Try getting your head away from what's "technically" legal, and put yourself in the position of a cop that's been called to investigate "men with guns" at a restaurant.
Oh CeeTee, I was HOPING you'd go there. As I stated in post #32, I have been a cop (a rookie in Virginia no less) and I have been in an almost identical situation and I got my backside chewed OFF for not knowing how I was supposed to handle such a situation.
1. At first you probably won't know whether or not there is going to be a strong need for assistance. There may be.
Which is why you find a good spot and observe. No contact, just unobtrusive visual observation. Assess the situation.
2. Once you find out that this is really a non-issue, you're stuck between a rock and a hard place. If you turn around and walk out, you'll be hearing from your supervisor about the phone call that was made to complain about the people whose complaint you ignored. If you don't, you'll be hearing from your supervisor about the people whose civil rights you violated. You're in a "no-win" situation.
What's this "win" you are talking about? There is no "win", it's a job not a gameshow. A law officer's job is to enforce the LAW. A citizen can complain all they want that their complaints were "ignored" (in fact citizens DO complain constantly about that very thing) but any decent review board will see that the officer responded and decided it was a non-issue. End of complaint as far as the boys in blue are concerned.
3. You weigh your options, and try to find a way to resolve the issue so that nobody's feelings get hurt, and therefore, they don't call "their very good friend the mayor"... You run ID's to placate the sheep. You suggest that the armed diners be more discreet. You leave, hoping that that's the end of it.
With a sinking feeling because as a trained officer you know (or should know) that YOU just bent or outright broke the law. At the very MINIMUM anyone who reviewed situation later should have explained (to the officer) the proper course of action and then required that the officer write a letter of apology to the citizens.
Is that the best resolution? No. If I were first on scene, (and assuming I'm fully informed of Virginia's statutes...) I would have seen that no laws were being broken, calmly advised the sheep and the restaurant manager of that, tipped my hat to the whole place, and gone for coffee. If I were one of the VCDL folks, though, I would have tried to be a little more understanding of the crappy spot the sheep put the police officers in, and cooperated politely.
What you say you would do is exactly what the officer SHOULD have done. The part that really rubs me the wrong way is that you suggest a citizen who is entirely legal in their actions should allow their rights to be infringed to satisfy the fear of a "sheeple". The irony is the fear of the "sheeple" tends to come from the abrupt puncturing of their "I'm safe, nothing can happen to me here" when they see someone else with a firearm and are suddenly forced to take off the blinders and realize just how vulnerable they really are. But do "sheeple" take a personal and civic responsibility to handle that vulnerability and fear? Nope, they just call for the "take care of me" people (be it cops or politicians or whomever) and order the "take care of me" people to make that disturbing reminder of truth go away.
Their response to this mess leads one to assume (incorrectly as it may be) that they are just taking on the roles of attention hounds, seekin gto use this incident to create publicity for their cause.
And even if they were, so what? This sort of action exposes a huge inculcated public bias, a lack of training, a lack of knowledge of the law, and most of all the hidden but rampant fear (of crime, terrorism, etc) that runs in this country (which I personally believe is milked endlessly by the politicians for their own agendas). The more I hear about this the more I think the VCDL is providing a genuine public service because we sure as hell aren't "more safe" with more cops and more laws, that just clogs up the system. We are "more safe" when each of us acknowledges our own, personal, civic responsibility towards society and shoulders that burden rather than shirking it.
That would never fly in court, as it would mean any LEO can pull over anyone!!! :banghead: 
