Uziel Gal
Regular Member
imported post
I must admit to having some trepidation about the lawful transportation of a firearm. Most of it goes back to a situation in 1995 when my car was illegally searched in Chicago by the CPD. Thankfully I was not arrested in this encounter but they did go crazy about a holster they found locked in the trunk. My freedom from unlawful search was trampled that day but I also know that had they found anything to arrest me for or were able to fabricate a situation they would have. I worry that it is just to easy for law enforcement to take advantage. I personally will no longer transport any firearm in a non locking case and that locking system must be by combination, not keyed. It is my mistrust that makes me very concerned about what could happen if a LEO is able to gain access to my firearms. Once access to a firearm is available anything could happen. A unloaded firearm could in seconds become mysteriously loaded if any ammunition is present. A lawfully transported firearm could be freed from its case and easily be moved from one location to another.
I'm driving down the road in the middle of the night and get pulled over. LEO tells me I'm speeding or swerving or whatever. I state that I don't believe that to be so. The Officer verbally escalates the incident. My responses do not diffuse the situation. Now the Officer decides to go fishing, perhaps he claims to smell alcohol or marijuana. A great tool because it gives him reasonable suspicion and can't ever be proven to be true or false. Now I'm out of my car, searched, and detained. The Officer finds a locked gun case and wants to know what is inside. He unlocks the case. Now at this point without finding any other contraband I might be free to go. But if he wants to claim the gun was not unloaded and slips the loaded magazine into the firearm I might lose $100 plus costs. If he claims he found the firearm in the glove box or under the seat I might lose 9 months of my life to a correctional facility. If he is really having a bad day he could kill me put my gun in my hand and have little to worry about.
We don't advocate the right to carry a firearm because of all the good law abiding people in the world, but because of the lawless people. To assume that all the people who are sworn in to uphold the law are also good law abiding people is to make a potentially costly error of trust. Recording devices are great and becoming harder and harder to detect but they still must remain within your control. If one wants to operate under the mode of "it wont happen to me" then one doesn't need a firearm to begin with. Now I have to wonder what I would do in a situation where I was legally carrying openly or concealed and under what circumstances I would be willing to surrender my firearm and when I would refuse. Seems like a good thing to have worked out in ones mind because that is not a situation I want to find myself in.
"Sir, I will comply with your order to disarm but for my own safety I would like your supervisor on the scene before I relinquish my right to bear arms."
I must admit to having some trepidation about the lawful transportation of a firearm. Most of it goes back to a situation in 1995 when my car was illegally searched in Chicago by the CPD. Thankfully I was not arrested in this encounter but they did go crazy about a holster they found locked in the trunk. My freedom from unlawful search was trampled that day but I also know that had they found anything to arrest me for or were able to fabricate a situation they would have. I worry that it is just to easy for law enforcement to take advantage. I personally will no longer transport any firearm in a non locking case and that locking system must be by combination, not keyed. It is my mistrust that makes me very concerned about what could happen if a LEO is able to gain access to my firearms. Once access to a firearm is available anything could happen. A unloaded firearm could in seconds become mysteriously loaded if any ammunition is present. A lawfully transported firearm could be freed from its case and easily be moved from one location to another.
I'm driving down the road in the middle of the night and get pulled over. LEO tells me I'm speeding or swerving or whatever. I state that I don't believe that to be so. The Officer verbally escalates the incident. My responses do not diffuse the situation. Now the Officer decides to go fishing, perhaps he claims to smell alcohol or marijuana. A great tool because it gives him reasonable suspicion and can't ever be proven to be true or false. Now I'm out of my car, searched, and detained. The Officer finds a locked gun case and wants to know what is inside. He unlocks the case. Now at this point without finding any other contraband I might be free to go. But if he wants to claim the gun was not unloaded and slips the loaded magazine into the firearm I might lose $100 plus costs. If he claims he found the firearm in the glove box or under the seat I might lose 9 months of my life to a correctional facility. If he is really having a bad day he could kill me put my gun in my hand and have little to worry about.
We don't advocate the right to carry a firearm because of all the good law abiding people in the world, but because of the lawless people. To assume that all the people who are sworn in to uphold the law are also good law abiding people is to make a potentially costly error of trust. Recording devices are great and becoming harder and harder to detect but they still must remain within your control. If one wants to operate under the mode of "it wont happen to me" then one doesn't need a firearm to begin with. Now I have to wonder what I would do in a situation where I was legally carrying openly or concealed and under what circumstances I would be willing to surrender my firearm and when I would refuse. Seems like a good thing to have worked out in ones mind because that is not a situation I want to find myself in.
"Sir, I will comply with your order to disarm but for my own safety I would like your supervisor on the scene before I relinquish my right to bear arms."