imported post
thhanford wrote:
Here is some perspective from a police officer's point of view.
I'm surprised at the sense of animosity held towards the police. Perhaps, I'm reading into the posts more than I should. I would suspect most advocates of OC or CC are law and order minded folks. Most police officers enjoy firearms and are supporters of gun owner's rights. We aren't looking to intentionally infringe on anyone's right to carry a firearm. It is a supported and understood activity as long as it is done safely and legally.
If you are contacted by a police officer because you are carrying a firearm, it is important to understand the police officer probably has extremely limited information about the situation. What I mean by this is, I might be sent to Wal Mart for a "Man with a gun" call with no further information. For obvious reasons, we need to assume the worst and take immediate control of the situation and then sort it out.
In a situation where you are contacted by a police officer, you will be asked to temporarily give him or her your firearm for safety reasons. If you have done nothing wrong and are completely complying with the law, you should have nothing to worry about. It might take us a few minutes to determine no crime has been committed.This does not have to be an adversarial situation.
Red flags go up in our minds when people immediately become defensive and don't want to discuss the situation. Again, if you've done nothing wrong then you should have nothing to worry about. I'm not aware of police accosting people for carrying a firearm as one of the posts suggests.
We all need to understand that most of the general public are not well informed on the rights of people to carry firearms. Until that becomes the case, the police will continue getting calls to respond to a "man with a gun" even when no crime has been committed
TH, welcome to the group and thank you for your perspective. I am an attorney. I work with law enforcement at that job. I am also a Firefighter/EMT and work with law enforcement at that job too. That is where I come from when I say your perspective is part of the problem. Spend some time looking around opencarry.org and you will see that there is actually a great respect for the LEOs of this country but there are a few bad/unknowledgable ones that law abiding citizens have reason to fear.
If your dispatcher received a phone call for "man with a cell phone" and actually dispatched it to you and you arrived you would not even think about taking away someones cell phone. A person carrying a weapon is doing nothing more wrong than a person carrying a cell phone and you have no more right to remove their weapon from them than you do a cell phone.
Now if EITHER their cell phone OR their gun are being used in a threatening manner that isa completely different story and I support you fully. Terry and it's progeney are there to protect you but they do not give you the right to remove a weapon from an otherwise law abiding citizen.
" If you have done nothing wrong and are completely complying with the law, you should have nothing to worry about. " With all due respect this is not accurate. Or at best this is a line used by oppressors not protectors of our freedoms. It assumes guilt until in your mind you prove we are innocent and that is not how this country works. Law abiding citizens of this country DO have something to worry about every time their rights are stepped upon whether or not they have done something wrong.
Again, I do not want to detract in any way from the wonderful work that you are doing but I do want to point out that they system that you have obviously been trained in has done you and is doing us a great dis-service.
If someone makes a MWAG call on me I expect the disptacher to collect as much information as possible. Since I know that is a dream world I expect the officer responding to observe me before approaching (even if that is just a situational awareness review) and after they determine no illegal activity being observed they can approach me and ask me if I want to voluntarily speak with them. I will probably ask them the reason for asking me and politely explain that I have not broken, am not braking and do not intend to break any laws. As they do not have RAS they should say nothing other than "Thank you and have a nice day."
-adamsesq
ETA: TH - where are my manners? Please join us in Hillsboro next Sunday (the 19th) for some great food and fellowship. It would be nice to share perspectives personally where the anonymity of the words ona screen don't get in the way.