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Badge or No Badge?

Do you wear a Badge when you open/conceal carry?

  • All badges all the time for me

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • No badge, no trouble

    Votes: 11 100.0%
  • Total voters
    11
P

peanut

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2008
Messages
22
Location
East Tennessee, ,
imported post

I see a lot of folks on the internet talk about their CCW Badges etc. I am 50% on the fence about the badge thing. It's not required by law in TN and I see how it could cause trouble. 1/2 of me says that in this day in age, the badge keeps prying and tattle tale eyes from calling the cops on you in the grocery store. The other part of me says, " your not a cop, so stop wearing the badge"! What are your thoughts and stories? Thanks, K.

By the way, great site!
 
Felid`Maximus

Felid`Maximus

Activist Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2007
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1,714
Location
Reno, Nevada, USA
imported post

Welcome to the forum.

I think a badge is stupid. I would never wear one. In fact, I think it's bad taste to wear one if your intent is to make others think you are a cop, which is probably the only reason they would hassle you less.

Besides, the message we should be sending is that regular citizens can carry guns, not just people with badges.
 
P

peanut

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2008
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East Tennessee, ,
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That's pretty much the way I feel, but it is interesting to read other views too... Thanks for the thought. I can't imagine the hassle one would get for the intent to impersonate a LEO..... I sort of find it hard to believe the badge is legal in all honesty. I mean, with all of the lawyers of today...:uhoh:
 
Statesman

Statesman

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Joined
Jul 20, 2008
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948
Location
Lexington, Kentucky, USA
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I vote a badge is a BAD idea, and bad taste. I will not own one. Noone but you, and other badge owners are likely to see anything positive out of it. If you wish to prove you are "authorized" by the State to carry a weapon, you can show/flash your CCDW license, or you could give the person a business card showing the particular statute that authorizes it, such as the State Constitution.

You wil also find some flyers being distributed on these forums that can be distributed to those with concerns or questions. Check the Kentucky forum for a recent post on such a flyer.

Be certain that none of this implies that you are with law enforcement. Not only is it illegal most likely, it also does a disservice to the OC movement.

My two cents...
 
C

Citizen

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
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18,269
Location
Fairfax Co., VA
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I'm thinking the badge wearers might beafter some special attention or "wow" factor when they show others the badge.

A badgemakes little sense to me. Being alive means I'm endowed with the unalienable right to self-defense. So, having a breathing body is all the badge I need, or would expect anyone else to need.

"Yeah. OK. Here I am. What moreexplanation do you need?"

"Especially in this day and age with some forty states having shall-issue CCW laws?"
 
Mainsail

Mainsail

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Joined
Apr 24, 2007
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Location
Silverdale, Washington, USA
imported post

I’m driving a 2000 Police Interceptor that still looks very much like a police car. When I’m driving it I have to be very careful not to do anything that actively makes it look like I’m trying to impersonate the police. I cannot stop and help someone on the side of the road. If I’m driving behind someone I cannot flash my lights to pass. In fact, if I’m driving behind someone and my lights are off I don’t turn them on, or on I don’t turn them off.

You have to be VERY careful if you’re silly enough to wear a badge, especially with a gun openly carried on your belt. You need to weigh every word you say to anyone with consideration to whether they might think you’re a police officer. Is someone letting you go ahead of them in the check-out line at the market because they’re being nice or because they think you’re a cop? If you tell the cashier at the 7-11 you think he’s overcharged you for a hotdog, does he agree because you were right or because he thinks you’re a cop? If anyone who was fooled by your badge sees you get into a car that’s not a police car and calls the cops, you can be arrested. The cops don’t mess around when it comes to police impersonation, and neither will a judge.

The badge has no authority and serves absolutely no lawful purpose.
 
N

N00blet45

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
475
Location
Walton County, Georgia, ,
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CCW badges? I've never heard of them. If I'm carrying concealed I'm not going to advertise it. Also I'm a citizen of the great state of Kentucky (God bless it) and as such there is no requirement that we carry badges. And as the line in Blazing Saddles goes "Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!"

*Edit* For clearification
 
Sonora Rebel

Sonora Rebel

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Aug 6, 2008
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Gone
imported post

I b'lieve that line was from 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre' but no matter...

Badges are a really dumb idea. All the more likely to get you busted for impersonating a LEO. Badges convey some sort of authority by general use... and you have none. Don't assume you do.Posers of any type are bad pizza.
 
C

Comp-tech

State Researcher
Joined
Apr 10, 2007
Messages
934
Location
, Alabama, USA
imported post

Sonora Rebel wrote:
I b'lieve that line was from 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre' but no matter...

You guys are both right...it was in both movies...

Badges are a really dumb idea. All the more likely to get you busted for impersonating a LEO. Badges convey some sort of authority by general use... and you have none. Don't assume you do.Posers of any type are bad pizza.
Click to expand...

I agree with everyone else....if you're not a cop, security officer etc...no badge
 
Statesman

Statesman

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Jul 20, 2008
Messages
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Lexington, Kentucky, USA
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No state issues CCDW badges, only licenses. Badges are available for sale on the private market, because they are not illegal, and there are customers that will buy them. If you buy one, don't use it.
 
C

cccook

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
429
Location
DFW, Texas, USA
imported post

Sonora Rebel wrote:
Posers of any type are bad pizza.
Click to expand...
:lol: I love that Rebel, can I use it?

I've seen ads for CC badges in magazines and I think the whole idea is weird, a recipe for disaster.
 
P

peanut

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2008
Messages
22
Location
East Tennessee, ,
imported post

Yeah, I liked that line too... Pretty funny. I think the badge is a novelty item, though I seem to be reading a lot of people using them! I have been a gun owner all of my adult life and am a lifetime NRA member... and I still can't believe that open carry is news to me. I am pretty witty and perceptive, and how this one's been getting by all my gun life baffles me. I still don't think I could Wyatt Erp around town with it out though... I love the element of suprise and conceal... So, riddle me this, do you have to own a CCW permit to open carry in TN? There is no age limit for open carry, but you can't own a pistol in TN unless you are of 18 years or older correct?
 
T

tarzan1888

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2007
Messages
1,435
Location
, , USA
imported post

Welcome to the forum.



It is always good to have new members. Stick around and post and read and you will learn.



Tarzan



PS As for what I think about CCW Badges.....
 
G

Gentleman Ranker

Guest
imported post

When I looked into this some years ago, what seemed to be the case was that in places where it wasn't clearly (or dangerously close to) impersonating an LEO, the actual LEOs who saw it would be very very displeased. So IMHO, an official Bad Idea.

FWIW, I once carried an actual, no-kidding Federal badge ... from the Office of Personnel Management, which conferred absolutely NO powers whatsoever on me (it was just to prove that I was on gummint bidness rather than collecting information for a spam list). Trust me, the novelty of it wears off very quickly. :)

regards,

GR
 
MetalChris

MetalChris

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Joined
Jul 26, 2007
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SW Ohio
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Wearing any kind of badge while open carrying in a civilian capacity is the dumbest thing anyone could do, as one could get nailed with impersonating an officer.
 
C

centsi

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Feb 11, 2008
Messages
392
Location
Castle Rock, Colorado, USA
imported post

I would never wear a badge. For me, part of the point in OCing is letting others know that they too have rights as citizens. A badge would say the opposite. I've actually been thinking of making a shirt though. Something along the lines of "I'm not a cop. I'm a citizen". But then my wife wouldn't go anywhere with me, and I'd sit at home with my shirt on. Maybe that's a bad idea too.
 
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