It usually involves onerous responsibilities for the supplicant to carry out while in order to keep a hidden gun. One is announcing to any cop who approaches that he is armed. Dumb question, Doesn't that fly in the face of common sense. A person goes through expensive training and effort to obtain a permit. He or she then allows personal information on to a data base accessible to any cop (assuming the cop can read) on the fly with the computers that permeate our culture now. Why does this person need to tell the cop then? Safety says the general public. Safety for who? Safety for the Cop. He is supposed to know this, he has it available. Ah, maybe he really doesn't know. Why then the coolio database and the rigamarole of training courses if the cops aren't going to access it? Kinda stupid hunh? Also kinda stupid for the cop to not assume that the person he is stopping doesn't have a gun. The cop is paid for risking his life. No one held a gun to his head or threatened legal action if he didn't take the job on the police force. Also, I haven't heard that there is a draft for police men. So, why the overblown concern for the safety of an officer?
I understand that the cop is in a tough situation. He is being asked to blindly stop people when he sees something that is amiss. But is he really that blind? Something is amiss. Out of the ordinary. Car tags out of date, a woman standing outside a car late at night, a car with a driver matching the description of a bank robber. Surely a cop doesn't stop a car simply to stop a car. So the cop isn't that blind. I do think the cops sometimes are willfully ignorant, but that is something for a later date.
As it stands right now, if a cop stops a CCW person, and the person doesn't immediately tell the cop he or she has a gun, then the cop has the right to arrest this person and take him to jail. This is assuming the cop has given the person a chance to announce to all and sundry the fact that he is carrying a concealed weapon. A fact that the person had wished kept silent, for what else the need to have a concealed weapon.
How soon is immediate? Two nano-seconds? Three? Five? Or is it in seconds? Minutes? Hours? At first possible chance? Kind of gray area there.
What happens if he forgets, the cop doesn't see the gun and nothing was found to be out of order? Then he informs the cop that he has a ccw permit. Can the cop arrest him then? Should the cop arrest him? Nothing else was found amiss. It is a technical violation of a questionable statute.
I also have a problem with the asking of a state the permission to carry a weapon. Concealed or not.
Consider the 2nd amendment of the United States Constitution. A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
At no point in this amendment is there an exception about weapons concealed or not. To be a little fair, it was assumed back then that the stupid man was the one who didn't carry a gun.
The demand that people apply for a concealed carry weapons permit is a liberal nostrom usually with some sort of skid in it that makes the permittee work overtime in getting it. The skid is to stop people from getting and bearing guns. Or make it normal for a person to "ask the state" permission for a right they already have. It then makes it easier intellectually for the state to demand they give up their guns.
Joel,
ReplyDeleteIt is for safety not only for the cop but but the individual also. I know you say the cop gets paid to walk up to a stopped car and he knows his life could be in dancer and still goes to work on a daily basis. But....that doesn't mean he should be careless or that people shouldn't respect authority.
Maybe your right about one thing...that should probably be one of the first questions the cops ask, "Do you have a concealed weapon permit?" The cop may have access to the information but may not have time to read through it all. Would you want a cop taking time to read everything about a person that might be putting your wife in danger? Or would you want him out of the car and making sure she was safe?
I don't think everyone should be aloud to carry a concealed weapon. Would you really want half these people on the internet 24/7 carrying a concealed weapon? I wouldn't. I'm a nurse and sometimes families argue among themselves and sometimes they get mad at the nurse. If they had a concealed gun and with emotions running high they might shoot someone. I don't want that someone to be me. But I suppose I should know the risk of the job and I do get paid, right?
Guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one....
Here is the problem, safety for each one individual person is not the concern of the officer. Several times it has been upheld by the courts that cops are not personally responsible for the safety of an individual. Police Have No Duty to Protect the Individual
ReplyDeleteSo, why the pretend to be so concerned about the safety of someone when the cops have no fear of retribution for failure?
Now, you have been stopped by cops. I know because you are my wife. Haven't you wondered why the cops waited so long to get to you? It is because they were waiting for information about your vehicle. Who owns it, official wants and warrants of the owner and any information about the car. Can't they have a little marker on the super duper computer that says whether the owner has a concealed carry weapons permit? That is what the database is for.
Now, about your concern about a patient's relative. How do you know all or some of them don't have a carry concealed weapons permit? Also, just because a man has a permit, doesn't necessarily means he is carrying a weapon. Is there some sort of metal detector in your hospital to stop them? Do you have security which stops all people who have set off the metal detector? I know your hospital doesn't. I also know there are some guns, Glock made one, which doesn't set off the alarm.
How many times have you been confronted by a gun wielding relative?
Most people try to work with authority. That is the reason for a CCW permit.
Also, the cop has an advantage over a man with a hidden gun. The cop as more immediate access to his gun that the man with a hidden gun.
I still disagree with you for the most part. It should be flagged on their "super duper computer" your right about that.
ReplyDeleteNot all cops are jerks, in fact all but one never gave me a ticket and none have ever pulled a gun on me or acted rude in any way.
Honey don't ask a girl from TN how many of her relatives have wield a gun at her, a better question would be how many haven't...I mean I don't have day to list them ;) jk