I guess I haven't explained things well enough. I forget that most of you live in a much freer environment. I can't wait to live there myself!
"You shouldn't be questioning folks who are carrying anyways. What's the RAS?"
When we get a complaint we are required to investigate. That is what we get paid for. RAS is easy in NJ because mere possession is (almost always) a crime. (I don't like it either but that's what we have to deal with.) Among nearly 8 million citizens there are less than 2000 active carry permits and most of those are severely restricted. For instance, most permits issued to security guards are restricted to when they are actually on duty. The one citizen in my town who has one works in NY city and his permit is only valid for travelling from his home to his job. I haven't actually seen it but I'm told it even specifies the route he must take to get there. Only politicians and the rich and famous get unrestricted permits. NJ does not honor any out-of-state permits so the odds that the person I'm checking has a NJ permit is less than 1 in 4000 or 0.025 percent. The odds that he has a NJ permit that is valid - at that moment (due to permit restrictions) - is about one third of that. Most of those that I've checked (about 100 in the past 30 years) were either other cops (about half) or people who were unaware of our (admittedly unConstitutional) laws and were sent on thier way after unloading their guns and securing them in the trunk of their cars.
"Wow. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? Where's your reasonable suspicion? "
See above. NJ is a fairly unique situation but you are correct that in most of the country some reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing would be required for a stop to be legal and legit.
"This sort of attitude is one of the biggest problems in American law enforcement today. "
Actually there is no attitude problem here although I can understand how you get that impression listening to all the politically appointed talking head type big city police chiefs. I am probably more pro-gun and pro-freedom than anyone else here and most cops are the same. True, in some areas cops are indoctrinated to be very anti-gun, including many of my coworkers but I find that, on a nationwide basis, those guys are in the minority. In my experience the less a cop knows about guns the more elitist he is about them. One of my coworkers once refused to sign one of the many pro-gun petitions that I had circulated, saying that citizens couldn't be trusted with firearms because of thier lack of training. I was unable to convince him of the errors in his thinking. This guy had well over 20 years on the job, hadn't had a drop of training after leaving the academy, and was only barely able to pass his yearly qualifications. By contrast, by age 12, my children had more training than he ever did, could outshoot him, and knew more about guns than he ever would. Most of us who have substantial expertise are, in my experience, overwhelmingly pro-gun.
"Police commit crime at around the same rate per capita on average as the rest of the population."
Unfortunately true.
"I would not want it extended to all fifty states. However, I'd like to see it adopted by all fifty states. "
I understand the reluctance to let the feds get involved but a citizen has the right to travel without being harassed about their self defense choices. I haven't read the actual wording of the bill but I think you guys are wrong in looking at this case as one where the feds are "taking control". I'm looking at this as a case of the feds doing their primary job of enforcing the Constitution!
Many of you have missed the point of my original post - that a permit saves a lot of time by letting me know that you have already been checked out and are a verified good guy and that I don't need to duplicate that work. As I said, perhaps making the permits optional instead of required would be an acceptable solution. I understand that AZ has already done this and VT, which doesn't require permits, is considering issuing them so that it's residents can take advantage of carrying in reciprocal states.
Yeah,really! 
And Cam, you're a Professor! 
