Difdi
Regular Member
And it would be just as reasonable to assume the person had a CPL and knew the law. The carry itself, even on a bus, is legal, just like driving a car is legal. Even if both normally require a CPL or drivers license. Search and siezure just to check if you have a CPL, or a drivers license, or a stolen firearm, and that firearm is the only reason for the siezure, IS NOT LEGAL.
If you openly carry a loaded gun on a bus, you have committed a crime unless you fit into one of the exemptions to the law. But not all of those exemptions are obvious ones. A uniformed police officer is obviously exempted, but a CPL holder is not (unless the CPL itself is somehow visible). It is the possession of a CPL that exempts you, but the officer does not know you have it unless you display it. Since he does not know you are exempted and he can only act or not act on what he knows, he has probable cause to arrest you. Your CPL will get the charges dropped of course, but once the arrest starts, you might well end up having to post bail and attend court in order to present your CPL. A reasonable officer, knowing there are non-visible exemptions to the law, will ask you if you fit into one of them, the most common when riding a bus being a CPL.
Put simply, which would you rather do? Display a CPL when the officer asks you, or spend a day or two in jail? If the officer cannot ask about a CPL, then the only reasonable action he can undertake after witnessing a crime being committed is to make an arrest.