SNIP So if a LEO sees your handgun, he has every reason to think you are breaking the law until he sees your permit. After you give him your permit, to me it is not unreasonable for him to request a computer check to make sure the permit is valid.
Just a little side-note.
When we decide it is reasonable for the cop to request a computer check for validity, we inadvertently agree to a number of other headaches and legal irrationalities.
For example, what is the point of having a CCW permit document if the cop can check with a computer? Also, compulsorily waiting while the cop checks the computer basically says the permit document is not valid. Police, by making a person wait during a computer check, basically modify the statute to undermine the validity of the permit document. Suddenly the permit document is not legally binding on the cop until
he decides it is by checking the computer. Basically, to a certain extent, and for a hopefully brief period, the cop can say your permit is not valid until he checks it. This computer check of CCW permits is almost absurd. It needs to be just like passports and drivers licenses before the days of computers: the document itself is the object that carries legal weight. No other nonsense needs to be attached to the document.
One of the arguments we got in years past from a particular cop on this forum was that a permit might have been revoked and never turned in, so it was good to computer check them so cops could seize revoked permits. Specious argument, of course. Its just a fishing expedition, compelling most law-abiding citizens to wait while the cop checks to see if he has a keeper on his hook. And, if it was really all that important to recover a revoked permit document, deputies or police would actually make an effort to go and get the damned revoked permit. Not wait around until the revoke-ee happened to bump into a cop during a traffic stop or something. The fact that courts, deputies, and cops don't make much of an effort to actually go and seize the revoked permit is all the evidence you need that they
know its just not that important. They
know they can't stop a genuine permittee-turned-offender from carrying if he wants to.