[School of Rational Thought]

“The other report I heard from a witness of the event, was he just walked out, got shouted at to “drop it” and when he made a move to get the gun out of the holster so he could drop it they opened up on him.” My CHL instructor told us (and it’s firmly embedded in my muscle memory) never to “surrender the weapon” to LE, but to put hands on head and say, “it’s in a holster on my right hip (or wherever). You may retrieve it.” If in a vehicle (we have to show CHL whenever asked for ID in Texas) and LE asks us to give up the weapon, we’re to say, “No, but I’ll step out of the vehicle and you may retrieve it”, since the partner is likely behind the vehicle and may misinterpret our picking up the weapon.

VALUABLE POST Following this procedure does not come natural because we usually don't think of ourselves as dangerous people like the cop does. This was driven home to me last week when I was stopped by a cop. Apparently I was walking in an area that he thougth suspicious. Cop asks for my ID and I reach into my backpack! And it was rare occasion that I was not carrying. And if I were, my firearm would have probably been in that pack. Luckily the cop was no more alert than I was. After separation I just shuddered to think how stupid a move that was. I have had enough advanced carry courses to know better and am I NRA instructor for petes sake. When I read the article about being a "safety nut" that is the way people would describe me, but anyone at any time can lapse.

[Mr Rogers]

When I took the CCW class, both instructors said they had been stopped while carrying, and both had been told at times to slowly draw their weapon and hand it to the cop. So it seems there is NOT a standard procedure. We were told to obey what the cop said since, in the instructors’ experiences, they said different things at different times.

This sounds like he was told different things at the SAME time - so what do you do then?