Well I live in Rolla and have had 4 MWG calls so far. Most of them in the last 3 weeks or so. Of course I walk everywhere I go so I guess I get a bit more exposure than most who drive and the like...Plus I do look "Scary" from what I am told so that probably has something to do with it as well. But here are the recaps of my MWG calls (Set a record yesterday, will explain in a minute.) As far as putting up the audio that I record, most of it is not really worth it, however there is one that I want to put up, I just need to figure out how to transfer it onto here (my recorder has no port to connect to my computer)...It was the only real negative experience I have had with a LEO so far.
Call 1- My buddies and I were coming back from Rayjays and just as we get to the intersection reight before Pine street (The one by the rent a center and Meeks storage yards) a Rolla PD officer pulls up hits his lights and comes out and talks to us. Both he and the other officer were professional and courteous. They removed my weapon from the holster (They told me they were going to, just for their safety, which I was ok with because they were not being ignorant about things) They unloaded my Ruger and put it on the trunk of one of the cruisers....Asked us for our IDs ( I was the only one carrying but we all complied) ran all our ids...All the while BSing with us and apologizing saying they just had to respond to the call. They let us go and we went on our way. The officers were professional and courteous. No problems
Call 2 was not even a call. There is one officer here in Rolla that I have encountered that is dead set against anyone who carries unless you have a badge. He had just got done responding to a different call at Wal-mart and was getting ready to leave when he saw us walk into the store. He followed us in ( This officer also responded to the first call and tried to tell me that OCing was bad.) and once again he tries to convince me that OCing is bad...All the while trying to tell me I am going to get kicked out of Wal-Mart for OCing in there...I tried to tell him that Wal-Mart follows corporate policy but he insisted... We contiuned to talk back and forth till he got fed up with me not backing down and he just left. This is the one that I would like to post up to see what everyone thinks about it. Like I said there was no call on this one.
Call 3- This one was while I was at RollaFest. I was with a close friend of mine and her 3 yo son. We were over by the blow up play areas and the little one was playing while her and I talked... I noticed an officer talking to someone and I knew what was coming. He came up to me and we talked for a minute, he was professional and courteous, BSed with me while he ran my info, we talked about OCing and where you can carry and what not. He was surprised to learn that you can carry just about anywhere here in Rolla...Most places have no problem with it. Then he wished me a good day and I went on my way. As I was heading away I guess one of the owners of the fair equipment was talking to the officer and she wanted me to leave but the officer told her I was well with in my rights and the law by carrying and being on public property.
Call 4- This happened yesterday and it is the new record for LEOs responding to me OCing... My buddies and I were walking to Wal-Mart from Pine St and we were right next to Pryors Pizza when I heard a cruiser coming... Knew what was coming so I pulled out my recorder hit record and kept walking towards the cruiser that pulled ahead of us...When the officer got out of the car I gave a friendly greeting and stopped. At this point we had The Phelps county Sheriffs dept, Missouri S&T police and the Rolla PD there. 9 officers and 7 cruisers. They shut down the side of 63 we were on for about 5 minutes. The officer asked us what we were doing, then asked me why I was carrying, while he removed my weapon from the holster. I told him to be careful as it was loaded. He unloaded it into the grass and took both my mags and put them in the grass as well... Then put my pistol into his waistband... I am not happy about the treatment of my property but I let it slide at the time. The officer said that they got a MWG call as weel as someone saying that we were involved in a verbal argument in the Krogers parking lot... Which was not true, we were just walking through there, not loud or boisterous or anything like that. The officer ran all our IDs, then he ran my serial number. The whole time my buddy and I are just laughing and talking with the other cops... We are getting used to dealing with these calls by now. We commented on how sad it was that they were getting calls about a MWG like they are and how we were confused about the whole verbal argument bit. I explained that while carrying there is a certain responsibility that goes with it, and the like. After things were done and the LEOs were leaving the officer handed me my weapon back, and suggested that I go home and leave it there. I told him that I was heading to Wal-Mart and that since what I was doing was legal I was going to continue what I was doing. He then tried to tell me that OCing was a bad idea because I could get attacked by some "Rogue Cowboy" who was armed and then I would have to wait for the LEOS to arrive. I simply told him that was the very reason I carry, to defend myself against situations like that, and should I find myself in that situation it was going to end badly for the "Rogue Cowboy". The officer said exactly (which confused me) then he suggested that I just put my weapon back in the holster unloaded and with the slide locked back... I gave him a "are you retarded look" and told him that one the holster was not designed to hold a weapon like that therefore rendering it unsafe, asn I also told him that an unloaded weapon was useless unless as a chunk of steel, and therefore I was going to reload my weapon. I asked him if he wanted me to do it in front of him or if he would feel safer for me to wait till they left and reload then. He did not answer so I wished him and the fellow officers a good day and told them to be safe out there, waited till they left then re loaded and went about my business.
Now I know there are 2 reasons for me getting these calls. One is like I said I "look" scary- I have a Mohawk died red blue and Ruby, a goatee, and I wear alot of muscle shirts so you can see my tattoos and the like. And 2 my buddies are usually with me and we walk everywhere since we live in the middle of town. All of these calls were while I was walking to or from somewhere. Once I am somewhere I have never had a problem. Other than Taco Bell... They are not carry friendly. Anyways this is what I have so far...I figur before the end of the summer I will have had most of the department (Both Rolla PD and the Sheriffs) stop me at some point... But as long as they continue to be professional then I am ok with that. Only because change takes time...
Please let me know what you guys think of all this and I will try to figure out how to post some of those recordings on here....