Bitter and I had an interesting encounter with “the man”, namely the Kent County Sheriff’s deputy (and when I say the, I mean he’s the only Kent County Sheriff’s deputy).  Carrie and her mom wanted to use the library for a bit, so Bitter and I stayed out in the parking lot to wait, and took out our laptops to catch up on things. Well, it would seem some old lady in the library noticed the Maryland tags on the rental and called it in.  The deputy blocked us in, came up, and started asking questions. Since Texas is a notify state, I needed to inform him I was carrying, but he asked before I got it out on my own.  I turned over my driver’s license, Florida and Pennsylvania LTCs. He had me unload Bitter’s Sig 239 and hand it to him.  Bitter was unhappy that the deputy took her pistol, which is an understatement, as she immediately got on the phone to formerly Bitter Boy, who is an attorney. Technically, because we weren’t free to leave, it was a brief arrest, but it ended with my LTCs, our IDs and pistols being turned back, and the deputy couldn’t have been more polite and friendly.
Generally, I agree with Bitter that police officers shouldn’t seize people’s firearms, even for brief periods, once it’s known they have a LTC. But it goes on record as the only time since I’ve been carrying (which is about 5 years), that I’ve ever had to show my LTC to a law enforcement officer. I’m glad this one was more friendly than hard nosed, and the incident ended without feathers being too ruffled. I might blog about this later when I get back.
I had to show my LTC to a Plano, TX officer when he pulled me over for running a yellow (orange?) light. The officier was polite and, after comparing firearms (I had my Kimber Ultracarry with me), he let me off with a warning.
From this experience and others that friends have had, it’s usually a case of the officer interested in what you’re carrying by choice rather than a “temporary seizure”.
jmt
As a Texas CHL holder we were told the officer can ask for your weapon for the duration of whatever is going on. Normally this is a traffic stop. I haven’t had it happen to me as the officer doesn’t have to do it. They normally ask where it is and tell you to leave it there.
Maybe he just wanted to see what you had. :)
I commute 20miles each way daily from Round Rock to east Austin. Generally I am on autopilot as are the (uniformly speeding) commuters around me. Recently in the intervening burg of Pflugerville I pulled over to answer my pager. When I pulled back onto the main street I noted a police cruiser up ahead on the road side. The officer hit his lights, I pulled into the next parking lot, he pulled in behind me. I got out my DL & CHL. Then I waited. After the officer didn’t get out of his cruiser, it hit me that he was waiting for backup. After about 5min, a second cruiser showed up, and the second officer took position on the passenger side rear of my truck, hand on his holstered pistol. Finally the first officer approached my window – which I’d kept rolled down since I stopped, and where both my hands were clearly visible, holding only my licenses.
The officer took both my licenses and asked why I had evaded him earlier (when I pulled over to answer my pager). I explained, asked if he’d like to see my pager to note the time, and told him I had my handgun locked up in my center console. He nodded, and told me I had violated about 4 speed zones including the new one for the church school we just passed. Then he told me he was just warning me, returned my licenses, and sent me on way.
So other than the very cautious approach taken by the officers, the whole stop was about the best traffic stop I’ve ever been involved in (i.e., least expensive). I suspect that because he’d made me wait for backup, and because I could prove I wasn’t trying to avoid him earlier, I was granted a reprieve on the otherwise expensive tickets.
Cost of CHL class & license, handgun, ammo, range time…a few hundred bucks.
Getting off with a warning in a Pflugerville Texas traffic stop….priceless!
When I got pulled over near Conroe the other summer, the state trooper called for backup. I found this extremely strange as there were two teenage girls in the car and I got pulled over for an “obscured license plate” ie the plate holder that came with the car from the dealership was covering the very top of the word Texas. I had some guns in the trunk, but luckily that didn’t come up. Yeehaw Texas law enforcement.