Interactions with Law Enforcement Session 8: Approaching Law Enforcement While Armed

The next part of this class I wanna get into is what do you do if you have to approach a law enforcement officer about something that's noncritical, maybe even non-emergent, but you're carrying a firearm when you approach the officer. Maybe it's an officer in a parked car, maybe it's an officer that you flag down to help with a traffic incident, maybe you're reporting a crime that you had nothing to do with, or you're letting an officer know that somebody needs help around the corner or down the street, or maybe just outside of where they can see. Maybe it's someone who's parked illegally in front of your business or some other small issue. Maybe it's a local police officer in a small town, and it's very regular for officers and citizens to interact, "Hey, how you doin'," and you're just gonna say hi to the officer, thank him for his service, something like that, and you happen to be carrying a firearm. Now, if you're carrying a firearm openly, this is gonna be probably a much bigger deal that if you're carrying the firearm concealed, because ultimately, if the officer isn't approaching you, if he has not initiated contact and isn't asking any questions of you, you probably don't have any reason to think that they're at all suspicious of you or at all wary of you, unless you make them so.

And pretty obviously, if you're carrying a firearm openly and you're approaching a police officer, they may become concerned, they may become worried, and you're gonna have to be a little bit more careful and tread a will be more lightly as you interact with that police officer. If you do have a firearm that's openly carried on your body, it's gonna be important, obviously, that you don't have your hands near where that firearm is, assuming it's on your waist somewhere. You wanna keep your hands probably off to the side, maybe out in front of you. "Excuse me, sir, I'd like to talk to you for a minute." If you walk up to the police officer, however, in some kind of a full surrender position, with your hands high above your head and spread wide as if you were guilty of some kind of crime, or you were doing a compliant surrender because an officer told you to, that could actually escalate the situation. So remember, there's a big difference between hand on the gun or hand near the gun, your hands clearly away from the gun, but letting the officer know, "Hey, I'd just like to talk to you for a moment," and you acting like you've done something wrong or you have some reason to fear the officer.

So keeping those hands in plain sight and away from the waistline if you're open carrying is gonna be the first step once you initiate contact with the officer. On the other hand, if you're carrying a firearm concealed, you really wanna make sure that your hands are simply visible, hands down at your side, again, hands out in front of you, maybe just, you know, scratching your chin, "Sir, can I talk to you for a minute?" Making sure your hands are clearly open, that there's nothing hidden in them, and that your hands are exposed. If your hands are inside your pockets, if your hands are behind your back, if your hands were, are under a jacket or inside the pocket of a hoodie, a pullover kind of thing, that could tell the officer that you might be hiding something. Now, you and I may say, why would anyone ever approach a police officer with their hands hidden and mean to hurt them? The idea is if you're walking down the street and your hands are hidden behind your back coming up towards a police officer and you're saying, "Excuse me sir, "I'd like to talk to you," that to us may seem like a completely reasonable thing.

You keep your hands folding behind your back, no big deal. On the other hand, the police officer may wonder why your hands are hidden. You gotta remember the mindset of the law enforcement officer. If someone's hiding something, and someone's coming towards them, they could be setting themselves up for an ambush. Now thankfully, ambushes against police officers just because they're police officers are very rare in our country, but especially during times of political turmoil or when there've been high profile controversial shootings around our country, these things do unfortunately happen.

So as you approach the police officer, whether you're carrying a firearm or not, it's probably a really good idea to keep your hands in plain sight, and again, not over-exaggerate those gestures as if you're already scared or you already have something to be worried about. When you approach that police officer, you wanna tell them about someone who needs help, you wanna report a crime that you saw, you wanna let them know about some infraction or something you'd like them to investigate, or again, merely just say, "Hey officer, appreciate your service, "thanks for help our community "be safer and better," you don't need to tell them, "and by the way, I've got a gun." Obviously we don't wanna have this interaction just to be antagonistic, we don't wanna have an interaction just to advance our political agenda, to be a activist for gun right, and you know, kind of in a smart aleck kind of way, interact with the officer and say, "Oh, by the way, I'm armed, "and I don't pose a threat." If you have an issue with your law enforcement agency, your local police officers, maybe the chief of police or any other political entity, it's probably a good idea just to write a letter about it, maybe go to the papers, but not to have an interaction on the street, particularly one that involves you being armed, and of course a law enforcement officer possibly being threatened. When you approach the law enforcement officer for a good reason, you keep your hands in plain sight, you don't do anything suspicious, you don't do anything nervous, and you just say, "Hey, officer, here's some information, "I'd appreciate you looking into it," or, "I had a question for you about the law, "appreciate if you'd answer it," maybe you get a business card, maybe they take down your name, everybody says, "Great, thank you, have a good day," and you go on about your business. There's no reason to even necessarily bring the fact that you're responsibly carrying a concealed firearm into the conversation. If, however, the officer were to ask you, "Sir, I have a question, if you don't mind," or, "Sir, I'd like to know something," or, "Sir, for my own safety and yours, "I just wanna ask you if you're carrying "any weapons right now," it's a really good idea to tell them that you are.

