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So a cop practicing basic street survival by asking (and gauging your reaction to being asked) if you have any weapons in the car suddenly morphs into an agent of Stalin.
Does anyone here believe that someone illegally in possession of a firearm is going to have any problem lying about it?
Of course not.
But doesn't it seem reasonable that someone who pulls people over for a living will have an ability to glean information from the way the person looks, sounds, and acts while responding to the question, whether they are lying or not?
If a cop pulls me over, I put the interior light on, put both hands on the wheel, and wait for him to approach. So he can see right off the bat that I am doing nothing whatsoever that could pose a threat to his/her safety.
When he asks for my license and insurance, I tell him (per TX law) that I have a CHL and that I am carrying, and I produce the CHL along with my license. The most a cop has ever done at that point is ask me where the gun was.
The whole time, I am relaxed and calm. I don't need to be nervous because I am telling the cop the truth. The worst that can happen to me is that I get a ticket, which in the great scheme of things is not a big deal to me.
I suspect that the cop can sense this just as well as he can sense when someone is nervous, fidgety, lying, being evasive, or has something to hide.
I have never had the slightest hint of a problem.
But for comparison purposes, I'd like to relate what happened one day when I was NOT carrying, and so did not have to notify the cop about my CHL.
I was riding my Harley wearing a teeshirt, jeans, and a small leather fanny pack. The fanny pack was of the type specifically designed to conceal a small gun. It had a short length of chord sticking out of one of the zippers that you would pull to rapidly open the pack and access the gun. I'm sure it was clearly recognizeable to any knowledgeable person that is was a "gun pack."
But on this day I had no gun with me. All that was in the pack was a pack of smokes, a lighter, and my house keys.
So a state trooper pulls me over for speeding. (It was fully legitimate. I was going around 15 mph above the limit.) He asks me for my license and insurance and I give them to him. Now remember, because I wasn't carrying, TX law did not require me to disclose my CHL status, so I didn't.
The cop goes back to his cruiser for a few minutes. Then he and his partner both get out. He stays behind the driver's door of the cruiser while the partner slowly approaches me from my right rear. The cop loudly says, "Sir! Are you carrying a concealed weapon at this time?"
Of course I replied, "No I am not officer."
They then both approach me and the cop says, "Sorry sir. Your CHL came up on the screen when I ran you, so I had to ask."
I replied, "I would have declared the CHL right off the bat, but since I'm not carrying at the moment, I knew that under the law I was not obligated to. So I didn't. But it's OK. No harm, no foul."
Now remember that all this time I'm standing there with this "gun pack" around my waist in a crossdraw position. There's no doubt he knew what it was. And he never made the slightest move to pat me down or request to search it, or me, or anything.
They wrote me for speeding and we all parted ways.
Somehow, I have a tough time equating those guys with agents of Stalin. I felt I was treated with respect the whole time.
Another time (pre-CHL), I got pulled over for running a red light. When I pulled over I unhooked my seatbelt in anticipation of having to retrieve my license and insurance from my back pocket. So the cop asks me for the paperwork and I comply, and he than tells me that he stopped me for running the red light and for not wearing my seatbelt.
Now I knew darned well that I had been wearing my seatbelt while driving and had only removed it after I had stopped. And I told him so. And he said something like, "When you went through the intersection I could see that it was just looped over your shoulder like it is now and not properly hooked up."
To me, this was preposterous, and I was fully intending to plead not guilty if necessary and go to court with it. So, staring him straight in the eye, I told him, "Officer, you had a better view of me going through the intersection than I did, and if you think that I wasn't halfway through when the light went from yellow to red I'll take your word for it. But by the same token, I had a much better "view" of how my seatbelt was hooked up than you did, and I'm telling you that I was wearing it right up until I pulled over and stopped.
I always wear my seatbelt."
And he said something like, "Well, it didn't look that way to me but I guess I'll let it go."
I figure he just pictured he and I testifying in court about it and saw "reasonable doubt" written all over it.
At any rate, Stalin would have been disappointed once again.