their daughter and son were shopping, they wouldent stop staring at me and whispering to amongst themselves. I didddent think too much of it I looked back at them and smiled only to get a weird sort of look about that time I saw his wife "covertly" on the phone using him for cover! haha!! So I made it a point to stick around to see what was gonna happen. I could tell she was on the phone with dispatch she was giving a description of me, I waited for about a half hour and nothing happened. As we were leaving I got one more "look" from them I smiled at them again and said " did they ask If it was holstered?" I got no response... I said what else did they ask? the only response I got was why do you have a gun in the mall?? I politely replied "well someone has to" smiled again and left. As i was leaving I diddent see any LEO's of security for that matter..... I guess Lynnwood's okay with it no one even seemed to respond to her call...

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Hey ARod, thats hilarious I guess its a good thing she called the cops rather than mall security. Those mall ninjas can be tough I have heard several accounts of 911 dispatch correcting misunderstandings on OC lately.A lot of sheeple will call the fuzz over anything, and its good to hear the operators are well trained.

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That's the best account I've read in a long time. Good for you stand up to them and talk to them in a civilized manner. Hopefully that couple has learned it's nothing to get all worked up about.

And you say this happened about a year ago? Which doesn't really surprise me. I've been open carrying in the Lynnwood area since 2005.

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Yeah, I've OCed a lot at Alderwood, and never had a problem.

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expvideo wrote:

Yeah, I've OCed a lot at Alderwood, and never had a problem.

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+1. From one end of the mall to the other and back again, even past the security guards.

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I was wondering the mall with a friend of mine last week and we stopped near the childrens play area with our Starbucks to sit and chat. I ended up walking down to the Warhammer 40k store and watching a game, after I came out. I was greated by 4 Lynnwood officers who stated that 'more than one' concerned mother had informed mall security there was a man with a gun walking around.

I walked past 2 officers on the way into the mall, as well as multiple security gaurds who said nothing. After exchanging info and pleasantries with the officers, they went to complete the report with mall security and sent me on my way. My friend had previously wandered off as she is not into tapletop games, only to come back and find me surronded by police.

Getting stopped makes for such fun converstaions :celebrate

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Nebulis01 wrote:

I walked past 2 officers on the way into the mall, as well as multiple security gaurds who said nothing. After exchanging info and pleasantries with the officers, they went to complete the report with mall security and sent me on my way. My friend had previously wandered off as she is not into tapletop games, only to come back and find me surronded by police.

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Do you think the officers and security guards on the way in saw your gun?

Did you show the LEOs your ID?

Approximately how long was the encounter with the LEOs? Did they encourage you to leave?

Did you leave the mall right after the encounter or did you continue shopping/browsing?

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Nebulis01 wrote:

Getting stopped makes for such fun converstaions

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AND reinforces in the minds of *everyone* that someone with a gun is a bad thing. I mean all those cops wouldn't be around you if there wasn't something wrong. You can be assured that those sheeple that called 911 will continue to do so since it brought action.
I don't care HOW many hoplophobes call 911. If there is NO CRIME being commited, there is NO REASON for a LEO to harass!

:cuss::banghead:

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gregma wrote:

Nebulis01 wrote:

Getting stopped makes for such fun converstaions

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AND reinforces in the minds of *everyone* that someone with a gun is a bad thing. I mean all those cops wouldn't be around you if there wasn't something wrong. You can be assured that those sheeple that called 911 will continue to do so since it brought action.
I don't care HOW many hoplophobes call 911. If there is NO CRIME being commited, there is NO REASON for a LEO to harass!

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Actually, it's a mix of good and bad. The bad is getting investigated (even if only briefly) when one is simply an armed law-abiding citizen. But the good is that observers are pretty much forced to know that carrying a gun is entirely legal--undeniable proof being that the LEOs let the carrier move on. The awareness of legal OC is increased, if only slightly (because it is an isolated event).

What's needed is a way to increase that awarenessat abigger scale.That's why an annual National Open Carry Day:

http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/forum4/6016.html


would be a good idea.

All it needs is some organization and participation by proponents of OC who see the benefits of spreading the word.

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Go ahead and organize it Hank. Spread the word. Get out some press releases. Then when it happensyou can sit back and merely comment aboutit from afar like the Chairborne Ranger you really are, while the rest of us are actually out there openly carrying like we do every day.

So I hereby nominate Hank Trool as thePresident of the National Open Carry Awarness Day (NOCAD).