If you have nothing to hide, if you're not there to agitate the situation, if you're not there because the officer has approached you and the officer just simply asked you this information for their own safety for whatever reason, it's probably a good idea to go ahead and tell them, "Yes sir, I do have a firearm," and once again, not reach back to where that firearm is, thinking to expose it, because he may think you're reaching for the firearm as a threatening gesture, because now somehow you've been caught with a firearm that maybe you were trying to hide. You and I know that's not the case, but there's no reason to put that impression in the officer's mind. So simply saying to the officer, "Yes sir, I am, I'm legally armed," maybe you're legally harmed because you have a permit, maybe you're legally armed because you don't need a permit in your state, maybe you're on your property. Maybe you called the officer over to your front yard and you're legally armed as a gun-owning homeowner or property owner. Maybe you're in your place of business.

Simply stating that yes, you have a officer and you're legally armed, is probably gonna be enough. You might wanna let the officer know where that firearm is, and once again, simply tell them or describe to them where the firearm is. You don't have to reach for it, and it's probably a bad idea to do so. Chances are you're gonna go on about the interaction with nothing else coming up about the firearm. But as always, if the officer gives you specific instructions, whether it's to show them the firearm, remove the firearm, to put your hands in a certain position and let them remove the firearm, you want to comply.

Let's say that it never comes up specifically, but the officer says, "Oh, well why don't you come with me "here into the police department to talk about this." Maybe you've gone to the police department and you can legally carry in the lobby of the police department, you went in to report a crime, you went in to maybe ask for some paperwork, maybe to get your fingerprints done for a background check, for an NFA-type firearm, a suppressor or a fully-automatic firearm. You're carrying a firearm legally, you're allowed to be in the lobby. If they invite you back in to the controlled area of the police department, I think it'd be a good idea for you to say, "Sir, that's great, I'd love to accompany you back there, "but I wanna make sure you know "I am, again, legally carrying a firearm." It's important to add that you're legally carrying a firearm so that they know you don't have anything to hide by this, you just didn't think it was important until now. Should an officer invite you to have a seat in their car, maybe you've been in a car accident or maybe you've witnessed a car accident, you're on the side of the road, you're talking to them, it starts raining, they say, "Hey, if you wanna get in, out of the rain, "come over here, have a seat," maybe they're gonna talk to you about something, they're gonna ask for a witness statement, they're gonna ask you to fill out a form and they're gonna offer you to sit in the front or back seat of the car, once again, once you go in to their controlled space, it's probably a really good idea to let them know, "Sir, I am legally armed. "Love to sit down, no problem, "but I wanted to make sure you knew that." Remember also that when you start to sit down or get up or move around or take off a jacket or put a jacket on, you may inadvertently expose that firearm, especially to a trained police officer who sees it underneath other clothing or under other garments.

If that's the case and you didn't tell the officer about it, it may alarm them once they see it. So when you approach a police officer to do your civic duty or to get a question answered or for any other reason, you don't have to start out by looking like you're scared, looking like you're threatened, or suggesting that they need to know you're carrying a gun, but at some point in that interaction, it may become important, either because they ask, or being you're entering into a controlled situation with them where you know it would be reasonable if you invited someone into your home or if you allowed someone to come in and use a phone at your place of business, you'd probably like to know if they were carrying a firearm, and if you did see that they were carrying a firearm and they hadn't told you, it might cause alarm, a little bit of nervousness, and a situation that could absolutely escalate beyond anywhere near where it needs to. So when you approach a police officer and you're armed, either go about your business without it coming up, or if it comes up, be very forthright, and be very careful in your hand gestures and your movements during that interaction.