So this girl called the police on me...

[Waitone]

Shame LE can't (or won't) close the loop on the ignorant caller (assuming ignorance and not activist's motives) and explain to her it is perfectly legal to carry a firearm out of a range and put in the trunk of a car. Don't make the call again and if it does reoccur the police will put her person face down in the road and toss her vehicle. This kind of nonsense happens because there is no pushback. :banghead:

 

[Steelcore]

You should have demanded the police charge the caller with filing a false police report.

 

[AndyC]

No harm done, no foul - why's everyone getting so bent out of shape over this? The cops were doing their job - sue them for excessive use of force? Geez - get a life, honestly.

 

[Mikee Loxxer]

Things like this make me glad I live in Nebraska. A couple weekends ago I was leaving my parents house to go shooting carrying my 1911 in a holster and walking to my van and saw the neighbor across the street getting into his truck. He had a Kalashnikov with a 30 round magazine in the magwell slung over his shoulder. He also had a bag that probably contained more ammunition and magazines with him. I nor any of the other neighbors thought anything of it. It sure is nice living in the United States.

 

[Pilgrim]

Stupid people proliferate because this world has been made safe enough they survive long enough to procreate.

The solution to this is create a super intelligent predator a la "Jurassic Park", which has protected status. You can't shoot it unless it is attacking you or your family. Said intelligent predator will quickly learn to attack and eat the stupid and unarmed.

Pilgrim

 

[Aguila Blanca]

I would've been cooperative out in the parking lot. No way would they get to come in, inspect my firearms, and run a serial number on one of my firearms.

Ditto. There was absolutely no reason for them to be in your apartment or to see and handle any of your firearms.

 

[moredes]

No harm done, no foul - why's everyone getting so bent out of shape over this? The cops were doing their job - sue them for excessive use of force? Geez - get a life, honestly.

Dead balls on. So some uninitiated 'reglar' citizen gets bent because "she" saw an open carry and didn't notice the surroundings. AND called the cops. BFD.

And yes, I've been felony-stopped, downed, and cuffed. During all of it, the first words out of the cop's mouth was, "out of the car, motherfxx !" with his handgun pointing at me. What was it all about? I was driving the same (common for its' day) Toyota Celica in the general neighborhood that they were scouring for a bank robbery suspect.

All they had was a description of the car; bandit had a ski mask. No, it wasn't me. Backup arrived and they searched my car and heard over the radio at the same time that they'd cornered the suspect and found the money bag. I was released with profuse (but not groveling) apologies. No harm no foul. I lost 20 minutes out of my life watching some real pros work my 'scene'. BFD. Why all the outrage from the by-standers?

 

[Gordon Fink]

Technically, my entire neighborhood is private property, including the street and sidewalks, kind of like a gated community without the gate. Hmm … private property where I have a right to be, so I should be able to walk around openly with a firearm. Would I do it? No way! No doubt one of my neighbors, perhaps even one of my fellow gun owners, would call the police. Legally, I should prevail, but why invite the hassle?

Nevertheless, calling the cops on someone leaving a firing range seems silly at best.

~G. Fink

 

[rmgill]

I hardly have cops looking for my Armored car any more from people calling and reporting a TANK!@!!@$! driving around atlanta. Perhaps I need a Saladin now.

Last big time was giving the GF's father a ride and retuning back to her apartment complex and having a police car pull in with lights running....He pulled in, popped his lights and had me exit the armored car...."Driver....stop the....ugghhh.....tank and uhhhh....exit the vehicle.." After I pointed out the tag, he kinda lost interest and then got another call in the same complex for a domestic and wandered off with a really befuddled and harried look on his face.

Terrorizing and confusing cops is more fun with an armored car guys!

 

[sithanas]

Have a photo of the car?

 

[rmgill]

Yeah, I've posted it here before.


From the dragoncon03 parade

 

[kjeff50cal]

rmgill,
That would be perfect for the traffic in my neck of the woods (Houston, Tx) although it looks too much like an H2 .

 

[Langenator]

Let's see, my new wife and I were on our way home from our honeymoon, driving north on I-205 just north of Vancouver, WA. Driving in the second lane from the left, since the left lane is about to end. In my side mirror, I see a big, lifted pick up barrelling up in the left lane. Truck gets even with me before he runs out of lane, but rather than slow down and get behind me, he tries to merge INTO me, pushing me over halfway into the next lane.