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BluesBear wrote:

Go ahead and organize it Hank. Spread the word. Get out some press releases. Then when it happensyou can sit back and merely comment aboutit from afar like the Chairborne Ranger you really are, while the rest of us are actually out there openly carrying like we do every day.

So I hereby nominate Hank Trool as thePresident of the National Open Carry Awarness Day (NOCAD).

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Totally uncalled for. This is ridiculous. HankT said nothing warranting this response on this thread.

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HankT wrote:

Nebulis01 wrote:

I walked past 2 officers on the way into the mall, as well as multiple security gaurds who said nothing. After exchanging info and pleasantries with the officers, they went to complete the report with mall security and sent me on my way. My friend had previously wandered off as she is not into tapletop games, only to come back and find me surronded by police.

Click to expand...

Do you think the officers and security guards on the way in saw your gun?

Did you show the LEOs your ID?

Approximately how long was the encounter with the LEOs? Did they encourage you to leave?

Did you leave the mall right after the encounter or did you continue shopping/browsing?

Click to expand...

I know the officers saw my sidearm, as they did the double-take/stair

When stopped, all 5 times now. I present my Driver's License and volunteer my CPL. They did not encourage me to leave, infact we had a nice chat about training and carrying. They all stated it was perfectly legal, they were just required to come down and make sure I wasn't some homicidal maniac. They asked if mall security had asked me any questions, or had even asked me to leave, which they had not.

We continued to browse for the better part of an hour and work our way back to the car.

All in all, I've been OCing for nearly 2 years and being stopped all of 5 times isn't terrible. Uncalled for in my opinion, but not unreasonable.

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joshmmm wrote:

BluesBear wrote:

Go ahead and organize it Hank. Spread the word. Get out some press releases. Then when it happensyou can sit back and merely comment aboutit from afar like the Chairborne Ranger you really are, while the rest of us are actually out there openly carrying like we do every day.

So I hereby nominate Hank Trool as thePresident of the National Open Carry Awarness Day (NOCAD).

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Totally uncalled for. This is ridiculous. HankT said nothing warranting this response on this thread.

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Everything HankTrool says warrants a response like this, because if he isn't trolling now, he soon will be. Better to shut him down early, before he gets started....:lol:

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Actually HankT tries to get people to look at all sides and options of things. Doesn't seem like trolling to me. I don't think a troll would last around here as long as he has.

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joeroket wrote:

Actually HankT tries to get people to look at all sides and options of things. Doesn't seem like trolling to me. I don't think a troll would last around here as long as he has.

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Sometimes it seems to me that he is just trollin, but I agree that he helps us to step back and see things from a different perspective. Generally I disagree with what HankT says, but sometimes we see eye to eye on a couple things. I think it's a good thing that there is someone on the board that makes people back up their statements once in a while, and generally he gives a pretty fair warning before he really goes off on people. I honestly find a lot of it annoying, but at the same time, it keeps people from getting over-inflated super-egos.

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Nebulis01 wrote:

HankT wrote:

Nebulis01 wrote:

I walked past 2 officers on the way into the mall, as well as multiple security gaurds who said nothing. After exchanging info and pleasantries with the officers, they went to complete the report with mall security and sent me on my way. My friend had previously wandered off as she is not into tapletop games, only to come back and find me surronded by police.

Click to expand...

Do you think the officers and security guards on the way in saw your gun?

Did you show the LEOs your ID?

Approximately how long was the encounter with the LEOs? Did they encourage you to leave?

Did you leave the mall right after the encounter or did you continue shopping/browsing?

Click to expand...

I know the officers saw my sidearm, as they did the double-take/stair

When stopped, all 5 times now. I present my Driver's License and volunteer my CPL. They did not encourage me to leave, infact we had a nice chat about training and carrying. They all stated it was perfectly legal, they were just required to come down and make sure I wasn't some homicidal maniac. They asked if mall security had asked me any questions, or had even asked me to leave, which they had not.

We continued to browse for the better part of an hour and work our way back to the car.

All in all, I've been OCing for nearly 2 years and being stopped all of 5 times isn't terrible. Uncalled for in my opinion, but not unreasonable.

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You have a good handle on things and you have a good attitude about it, too. The choice to show or not show the ID is always there. Some people would disparage you for volunteering your ID. I wouldn't. It's a choice.

And it makes you no less of a patriot for handling it the way you did. Conversely, declining to cough up the ID doesn't make anyone more of a patriot for doing it their way, contrary to some rather strained arguments elsewhere.

You're a good representative of the OC community and over time the stops should hopefully lessen and eventually be eliminated. And you will have helped that progress along with your cool head and good humor.