I disagree with this article’s author, but I live in Florida. I’ve NEVER had to hand over my weapon, and in the event an officer asks, I would ask, “Am I under arrest or do you have reasonable suspicion to confiscate my firearm?” If the answer is yes, then there are bigger issues at play. If the answer is no, then I politely tell them that if they do not have a legal reason to confiscate my weapon, I do not have a legal reason to hand it over.
In an overwhelming number of cases, a CWP holder in the state of Florida is NOT going to be a criminal, and by offering up the CWP during a stop as a supplement to my DL and registration, I am telling the officer that I am not only a law-abiding citizen but I am also not trying to hide anything.
I would be beyond livid if an officer handed me a bunch of loose ammunition and tossed my weapon and magazine in the back seat. While he’s driving away, there’s that brief minute or two while I’m reloading my magazine that I could be in danger, and that officer would be the reason my life’s in danger at that point for effectively disarming me.
If it ever comes to this sort of BS in Florida, I’ll just abstain from telling them that I’m carrying. To assume that a CWP holder is carrying an illegal firearm is overly presumptuous and arrogant of any LEO.
Turn the weapon over to the officer in this scenario? Hah! That will be the last time you see it. He’ll either keep it or take it back to the station and gift it to one of his buddies. His traffic cam will somehow missed that part of the exchange.
Police are not your friends in these times. They exist to draw chalk lines around your body and string yellow tape at the site.
i don’t see the point in MI in telling an officer that i have a cpl- it comes through on their system when he runs my plates, before he even walks up to my car, that i do have one.
we don’t have to hand over out firearm here in MI either unless we are under arrest. worst an officer can do is ask me to place it, temporarily, in plain sight.
I disagree with the both of you. And I live in Florida as well. In the state of Florida you are not only under no obligation by law to volunteer that you have a firearm in your vehicle, you should have been instructed in the gun class that you took to gain a concealed carry permit not to volunteer that information. If you weren’t, your instructor was not doing his job. You are only obligated by law to inform the officer if he “asks” if you have a gun or weapons in your vehicle. And when you offer up your CWP instead of your DL and registration, you are giving away information that with out the officer asking, he has no legal right to. And it is also redundant because he will still demand your DL and registration regardless of what other identification you may present to him. Remember, this is a “traffic stop” for the purposes of determining whether or not you have broken any traffic laws. And also, unless the officer is a rookie, he already knows that by law you do not have to volunteer that information unless directly asked. So when you offer that information with out him asking, it might throw up some red flags for him. And if he is a rookie he might feel you are flaunting the fact that you have a gun. The best policy about a situation like that is “if not asked, don’t tell”. You will be well with in the law and your civil rights. When you become a concealed carry gun owner, you have entered a sect of society that are secret keepers. You not only wear you gun in such a fashion as to keep it concealed at all times, you never tell any one (not including officers of the law who ask if you are armed) that you have a gun on your person. It will create more problems letting people know that you are armed then not telling them will every single time, hands down. I have a brother and sister who don’t even know I own a gun, let alone that I carry concealed. It just defeats the purposes of having a CWP to let any one know. Might as well wear it like a cowboy on your side in one of those low hanging belts. And also, letting the wrong people know that you are armed might be taken as a threat or challenge. And in this day and age with all the sickos out their, one of them might just be crazy take up that perceived challenge, especially if they see it as a slight against them.
Look, I could drone on and on about situations that go can wrong if people have the knowledge that you are armed. I could probably write a few books on that subject alone. But the book I would write about some one keeping their gun a secret would go some thing like this “He went to the store and was pulled over by the police, the traffic stop was uneventful” or “The killer had no idea that his prey was armed, which is why he is dead and that his intended prey made it home to his family that night”.