So, I hit the gas (Audis have nice throttle response at 70 mph) and dodge back in front of him, and flip him the bird out my window once I'm there. (I know, not the wisest move.) Next thing I know, the truck (actually driven by a she) is on my right side, and holding what looks to be a Mini Uzi up to the window.

So I promptly brake enough to get behind her while my wife gets on the cell phone and calls 911, giving the vehicle description and plate #. We pull off at a rest stop and are told a state trooper will meet us there.

Trooper pulls in, cuffs me and puts me in his cruiser, then cuffs my wife. I told him about the pistol in the glove compartment, which he finds, clears, zipties and sets on my trunklid while he calls in my gun SN, my name, and my CCW permit #. Seems the other driver also called in that I was waving a gun around.

Guess my middle finger is bigger than I thought.

 

[Optical Serenity]

In SD the cops would have pulled you over and asked about it not pulled you over at gunpoint. If i was you id call and ask a lawyer about suing for excessive use of force.

This is one of the most idiotic things I've read all day. You must be one of the most confused people I know, and you probably hope the day comes that you get rear ended so you can sue someone.

The officers did their job just fine, you can't ASSUME that the person you are stopping who is armed that someone just called about is a good guy.

People like you make me embarrassed to be in the gun hobby.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Steelcore said,

You should have demanded the police charge the caller with filing a false police report.

Well Steelcore, just what was the false report filed? By the original post, Nashmack did exit a business with a gun, more than one, in fact. The only thing in error here is the number of guns. So who would be filing the false report?

I don't know why folks are getting their panties in a wad over this. First we like to complain that the general public doesn't pay attention. Then when someone pays attention in a manner with which we don't agree, we get upset. Had Nashmack just robbed the gun range, the lady would be a hero for being quick to call in suspcious activity and getting a detailed description.

As near as I can tell, the system worked as designed. There was no harm and no foul. Everybody acted as they should have acted and the correct outcome was established. I was sort of surprised Nashmack didn't seem upset about being treated like a "criminal." He wasn't treated like a criminal, but many folks consider the duties of the police toward civilians as duties to criminals and then get all bent out of shape because of being treated like "criminals."

I repeat, I think everyone did as they should have done and so the system worked as designed. Nashmack was not some evil bad guy, but his activity was suspicious to the caller who did not know him. She called. The police responded VERY FAST and the situation was respolved quickly with Nashmack and the police going through the motions to verify things.

So for all you folks who complain about how the cops are lazy and don't respond fast enough and who treat everyone like criminals because they are on power trips...

 

[bdutton]

wow. Thats . I drive by TFL every workday... I won't shoot there because the range is too expensive.

That woman who made the call should be banned from using 911.

 

[ball3006]

I dread the thought of being pulled over......

like this as I am hearing impared and would not have a clue what the cop was yelling at me........I have an engraved plate on my front door saying "the resident is hearing impared".......just in case they want to kick the door in.....chris3

 

[Aguila Blanca]

As near as I can tell, the system worked as designed. There was no harm and no foul. Everybody acted as they should have acted and the correct outcome was established.

Not a big deal, certainly, but it is potentially inaccurate to say there was NO foul. Nashmack did say he was proned out, I believe. I don't know how he was dressed, but suppose he was wearing a nice shirt and nice trousers, and the ground on which he was proned out was dirty and/or muddy.

At the very least, the twit who over-reacted should owe him having his clothing cleaned.

 

[Deanimator]

About ten years ago, the pipes in my apartment sprang a leak. The management came in and found a bunch of guns in my apartment. They freaked out and called the Berea, OH PD. Their reaction was, "Yeah, so?" Of course I used to shoot service rifle matches with one of their snipers...

 

[bruss01]

The officer's response was excessive, IMHO.

There was no report of any illegal activity. The officer witnessed no illegal activity. The officer had no reason to think the man in the car had done anything wrong.

It was not excessive to pull the car over and initiate dialog with the gun owner, based on the report. It was definitely excessive to ORDER someone out of the car, hands raised, and make him get down on the ground. That is insulting, degrading and more than a "courtesy" to the officer. That is an abuse of police authority.

If police are becomming too afraid to have a conversation with a motorist whom they have no reason to think has done anything wrong unless that person is basically in a strait-jacket, then what does that tell us about where our country is headed? Is public sentiment against police abuses really becomming so widespread that even good officers are afraid they're being painted with the bad brush? To the point where they fear every citizen is just waiting for an opportunity to kill a cop? If the cop is that afraid of someone with no record and no evidence of having done anything wrong, then there's a problem that needs to be fixed somewhere.

