Ohioans For Concealed Carry Discussion Forums

My first encounter turned out to be nothing.

I was practicing my hobby, geocaching. I was searching for a geocache hidden near a turnpike ramp near the site of an historic graveyard in North Lima. Since this was a stop on my way to church, where I have not asked permission to carry, my pistol was locked in a case, locked in my car. I was about 20 yards from the car when I saw the patrolman pull up behind my vehicle.

When asked what was I doing, I told him and informed him of my CCW and where my gun was. His first response was, "Oh, I don't care about that." He then joined me in my search, since he has geocached in the past.

I DID make the mistake of not informing immediately.

The experience was just the way it was supposed to be, so why were my knees shaking?

But you were not armed!

CousinCarl wrote:I DID make the mistake of not informing immediately.

If you were not armed, you made no mistake as you were not required to notify. In fact, there are those that would say you made a mistake in informing when you were not required. (I'm not one of them - if that is how you roll, I don't have a problem with it. I personally choose not to inform unless required to, however.)

CousinCarl wrote:My first encounter turned out to be nothing.

I was practicing my hobby, geocaching. I was searching for a geocache hidden near a turnpike ramp near the site of an historic graveyard in North Lima. Since this was a stop on my way to church, where I have not asked permission to carry, my pistol was locked in a case, locked in my car. I was about 20 yards from the car when I saw the patrolman pull up behind my vehicle.

When asked what was I doing, I told him and informed him of my CCW and where my gun was. His first response was, "Oh, I don't care about that." He then joined me in my search, since he has geocached in the past.

I DID make the mistake of not informing immediately.

The experience was just the way it was supposed to be, so why were my knees shaking?

Because some encounters are with law enforcement that don't like the public carrying and look for a way to harass those of us who do, when possible ?

I think from what I see reported in these forums, that most encounters with LE go rather well, but there is a "minority"(?) of LEO's out there that cause problems for us, and until you know what kind of officer your dealing with, it tends to put some of us in "skiddish" mode until we know.

As for not informing, if you were to go to your car with him still there, then you would have been armed, and you didn't inform. At what point are you armed? Some LEO would argue that if your gun is in the car, even if you are not in it, you are armed.

Javelin Man wrote:As for not informing, if you were to go to your car with him still there, then you would have been armed, and you didn't inform. At what point are you armed? Some LEO would argue that if your gun is in the car, even if you are not in it, you are armed.

I had this exact situation happen 2 winters ago. I stopped to help someone stuck beside the road and I left my car running when I got out and from force of habit, I hit the lock button as I exited. My gun was in the glove compartment as I had left work were carry was not permitted so the gun was now locked in my running car. Police arrived, we got the other car unstuck and LEO said he would slim-jim my car. As he was starting to open the locked door I said "I know I have to inform you I have a CHL and I am carrying, but since it is locked in the car, I don't know if I should do it now or once you open the door." He didn't get the 'joke', popped the lock and got back in a warm cruiser.

JLE

Carl:

Just IMHO, unless you are going inside the Church there was no need to disarm to walk around out there. Same for a graveyard. Can't say for a mausoleum. IAC, you definitely didn't have to notify.

Many years ago, I used to regularly meet Beaver's Chief for lunch. He's now deceased, unfortunately. Great guy. His #1 Sergeant "taught" me a great trick. There was a dead-end road that pointed down the turnpike. (It'd been split when the turnpike was built, and no bridge ever completed the crossing.) So, you'd park the Patrol Unit on the stub of the road and turn on the radar.... Truckers would have killed for that information ....

Regards,