At the gun show today, I asked two of Cobb County's finest how they would react if they saw me walking down the street open carrying.
Without hesitation, both replied they stop me, disarm me and check me out. Before returning my weapon and allowing me to leave, they would ensure I had a valid GFL, check to see if I had any outstanding wants or warrants and check the serial number of my gun.
"Even if I'm breaking no law? Just walking down the street?" I asked.
"Oh yeah!" they replied. One said he would stop and check me because if he didn't and I was seen by the general public, they would get calls about a "man with a gun" and he'd have to go check me anyway. Me simply displaying a gun is all the probable cause either of these guys thought they'd need to justify stopping and questioning me... As one of them said, "This ain't the Wild West".
Maybe the jerk at the last show wasn't so out of touch after all...
Speaking of which, I talked to one officer for a while. He said they get something like the "Cliff Notes" version of the laws they're supposed to enforce. He said the laws on firearm carry are confusing and seem to change each year. The papers he has refer to the GFL as a "concealed carry permit", not a firearms license. He said it also states a concealed weapon cannot be carried below the hips, which may explain some of the questions we've seen regarding ankle holsters.
He ended up asking me a fair number of questions about concealed carry because his wife has applied for a GFL and he wants to be sure she's legal. The information he's been given by his department doesn't explain things clearly enough for him to trust it. I referred him to our website.
He said he supported what we are doing; trying to get Georgia's firearms laws rationalized and rewritten in plain English so even cops can understand them.
It appears we have a lot of work to do. If a fairly large department, which should have the resources to check their facts, is issuing incorrect and confusing information, what are the smaller departments doing?
Without hesitation, both replied they stop me, disarm me and check me out. Before returning my weapon and allowing me to leave, they would ensure I had a valid GFL, check to see if I had any outstanding wants or warrants and check the serial number of my gun.
"Even if I'm breaking no law? Just walking down the street?" I asked.
"Oh yeah!" they replied. One said he would stop and check me because if he didn't and I was seen by the general public, they would get calls about a "man with a gun" and he'd have to go check me anyway. Me simply displaying a gun is all the probable cause either of these guys thought they'd need to justify stopping and questioning me... As one of them said, "This ain't the Wild West".
Maybe the jerk at the last show wasn't so out of touch after all...
Speaking of which, I talked to one officer for a while. He said they get something like the "Cliff Notes" version of the laws they're supposed to enforce. He said the laws on firearm carry are confusing and seem to change each year. The papers he has refer to the GFL as a "concealed carry permit", not a firearms license. He said it also states a concealed weapon cannot be carried below the hips, which may explain some of the questions we've seen regarding ankle holsters.
He ended up asking me a fair number of questions about concealed carry because his wife has applied for a GFL and he wants to be sure she's legal. The information he's been given by his department doesn't explain things clearly enough for him to trust it. I referred him to our website.
He said he supported what we are doing; trying to get Georgia's firearms laws rationalized and rewritten in plain English so even cops can understand them.
It appears we have a lot of work to do. If a fairly large department, which should have the resources to check their facts, is issuing incorrect and confusing information, what are the smaller departments doing?