Did the officer have his weapon drawn? Any time you point a gun at a person, there's a chance it might go off. Either a mechanical malfunction (rare, but has happened) or an "accidental discharge" caused by operator error in a moment of stress. This has happened and even been caught on tape numerous times. To point a gun at a citizen who has exhibited no sign of having done anything wrong is to needlessly and recklessly endanger the life of that citizen. If someone needlessly endangers someone's life, that is a grievance in need of redress.

It may be "routine practice" or "department policy" to handle law abiding citizens in this manner. If so, it is a repugnant practice that needs to change. Making it "policy" doesn't make it right.

 

[BozemanMT]

no harm?
no foul?
You are calmly walking along minding your own busines and civilians with guns drawn come up, surround you and order you to the ground, face down hands behind your neck and then cuff you.
this is no harm?

Warning to anyone who tries this on me; civilian (and cops are civilians despite their increasing militarization), military, scumbag, whoever.
It's not going to happen.
I'm not going quietly and I will fight back.
I am a free citizen and I will be treated as such.

a no harm no foul stop would have been for the officer to be wary, ask the man to keep his hands in sight and ask him respectfully his questions. Even I would calmly answer his questions.

 

[Buckskinner]

What happened to condition orange?

If I saw any ol' body walking with a gun, I'm probably not just gonna smile and wave and assume he's a gun nut like me. He might be a legitimate nut, up to no good, and deserves attention. I'd be extra alert and probably looking to take cover and make distance. I act like this at the range too.

We here at THR are too quick to assume someone with a gun is a good guy, UNLESS the guy with a gun is a cop. Then the cop has to go over and above to prove to us that he's a good guy. You know, kiss our ass, be extra nice, and discuss guns like they're a carpenter discussing their favorite saw or hammer. Because most of the cops I know don't hug and caress their guns like most gun nuts I know, including myself. If the cop acts like his skin is more important than ours, because that's the first thing he thinks about when he wakes up in the morning, before he kisses his wife and kids, and the last think he thinks about at night when trying to decompress from real bad guys, and just other guys who give him a bad time for protecting himself, then I say I have a bit more patience with the cops. Of course there's a boundary that gets crossed sometimes by some guys. Walk a mile in there duty boots...

People like to say "well I live in GA/Tenn./TX, and folks just love guns here." That is probably true in your experience, and that's awesome for you. But mass shootings happen by regular guys (to the people who know them) with regular guns (to us) in regular places. In other words, Anytown USA, in front of strip malls, inside big malls, or god forbid, schools.

I'm saying don't give people a free pass until they act like they deserve it.

 

[ArmedBear]

In my city -- not surrounding towns, it's a city ordinance only -- we are required to have a gun cased to carry it to our cars from a range in a public place -- not the gun club with its own parking lot, but a public lot or street. It needn't be anything beyond a gun sock, just something that covers the gun.

I've always thought that was sort of weird, given that California is a semi-open-carry state, with most laws about carrying guns specifically referring to concealed weapons, not guns in general. Covering the gun in an unlocked soft case is concealing it, at least in the plain English meaning.

But this incident sheds some light on why this law might be in place. Maybe this sort of thing happened a few too many times, and the cops wanted an easy way to prevent it. I don't particularly care for the law; I think it takes the concept of "brandishing" a bit too far. I do, however, see why it might be in place.

I'm glad it ended up with the cops laughing and you're okay. The cops here came within a 5 lb. trigger pull of killing a guy with a water gun on the beach here a few years back. The cops were even more shaken up than the prankster who'd just been squirting his buddies.

 

[chas_martel]

>AndyC

>No harm done, no foul - why's everyone getting so bent out of shape over this? The cops >were doing their job - sue them for excessive use of force? Geez - get a life, honestly.

I'll tell you why. Because things are mixed up, the default is that someone
openly displaying a gun should be assumed to be a good, law abiding citizen.
Why are you so at ease with things being mixed up? Why do you find
it so easy to bend-over? You'd have made a very good slave.

 

[AndyC]

Seems to me you're talking about the ideal, the fantasy, a gunowners' Utopia. Here on planet Earth, things are a little different in practice - I call things as they are, not how I would like them to be. I've found that if I don't acknowledge reality, it automatically finds a way to screw me over even worse *shrug*

"Excessive use of force" - pfffft.

"The nasty cops made me lie down on my stomach, woe is me, my rights have been so repressed!" - bloody nancy-boy *snort*