209
Member
In every state of the union there are people legally allowed to carry concealed firearms. Therefore the mere existence of a firearm is not a legitimate reason to believe a crime was, is, or might be committed. One could argue, and I might even support the argument, that such a situation could merit a closer look see, but not the automatic presumption of guilt of something, or that the individual poses a threat that seems to have been assumed by you earlier in your posts.
Unless you have some other information that supports a reasonable conclusion that the individual is/was/might be committing a crime, there is no PC. Thats does not mean that a 10 second chat with the guy might not lead you to such a reasonable conclusion.
Even a Terry stop, with its nearly unrestricted grant of power to police to search people, still requires some, admittedly very low, level of suspicion of a crime being committed.
That "admittedly very low, level of suspicion of a crime being committed' is usually fairly easy to articulate.
I don't claim to understand how the other 49 states operate, but here in CT I have a good understanding of what will happen if your gun "prints" and a reasonably alert officer notices it or what will happen if someone calls the police and reports there is a person with a gun because they believe you have one concealed due to printing or God forbid, you accidently expose it to their view.
The only legal way to carry concealed in CT is to have a permit allowing you to do so (a few exceptions apply but aren't pertinent to the discussion at hand). The law also requires you to have your permit with you when carrying concealed.
The RAS (reasonable articulable suspicion) would be "illegal possession of a firearm". The officer would detain (called an investigative detention) you until he/she could discount a crime was occurring (which would be the illegal possession) through said investigation. The end result would be you showing the officer your permit to prove you are carrying legal.
And then hopefully, the officer is gun-friendly and understands that persons carrying legally are not a threat.... you would be on your way with a minimum of fuss once he/she knows you are legit. I would hazard to guess that if you played games and made a fuss, you may be charged with a few statutory violations or, at the least, have to endure a lecture on the meaning of concealed carry.
You could try to make a case that the officer was overly intrusive, but I doubt the courts would go your way.